Koonibba is a locality and an associated Aboriginal community in

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a States and territories of Australia, state in the southern central part of Australia. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories by area, which in ...

located about northwest of the state capital of

Adelaide Adelaide ( , ; ) is the list of Australian capital cities, capital and most populous city of South Australia, as well as the list of cities in Australia by population, fifth-most populous city in Australia. The name "Adelaide" may refer to ei ...

and about northwest of the municipal seat in Ceduna and north of the

Eyre Highway Eyre Highway is a highway linking Western Australia and South Australia via the Nullarbor Plain. Signed as National Highways 1 and A1, it forms part of Highway 1 (Australia), Highway 1 and the National Highway (Australia), Australian Nat ...

. The settlement grew around the Koonibba Mission (1901–1975). The

Koonibba Football Club Koonibba Football Club is an Australian rules football club situated in the small Aboriginal Australian community of Koonibba, South Australia. Founded in 1906, it is the oldest surviving Aboriginal football club in Australia. The players are kno ...

, founded in 1906, is the oldest Aboriginal football club still in existence. Koonibba Test Range is a

rocket A rocket (from , and so named for its shape) is a vehicle that uses jet propulsion to accelerate without using any surrounding air. A rocket engine produces thrust by reaction to exhaust expelled at high speed. Rocket engines work entirely ...

testing facility established in 2019.

History

Koonibba Mission

Koonibba was formerly an Aboriginal

mission Mission (from Latin 'the act of sending out'), Missions or The Mission may refer to: Geography Australia *Mission River (Queensland) Canada *Mission, British Columbia, a district municipality * Mission, Calgary, Alberta, a neighbourhood * ...

, founded in 1901 by the

Lutheran Church Lutheranism is a major branch of Protestantism that emerged under the work of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German friar and reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practices of the Catholic Church launched the Reformation in 15 ...

on land comprising which they bought in 1899. The mission was established near the traditional lands of the Wirangu,

Mirning The Mirning, also known as the Ngandatha, are an Aboriginal Australian people whose traditional lands lay on the coastal region of the Great Australian Bight extending from Western Australia into south-west South Australia. Name ''Mirniŋ'' was ...

, and

Kokatha The Kokatha, also known as the Kokatha Mula, are an Aboriginal Australian people of the state of South Australia. They speak the Kokatha language, close to or a dialect of the Western Desert language. Country Traditional Kokatha lands extend ov ...

peoples. A school was built within a year, with the church following in 1903. The church was built by two Aboriginal men named Thomas Richards and Mickey Free (Michael Free Lawrie). Aboriginal people came to the mission seeking employment, for which they were paid, but conversion to

Christianity Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion, which states that Jesus in Christianity, Jesus is the Son of God (Christianity), Son of God and Resurrection of Jesus, rose from the dead after his Crucifixion of Jesus, crucifixion, whose ...

was a pre-condition for wages, food and housing. The South Australian Royal Commission on the Aborigines gathered evidence from the mission in 1914, and recommended that the mission be taken over by the government. In 1914, the Koonibba Children's Home was opened. After

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

ended in 1918, the mission stopped growing

wheat Wheat is a group of wild and crop domestication, domesticated Poaceae, grasses of the genus ''Triticum'' (). They are Agriculture, cultivated for their cereal grains, which are staple foods around the world. Well-known Taxonomy of wheat, whe ...

, and started grazing sheep instead, which needed less labour, so people moved away for work. August Bernhard Carl Hoff was Superintendent of the mission from 1920 to 1930, and between 1920 and 1952 compiled a wordlist which was published by his son Lothar in 2004. The list included words from the Wirangu,

and

Pitjantjatjara language Pitjantjatjara ( ; or ) is a dialect of the Western Desert language traditionally spoken by the Pitjantjatjara people of Central Australia. It is mutual intelligibility, mutually intelligible with other varieties of the Western Desert languag ...

s. In 1931 the Lutherans decided to sell the station, without any prior consultation with the residents. The residents petitioned the Church to work the land autonomously, but their request fell on deaf ears. No buyers were forthcoming, and farming ceased in 1993, but the church continued to control the lives of the residents until 1958, when the residents staged a walk-off as a protest. In 1963, the mission was taken over by the

South Australian Government The Government of South Australia, also referred to as the South Australian Government or the SA Government, is the executive branch of the state of South Australia. It is modelled on the Westminster system, meaning that the highest ranking mem ...

as an

Aboriginal reserve An Aboriginal reserve, also called simply reserve, was a government-sanctioned settlement for Aboriginal Australians, created under various state and federal legislation. Along with missions and other institutions, they were used from the 19th ...

, which in 1975 was transferred to the

Aboriginal Land Trust In Australia, an Aboriginal land trust (ALT) is a type of Non-profit organization, non-profit organisation that holds the Freehold (law), freehold title to an area of Real property, land on behalf of a community of Aboriginal Australians. The land ...

. the site is leased to the local Aboriginal corporation, the Koonibba Aboriginal Community Council, which manages the community. "Koonibba Lutheran Children's Home" was listed in the 1997 ''

Bringing Them Home ''Bringing Them Home'' is the 1997 Australian ''Report of the National Inquiry into the Separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children from Their Families''. The report marked a pivotal moment in the controversy that has come to ...

'' report, as an institution housing Indigenous children forcibly removed from their families, leading to the

Stolen Generations The Stolen Generations (also known as Stolen Children) were the children of Aboriginal Australians, Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders, Torres Strait Islander descent who were removed from their families by the Australian Gover ...

