Lajamanu, Northern Territory

Lajamanu is a small town of the Northern Territory in Australia. It is located around 557 kilometres from Katherine and approximately 890 kilometres from Darwin. At the 2006 census, Lajamanu had a population of 669, of which 92 percent are of Aboriginal origin.

The town is a strongly traditional community, and is governed by the Central Land Council as well as the Kuridji law and justice group. The Lajamanu Council was formed in 1980, and was the first community government council to be formed in the Northern Territory. On cultural matters, the council defers to the local tribal council, because traditional customs are still practised and generally dominate the thinking of the community.

The majority of Lajamanu residents have Warlpiri as their main heritage language. Lajamanu School was a Warlpiri-English bilingual school from 1982 until 2008 when the Northern Government introduced a policy banning Warlpiri language instruction for the first four hours of every school day. This has contributed to a significant drop in attendance at Lajamanu School since 2009. It has been reported that young people now speak Light Warlpiri as a first language. Most official business and education is delivered in English.

Lajamanu is located close to the centre of Australia, which has a hot, dry climate.

In February 2010, hundreds of live spangled perch rained down upon the town on two successive days. A tornado is believed to have sucked up the fish, which were then frozen at high altitudes and thawed as they fell, which might have been hundreds of kilometres from their origin.

Lajamanu is difficult to access, mainly due to the distance from major cities and towns. Road access is via the Victoria Highway (turning off after 120 kilometres) onto the Buntine Highway for a further 323 kilometres and then 104 to Lajamanu (a dirt but well formed road).

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