Kintore, Northern Territory

Kintore (Pintupi: Walungurru) is a remote settlement in the Kintore Range of the Northern Territory of Australia about 530 km (330 mi) west of Alice Springs and 40 km (25 mi) from the border with Western Australia. At the 2016 census, Kintore had a population of 410, of which 376 (91.9 per cent) identified themselves as Aboriginal Australians.[2]

Kintore Walungurru Northern Territory
Kintore Walungurru
Coordinates	23°16′25″S 129°22′55″E[1]
Population	410 (2016 census)[2]
• Density	50.0/km2 (129.5/sq mi)
Established	1981
Postcode(s)	0872[3]
Elevation	454 m (1,490 ft)(weather station)[4]
Area	8.2 km2 (3.2 sq mi)[5]
Time zone	ACST (UTC+9:30)
Location	1,212 km (753 mi) S of Darwin 458 km (285 mi) W of Alice Springs
LGA(s)	MacDonnell Region[1]
Territory electorate(s)	Namatjira
Federal Division(s)	Lingiari
Mean max temp[4] Mean min temp[4] Annual rainfall[4] 32.8 °C 91 °F 19.4 °C 67 °F 279.5 mm 11 in
Localities around Kintore Walungurru: Lake Mackay Lake Mackay Lake Mackay Lake Mackay Kintore Walungurru Lake Mackay Lake Mackay Lake Mackay Lake Mackay
Footnotes	Locations[3] Adjoining localities[6][lower-alpha 1]

The Kintore Range was named by William Tietkens during his expedition of 1889 after the Governor of South Australia, Algernon Keith-Falconer, 9th Earl of Kintore.[8]

In 1979 and 1980 satisfactory water was found in four bores sunk at and near the Kintore Range. In mid-1981 an outstation (homeland) was established there and developed as a resource centre for camps elsewhere in the region, allowing the reoccupation of at least some of the Pintupi country.[8] The community was founded in 1981, when many Pintupi people who lived in the community of Papunya (about 240 km (150 mi) from Alice Springs) became unhappy with their circumstances in what they saw as foreign country, and decided to move back to their own country, from which they had been forcibly removed decades earlier due to weapons testing from Woomera in South Australia, as part of the outstation movement.

Kintore is overseen by the MacDonnell Regional Council,[1] which is based in Alice Springs. The community also has a NT Government funded primary school, an independent store trading as Puli Kutjarra (meaning Two Rocks/mountains in Pintupi language), an airstrip, an independent health clinic called Pintupi Homelands Health Service, a women's centre called Ngintaka Women's Centre, haemodialysis at The Purple House run by Western Desert Dialysis,[9] a high school run by Yirara College,[10] and an arts centre run by Papunya Tula Artists Pty. Ltd. The town is in the territory electorate of Namatjira and the federal electorate of Lingiari.

Kintore is a major centre for the Western Desert art movement which began at the community of Papunya. These people traditionally passed on significant Dreamtime stories by way of art using sand, rock and local plants. Nowadays such paintings are done on canvas and have gained worldwide popularity. A number of members of the famous Aboriginal art company Papunya Tula live at Kintore, among them the deceased artist Ningura Napurrula.[11]

In Pintupi, the majority language of the community, Kintore is known as Walungurru (pronounced [ˈwɐɭʊŋʊɾʊ]).

Kintore is mentioned in the Midnight Oil song "Beds are Burning" (from the Diesel and Dust album): "Four wheels scare the cockatoos/From Kintore east to Yuendumu". The settlement is featured prominently as a location in the science fiction novel Salvation (2018) by Peter_F._Hamilton.

The local Australian rules football team is the Walungurru Hawks. Yellow and brown paint, also the colours of Hawthorn AFL team, feature heavily on houses and businesses in the community.