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Karlamilyi

“These are all the rockholes and soaks that lie on the western, northern and eastern sides of Karlamilyi (Rudall River region), all the rockholes and soaks that I can remember today. My family took me from Pangkapirni when I was little. They took me to Karlamilyi where I was [nearly] drowned…at Jintirripalangu [claypan] when I was very small. And then I grew up in Karlamilyi.”

 – Mulyatingki Marney, as translated by Ngalangka Nola Taylor

Karlamilyi is Warnman Country, located in the very heart of the Martu homelands. The Karlamilyi region forms part of Mulyatingki’s ngurra (home Country, camp), the area which she knew intimately and travelled extensively with her family in her youth. Mulyatingki spent a significant part of her childhood living in this area.

Karlamilyi is situated southwest of the Great Sandy Desert and northeast of the Little Sandy Desert. Spanning through the region is the epic Karlamilyi River, which runs north into Nyayartakujarra (Ngayarta Kujarra, Lake Dora), a large salt lake. The Broadhurst and Fingoon Ranges extend diagonally across the river’s path. The landscape is striking for its abundance of gorges and valleys carved by ice age glaciers, rugged cliffs, red tali (sand dunes), grasslands, sandstone and quartz rocky outcrops, and salt lakes. 

Across the whole region are hundreds of water sources; including waterholes, creeks, soaks, lakes, pools and rockholes. Lining the rivers are coolabah, walyji (river gum), yulbah (bats wing coral tree), and several species of acacia and hakea. Jalkuran (paperbark), kurrulyu/ mijarrpa (bloodwood) and jawirli (quandong) are found in the region’s valleys, and wikirrpa (desert oaks) and grasses in the sandplains. The area is abundant with bird species, jila (snakes), maruntu (goannas), red kangaroos and warlpaju (rock wallabies). The region is also home to remote aboriginal communities Punmu and Parnngurr.

According to two of the central Martu Jukurrpa (Dreaming) narratives, the Karlamilyi River and its surrounds were created by the ancestral beings Jila Kujarra (Two Snakes) and the Wati Kujarra (Two Goanna Men) as they travelled across the lands.