The Wajarri people, also spelt Wadjari, Wadjarri, Watjarri, and other variations, are an

Aboriginal Australian Aboriginal Australians are the various indigenous peoples of the Australian mainland and many of its islands, excluding the ethnically distinct people of the Torres Strait Islands. Humans first migrated to Australia 50,000 to 65,000 year ...

people whose traditional lands are in the Mid West region of

Western Australia Western Australia (WA) is the westernmost state of Australia. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east, and South Australia to the south-east. Western Aust ...

Boolardy Station Boolardy Station is a remote former sheep and cattle station in the Mid West (Murchison) region of Western Australia, about north-north-east of Pindar and west-south-west of Meekatharra. It is within the Shire of Murchison and situated o ...

, along with the tiny settlement of Pia Wajarri adjacent to it, are part of the site of the

Murchison Radio-astronomy Observatory Inyarrimanha Ilgari Bundara, the CSIRO Murchison Radio-astronomy Observatory was established by CSIRO, Australia's national science centre in 2009. It lies in a designated radio quiet zone located near Boolardy Station in the Murchison Shire of ...

(MRO). As the MRO lies within Wajarri country, negotiations towards an

Indigenous land use agreement Native title is the set of rights, recognised by Australian law, held by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander groups or individuals to land that derive from their maintenance of their traditional laws and customs. These Aboriginal title right ...

(ILUA) have been proceeding for some years.

Country

Wajarri lands are located in the Mid West (also known as Murchison) region, encompass an estimated . The northern borders range as far as the hills above Lyons River headwaters, including Mount Isabella and the Teano and Waldburg ranges. The upper Gascoyne River also forms part of their traditional lands. The western border is around Byro and the Dalgety Downs, and west of the Three Rivers. Erivilla, and Milgun. Wadjari lands extend as far south as Cheangwa and the Roderick and upper Sanford rivers.

Indigenous Land Use Agreement

Boolardy Station, the site of the Murchison Radio-astronomy Observatory, lies on the traditional lands of the Wajarri people. The

Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) is an Australian Government agency that is responsible for scientific research and its commercial and industrial applications. CSIRO works with leading organisations arou ...

(CSIRO) and the

Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder The ASKAP radio telescope is a radio telescope array located at Inyarrimanha Ilgari Bundara, the CSIRO Murchison Radio-astronomy Observatory in the Mid West region of Western Australia. The facility began as a technology demonstrator for the ...

office have been working with the Wajarri people to enable the various

radio telescope A radio telescope is a specialized antenna (radio), antenna and radio receiver used to detect radio waves from astronomical radio sources in the sky. Radio telescopes are the main observing instrument used in radio astronomy, which studies the r ...

projects located on the MRO to proceed. It is important to respect Wajarri cultural needs as well as to deliver some benefits to people, in particular the tiny and remote Pia Wajarri community next to Boolardy Station. For several years leading up to 2020, negotiations have been taking place ahead of the signing of an ILUA between the Wajarri people and the CSIRO, guided by the federal

Department of Industry, Innovation and Science The Department of Industry, Science, Energy and Resources was a department of the Australian Government responsible for consolidating the Government’s efforts to drive economic growth, productivity and competitiveness by bringing together ind ...

(now the Department of Industry, Science, Energy and Resources). About 15

traditional owners Native title is the set of rights, recognised by Australian law, held by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander groups or individuals to land that derive from their maintenance of their traditional laws and customs. These Aboriginal title rig ...

are involved in the negotiations, representing different groups. There are challenges involved in working out how to respect the cultural significance of the area, and how to build the infrastructure (ultimately part of the international

Square Kilometre Array The Square Kilometre Array (SKA) is an intergovernmental organisation, intergovernmental international radio telescope project being built in Australia (low-frequency) and South Africa (mid-frequency). The combining infrastructure, the Square ...

project) with minimal disruption to the landscape. Surveys of heritage sites have been undertaken, but the work and negotiations were somewhat disrupted by the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

. The Wajarri people are still able to move freely across the land, so long as they respect the radio silence. The MRO was designated a protected

radio quiet zone A radio quiet zone is an area where radio transmissions are restricted in order to protect a radio telescope or a communications station from radio frequency interference. The Radio Regulations of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) d ...

by the

Australian Communications and Media Authority The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) is an Australian government statutory authority within the Communications portfolio. ACMA was formed on 1 July 2005 with the merger of the Australian Broadcasting Authority and the Aus ...

in April 2005, and in July 2011, an enhanced radio-quiet zone was imposed. , the outer "coordination" zone extends for a radius of . Within the radio quiet zone, there are restrictions on all radio communications equipment, including

television transmitter A television transmitter is a transmitter that is used for terrestrial television, terrestrial (over-the-air) television broadcasting. It is an electronic device that radiates radio waves that carry a video signal representing moving images, alon ...

mobile phone A mobile phone or cell phone is a portable telephone that allows users to make and receive calls over a radio frequency link while moving within a designated telephone service area, unlike fixed-location phones ( landline phones). This rad ...

CB radio Citizens band radio (CB radio) is a land mobile radio system, a system allowing short-distance one-to-many bidirectional voice communication among individuals, using two-way radios operating near 27 MHz (or the 11-m wavelength) in the high freq ...

s, and other devices, so as not to interfere with

Language

Wajarri The Wajarri people, also spelt Wadjari, Wadjarri, Watjarri, and other variations, are an Aboriginal Australian people whose traditional lands are in the Mid West region of Western Australia. Boolardy Station, along with the tiny settlement of ...

is one of the

Kartu languages The Kartu languages are a group of Indigenous Australian languages spoken in the Murchison and Gascoyne regions of Western Australia Western Australia (WA) is the westernmost state of Australia. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the nor ...

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