Walangeri Ngumpinku Aboriginal Corporation

Our first local Yarralin festival is being held over this long-weekend. With bike races, sports, music, and a range of other activities. Visitors are welcome, provided they’re able to camp self-sufficiently. A program and maps are available below.

Nitjpurru (Pigeon Hole) community have been temporarily housed on the Yarralin oval in what became called the EASY Camp – Emergency Accommodation Site Yarralin. After 3 months, it was time for them to head home over the weekend. With housing and facilities back online in Pigeon Hole, community departed Friday 14 July on buses and returned home.

A final celebration was held Thursday night with roo tails and burgers. Over the weekend, the trucks and heavy equipment arrived and NSW Rural Fire Service packed down the camp. As of Monday morning, the site is cleared and everyone’s headed home.

We’d like to say thank you to Nitjpurru mob for looking after things while they went through a tough time waiting for their homes to be repaired. And a special thanks to the NT Government and the NSW Rural Fire Service who ran a great camp facility.

Unfortunately, we know this won’t be the last time as Nitjpurru is built within an area that floods every 1 in 20 years. We’re working with NT Government and community about hopefully relocating the community to higher ground so nobody has to go through this again.

It’s been a long while since we last had a festival in Yarralin with an air show in 2006. We’ve decided to kick things off again this year. Come along to Yarralin for the weekend of Friday 4 – Monday 7 August for bike races, football, basketball, music, and other fun and activities. Check-out our festival page for more.

The Telstra Network is down again in Yarralin. Starlink Satellite services are still working, so WiFi calling is available. Some services may be uncontactable though until the Telstra network returns.

UPDATE: The Telstra Network came back online in the afternoon. Service has returned to normal.

Two buses with members from Nitjpurru (Pigeon Hole) community arrived on Sunday 30 April, bringing people to settle in for their stay in Yarralin, while their community is repaired after it flooded earlier this year.

The site includes 17 tents setup for sleeping, a mess / kitchen tent, tents for crew and 4 ablution blocks to meet shower and toilet needs. Community leaders from Yarralin welcomed Nitjpurru to their community and are happy to help them out after the big wet season.

A community meeting was held in town today to discuss the proposed temporary re-location of members of the Pigeon Hole (Nitjpurru) community. Peter from the NSW Rural Fire Service and Len from the NT Government Emergency Recovery team came to Yarralin to discuss the proposed establishment of a temporary camp.

Located on the Yarralin Sports Oval, the camp would house Pigeon Hole mob until they’re able to return to their own community, once repairs and clean-up have been completed, and services restored. Similar to the Glen Innes Mobile Base Camp in 2015, the tent city would provide at least 15 large 12-person air-conditioned tents, along with toilets, showers, and kitchen cooking facilities.

The Yarralin community were happy to approve the proposal and assist the Pigeon Hole community (located only 2 hours away from Yarralin). Pigeon Hole and Yarralin Community Patrol will be working together with local Police to ensure safety, while NT Government and NSW Rural Fire Service provide the camp facilities. A location has been chosen for a temporary Pigeon Hole school, working with the local Yarralin school.

The camp is expected to be established by 30 April, with members of Pigeon Hole arriving shortly there-after.

It’s been a rough last week as our shelves at our local store started to get empty. While the wet season is coming to an end, the road to Yarralin (Buchanan Highway) is still in poor condition and not yet open to vehicles above 4.5 tonne (restricted to light vehicles only). Nighthawk Transport were able to help out though, getting an exemption from DIPL to bring a truck out so that we could re-stock on much needed frozen and chilled items.

Despite getting bogged just 100m from town (but thankfully, able to wiggle himself out), the Nighthawk driver was able to get through – in spite of heavy rainfall coming through just the night before.

Our shelves are now looking much better with fresh bread, plenty of fruit and veg, drinks, and meat. Thanks to Nighthawk for putting in the extra effort and to DIPL for allowing the exemption.

The Telstra service in Yarralin is back online and operating normally after technicians were able to visit the site and resolve the issue last weekend. It’s been up 24/7 since then. Mobile phones are operating as expected. Many local services are getting Starlink satellite internet though, after the service proved invaluable during the outage over the last 3 weeks. The higher and more reliable speeds were also welcome. The local store, motel, and clinic all have Starlink services on the way.

Above: Some of the debris, puddles, and road damage currently being repaired.

The Buchanan Highway to Yarralin is currently being repaired and is expected to be open by early next week. At the moment, the mud pits have all dried up and have been graded – 4WDs will have no issue getting through at all. There are still patches of water over the road in 4 or 5 locations. These are all hard underneath, and can easily be driven through at 20 km/h without issue – or follow the tracks around. They’ll dry up completely over the coming weeks.

The heavy rainfall has passed, with rivers and creeks down to their usual wet season levels. Travelers should be mindful of debris caught in the bridges, as road crews clear it up over the coming days. Some floodways have been damaged, with gravel pushed up by water, or washed away. Travel carefully (40 – 60 km/h to allow you time to slow down for any damage) and you’ll be fine.

Telstra: The Telstra network is still going up and down, causing major communications issues for us. They’re working to fix it but may not be able to get the proper equipment out until the weather passes and they can get through. Anyone trying to contact Yarralin can call Martin Schahinger, the Walangeri General Manager on 0427 084 828. We have an active Starlink satellite connection that provides internet and WiFi calling.

Vic River Bridge: Underwater. There is still a LOT of water flowing through the Vic River. It took a week for that water to reach the bridge, it may take another week for that water to pass through. Be advised that DIPL need to send an engineer to inspect the integrity of the bridge to make sure it’s safe before it can be opened – as it’s a major connection to WA and significant traffic passes over it (those who got out last Friday were lucky – but you may be trapped in Katherine for a while).

Yarralin: There are still rumours going around Darwin that Yarralin is underwater. This is not true. We’re fine. The Wickham River is down to 2M now – well below the 12.5M that threatened us last week. We’ve had a wet rainy morning this morning, but nothing the river can’t handle. We had a flight with fresh fruit and veg arrive yesterday, and we still have food stores for a while yet.

Local Police held a community meeting at the Yarralin Community Store yesterday afternoon to confirm that Yarralin is NOT evacuating, after media articles had been circulated during the week saying we were.

While the Dashwood Crossing is up and rising, the Wickham River (which runs through the back of the community) has dropped significantly over the last 24 hours – down to under 6M from a high of 12.5M. With rain easing off and little forecast over the next week, we suspect we have passed the worst of it.

Above: Left, river levels yesterday; and from the same spot today.

There is a significant amount of debris washed through due to the flooding and the roads are still muddy, so travel is NOT recommended at this time. We expect it will take a few weeks – with little to no rain – for the road to dry and become reliable again.

Telstra service is still up and down – mostly dropping out at night and coming back on late the next morning. Telstra have been unable to get a technician out due to the weather. Services are still advised to contact the Walangeri Ngumpinku General Manager on 0427 084 828 as we have an active Starlink satellite internet service which allows for WiFi Calling.