The locality of Koonibba

Boundaries for a locality were created on 28 January 1999 for the long-established local name of Koonibba. The

forms part of the locality's southern boundary. In 2013, a portion of the locality which was located in the Yumbarra Conservation Park was removed and added to the new locality of Yumbarra to ensure that all of the conservation park was located within the new locality.

Population and facilities

, Koonibba and an adjoining part of the locality of Yumbarra has a population of 149, 87% of whom are

Indigenous Australians Indigenous Australians are people with familial heritage from, or recognised membership of, the various ethnic groups living within the territory of contemporary Australia prior to History of Australia (1788–1850), British colonisation. The ...

. The settlement has a public school, the Koonibba Aboriginal School. An

Australian rules Australian football, also called Australian rules football or Aussie rules, or more simply football or footy, is a contact sport played between two teams of 18 players on an Australian rules football playing field, oval field, often a modified ...

football club, the

, was formed in 1906. It is the oldest Aboriginal football club still in existence, and plays in the Far West Football League today. A general store, giving locals access to fresh groceries for the first time in 40 years, was opened in February 2019. It is planned to develop tourist attractions, with a focus on the history of the settlement.

Cultural artefact A cultural artifact, or cultural artefact (see American and British English spelling differences), is a term used in the social sciences, particularly anthropology, ethnology and sociology for anything created by humans which gives information ...

s stored at the

South Australian Museum The South Australian Museum is a natural history museum and research institution in Adelaide, South Australia, founded in 1856 and owned by the Government of South Australia. It occupies a complex of buildings on North Terrace in the cultur ...

would be put on display, to engender pride in the community and provide a learning experience for tourists.

Heritage buildings

The Our Redeemer Lutheran Church from the former Koonibba Lutheran Mission survives and is listed on the

South Australian Heritage Register The South Australian Heritage Register, also known as the SA Heritage Register, is a statutory register of historic places in South Australia. It extends legal protection regarding demolition and development under the ''Heritage Places Act 1993'' ...

Koonibba Test Range

In 2019–2020, a private space company, Southern Launch, established the Koonibba Test Range after consultation with the Koonibba Community Aboriginal Corporation. It was reported that Southern Launch worked with companies, universities,

space agencies Government space agencies, established by the governments of countries and regional agencies (groupings of countries) are established as a means for advocating for engaging in activities related to outer space, exploitation of space systems, ...

and other organisations to have their rockets and payloads launched and recovered from the site, and that the Koonibba site was the world's largest privately owned rocket test range and the world's first approved by an indigenous community to be launched from their land. The first launches were small rockets carrying small replica

payload Payload is the object or the entity that is being carried by an aircraft or launch vehicle. Sometimes payload also refers to the carrying capacity of an aircraft or launch vehicle, usually measured in terms of weight. Depending on the nature of t ...

s on 19 September 2020. In 2024, it was reported that the biggest satellite launched on Australian soil would be fired from this location.

In the arts

''Mazin Grace'', by Dylan Coleman, is a fictionalised account of the author's mother's life as a

child growing up on Koonibba in the 1940s and 1950s, and includes a glossary of Aboriginal English and

words, which are used throughout the book. It won the 2011 David Unaipon Award for Unpublished Indigenous Writer, and was

longlist A short list or shortlist is a list of candidates for a job, prize, award, political position, etc., that has been reduced from a longer list of candidates (sometimes via intermediate lists known as "long lists"). The length of short lists varie ...

ed for the

Stella Prize The Stella Prize is an Australian annual literary award established in 2013 for writing by Australian women in all genres, worth $50,000. It was originally proposed by Australian women writers and publishers in 2011, modelled on the UK's Bailey ...

and

shortlist A short list or shortlist is a list of candidates for a job, prize, award, political position, etc., that has been reduced from a longer list of candidates (sometimes via intermediate lists known as "long lists"). The length of short lists varie ...

ed for the Commonwealth Book Prize in 2013. Also based on her mother's experiences growing up at Koonibba, Coleman wrote and co-directed a short film (with brother Staurme Glastonbury), ''Secret Pretty Things'' (''Jija Mooga Gu''), which was given its world premiere at the

Adelaide Film Festival The Adelaide Film Festival (AFF, formerly ADLFF) is a film festival usually held for two weeks in mid-October in movie theater, cinemas in Adelaide, South Australia. Originally presented wikt:Special:Search/biennial, biennially in March from 2 ...

in October 2020 (preceding the feature documentary '' The Earth Is Blue as an Orange'').

Museum collection

Pastor Hoff's son Lothar (see above) was born at Koonibba Mission, and had inherited his father's collection of photographs and rare Kokatha and Wirangu artefacts after his death in 1971. In 2008 Lothar handed over the collection to the

Notable people

Notable people associated with Koonibba include: * Bart Willoughby (born 1960), musician, founder of No Fixed Address

References

Notes

References

External links

* * {{authority control Towns in South Australia Aboriginal communities in South Australia Mission stations in Australia Australian Aboriginal missions Stolen Generations institutions 1901 establishments in Australia

History

Koonibba Mission

The locality of Koonibba

Population and facilities

Heritage buildings

Koonibba Test Range

In the arts

Museum collection

Notable people

See also

Other 19th century Aboriginal missions in SA

References

Notes

References

Further reading

External links