History
One road, nearly fifty years long. It starts with visiting nurses in the 1970s, turns when our community takes control in 1979, and keeps going today.
- 1970s
Before Urapuntja, a visiting service
The first regular Western medical service here is Health Department Sisters visiting every three weeks. One doctor covers the country from Docker River to Lake Nash, and access for Aboriginal people is limited.
- 1974
The survey that started it all
The Commonwealth grants Congress $18,000 to survey central Australia. Dr Cutter surveys the region north-east of Alice Springs, focused on Utopia, and the survey recognises how important Ngangkeris are to health care here.
- 1977
The Angarrpa Health Program begins
Outreach health care starts from Ankerrapw (Utopia Homestead), after community pressure sees medical records handed back to the region. This is the program that would become Urapuntja.
- 1979
The community takes control
The program incorporates as the Urapuntja Health Service, named for the Sandover River and independent of Congress. The local people had taken control, and the service has been autonomous ever since.
- 1980
Two ways of healing on the payroll
The first full team is one medical officer, two nursing sisters, seven Aboriginal Health Workers and a Ngangkere, serving around 600 people across seven outstations. Traditional healing on the payroll, decades ahead of policy.
- 2025
Funding secured for a purpose-built mobile clinic
A custom-built mobile clinic is coming to the homelands, funded through a grant Urapuntja actively pursued with Aboriginal Investment NT and built by Mobile Health Clinics Australia. Clinical care on wheels, reaching every community.
- Next
The road ahead
Businesses owned by the community, paying for what the community decides matters.
Traditional healing, from the start
From its earliest days the service has recognised two systems of healing. The 1974 survey named Ngangkeris, traditional healers, as central to health care here, and when the service hired its first staff a Ngangkere was among them. That commitment continues today through our Bush Medicine program.
Historical facts from "Revitalising Health For All", Teasdale-Corti Comprehensive Primary Health Care Project report, 2011.