For over 50 years, Central Australian Aboriginal Congress (Congress) has provided support and advocacy for Aboriginal people in the struggle for justice and equity.;xNLx;;xNLx;Since that time, Congress has expanded to become the largest Aboriginal community-controlled health organisation in the Northern Territory, providing a comprehensive, holistic and culturally-appropriate primary health care service to Aboriginal people living in and nearby Alice Springs, including nearby remote communities; Amoonguna, Ntaria (and Wallace Rockhole), Ltyentye Apurte (Santa Teresa), Utju (Areyonga), Kaltukatjara, Imanpa, Yulara and Mutitjulu.;xNLx;;xNLx;Today, we are one of the most experienced Aboriginal primary health care services in the country, a strong political advocate of closing the gap on Aboriginal health disadvantage and a national leader in improving health outcomes for all Aboriginal people.;xNLx;
On 11 March 1871, surveyor William Whitfield Mills followed Lhere Mparntwe (Todd River) upstream from Ntaripe (Heavitree Gap) to the waterhole Atherreyurre, which he named Alice Spring after Charles Todd’s wife. Todd was the Postmaster General of South Australia and instigated the construction of the overland telegraph line from Port Augusta to Darwin.
The completion of the Overland Telegraph line on 22 August 1872 marked a significant milestone in Australian history. This crucial infrastructure linked Adelaide and Darwin, an accomplishment widely recognised as the "most exceptional engineering feat in nineteenth-century Australia". A testament not only to the scientific and technological prowess of the time, it also signalled a new era of communication. Within a few months, the Overland Telegraph line was integrated with a submarine telegraph cable from Java to Darwin, which globalised Australia's communication framework: no longer did messages to Europe require months of arduous travel.
Pastoralism in Central Australia followed the extension of the Overland Telegraph Line through Alice Springs in the early 1870s. The first pastoralists to arrive were South Australians who had already established stations in northern South Australia. In 1872, Edward Meade Bagot and Joseph Gilbert applied for leases at Owen Springs and Undoolya in Central Australia. Other pastoralists followed in 1877-78, with Parke and Walker stocking leases at Henbury, and Grant and Stokes at Idracowra and Glen Helen. The early pastoralists faced significant challenges in Central Australia, because of the isolation, aridity and frequency of drought in the region. The laying of the Overland Telegraph Line, followed by the introduction of pastoralism, led to the increasing presence of white settlers in the Centre.
On 24 February 1874, a group of Kaytetye men attacked Barrow Creek Telegraph Station, 280 km north of Alice Springs. Two white men, stationmaster James Stapleton and linesman John Frank, were killed and several others were injured. Retaliation was swift and severe. On orders from Adelaide, trooper Samuel Gason organised a party of police and volunteers to find and apprehend those responsible; according to one account, "they shot every black person they could see" over a six-week period. According to Gason, 11 Aboriginal people were killed during these reprisals but estimates range as high as 50. Interpretations vary about the catalyst for the attack. One is that Telegraph Station staff refused to give flour to the Kaytetye when they asked for it earlier that day. Another is that the telegraph station had been built on a Kaytetye sacred site and its presence offended them. The attack may also have been in retaliation for a dispersal of the Kaytetye by telegraph station staff six months earlier, in which white men raped and abducted some young Aboriginal women. The attack at Barrow Creek Telegraph Station was the first major conflict between Aboriginal people and settlers in Central Australia.
The Hermannsburg Mission was established in 1877 at Ntaria on Western Arrarnta country by German Lutheran missionaries after a demanding 20-month journey from South Australia. The Lutheran Church and its missionaries managed the mission's administration from 1877 until 1982, when it was handed over to the traditional owners under the Aboriginal Land Rights Act 1976.
The settlement south of the Alice Springs Telegraph Station was surveyed in October and proclaimed the town of Stuart on 28 November 1888. The place is known as Mparntwe to the Eastern Arrernte, who have lived in the area for tens of thousands of years. Stuart was re-named Alice Springs on 30 August 1933.
The Bungalow was established in 1914 in two galvanised iron sheds with earth floors behind the Stuart Arms Hotel by the local Protector to provide shelter for Topsy Smith, an Arabunna woman and her children. It became the official home for Aboriginal children of mixed descent brought into town under the policy of separating them from their Aboriginal mothers, with white school teacher Ida Standley appointed as matron in February 1915. The Bungalow moved to Jay Creek, west of Alice Springs, in 1928 and then to the Old Telegraph Station near Alice Springs in 1932.
On 24 June 1926, the first hospital in Alice Springs opened at Adelaide House (also known as the Australian Inland Mission Hostel) on Todd Street, the initiative of the Reverend John Flynn of the Australian Inland Mission (AIM). In February 1934, the federal government decided they would no longer allow Aboriginal people to use Adelaide House, and a galvanised-iron hut was built on the east bank of the Todd River, which became known as the "blacks' hospital". The area surrounding this shed was gazetted as a camping ground for Aboriginal people who had permission to be in town.
On 7 August 1928, trapper Fred Brooks was killed at Yurrkuru soak on Coniston Station, 230 kilometres north-west of Alice Springs. Brooks had gone "dogging" – hunting for dingo scalps – and negotiated with Warlpiri man Bullfrog Japanangka for two of his three wives to do domestic chores. When Bullfrog realised his third wife was at the camp on the morning of 7 August, he became incensed and murdered Brooks. When Brooks’ body was discovered, George Murray, the policeman at Barrow Creek, received orders from Alice Springs to pursue the Aboriginal people involved. Accompanied by two black constables, Murray conducted a series of raids on Aboriginal camps west of Coniston over the next two months. Murray later admitted to 31 deaths; however, estimates range from 70 to 200.
After the last rail was laid at Alice Springs on the afternoon of 29 June 1929, the first passenger train pulled into the station on 5 August 1929.
On 30 August 1933, the town of Stuart was re-named Alice Springs, as it was widely known at the time. Surveyor William Whitfield Mills devised the town's name by combining the first name of telegraph pioneer Charles Todd's wife, Alice, with the "springs" near the Telegraph Station.
The Yirrkala Bark Petitions were created by Yolgnu people at Yirrkala to protest against the Government granting bauxite mining leases and excising (taking away) land without consent. Please click on the "find out more" tab for a link to the AIATSIS website for further information.
On 23 August 1966, the Gurindji people took strike action to protest for better pay and working conditions for stockmen working on Wave Hill Station in what became known as “the Wave Hill Walk-Off”. Click on the “find out more” link below to learn more about the Wave Hill Walk-Off and the struggle for Land Rights on the AIATSIS website.
On 27 May 1967, Australians voted to amend the Constitution to allow the Commonwealth to make laws for Aboriginal people and include them in the Census of Population and Housing conducted by the Australian Bureau of Statistics, which commenced with the 1971 Census. Click on the “find out more” link below for further information from the AIATSIS website
In June 1971, Central Australian Aboriginal activist Gordon Briscoe called a meeting of interested Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people at South Sydney Community Aid to discuss how to address the health problems of Aboriginal people living in inner-city Sydney. Briscoe took action after visiting a client of the Redfern Aboriginal Legal Service who was seriously ill but could not afford to call a doctor. (This was before universal health care became available through Medicare in Australia.) Inspired by the success of the Aboriginal Legal Service in offering free legal services in Redfern, the group proposed the creation of an Aboriginal Medical Service along similar lines. The first AMS was funded by a government grant and operated out of a shopfront in Redfern, with doctors providing medical services on a voluntary basis. Many Aboriginal community-controlled health services (ACCHSs), including Congress, were founded across Australia following the AMS model.
On 26 January 1972, four Aboriginal men established the first Aboriginal Embassy under a beach umbrella on the lawns of the former Parliament House in Canberra to lobby for recognition of Aboriginal land rights. For further information, click "find out more" for a link to the National Museum Australia (NMA)’s information on the Aboriginal Tent Embassy.
The Interim Central Australian Aboriginal Rights Council (Interim Council) was established in January 1973 as an interim measure to advocate for Aboriginal people. During its short life, the Interim Council wrote a submission, "Aboriginal Problems in Central Australia", to the Minister for Aboriginal Affairs advocating for a permanent Aboriginal rights council and a legal service, acceptance of Aboriginal people’s right to identify as Aboriginal, improved treatment of Aboriginal people at the hospital, removal of NT welfare administrators and the implementation of land rights. This submission was signed by 24 people representing Aboriginal communities from Alice Springs, Amoonguna, Yuendumu, Pitjantjatjara Lands, Jay Creek, Docker River and Papunya.
On 9 June 1973, over one hundred people from town and bush gathered in Alice Springs to create a new organisation to represent the rights and interests of Aboriginal people. From this meeting, the Central Australian Aborigines Congress was formed. It was the second organisation of Aboriginal people in the region to be established (CAALAS was formed on the morning of the same day), and one of the first in Australia. Click on the link to read Congress constitution.
The founders of the Central Australian Aboriginal Congress grappled with what to call the new organisation they had created. They found it difficult to choose a local Aboriginal word because the organisation represented many different Aboriginal groups. In naming the organisation, CAAC’s founders were ultimately inspired by international politics, particularly the Indian National Congress Party, called "The Congress", which fought for India’s independence from the British and influenced other anti-colonial nationalist movements. Today Congress is a household name in Central Australia, known for delivering health services in Alice Springs and to remote communities, and as a leading advocacy body fighting for Aboriginal peoples’ rights.
Aboriginal families in Central Australia have had many strong leaders. In the 1974 NT elections, Harry Jakamarra Nelson stood in the electorate of Stuart, to the north of Alice Springs, and Bruce Braeden stood in the MacDonnell (now Namatjira) electorate, south and west of Alice Springs. Both men were nominated by Congress and supported by the Central Australian Aboriginal Legal Aid Service (CAALAS, now part of NAAJA). Both were leaders in their own communities and in Aboriginal organisations including Congress and the Central Land Council. These leaders paved the way for other Aboriginal people to stand for and be elected to parliament. Click "find out more" to view Bruce Braeden's "how to vote" card.
On 8 July 1974, Congress made a submission to the Federal Minister for Health, Dr Doug Everingham, for funding to develop a Community Development Alternative Health Model for Central Australia. This alternative health model sought to combine a curative and preventative approach to health issues and re-establish a healthy way of living for Aboriginal people by creating a health service that was controlled by Aboriginal people for Aboriginal people. Supported by a grant from the federal government, Dr Trevor Cutter (Congress’ first GP) researched and presented the first phase of the model in "CAAC Report on Community Health Model: Health by the People" in 1976.
In 1975, Congress began running its first service, a “Tent Project” to provide shelter for Aboriginal people in town, followed by a Night Shelter and a Pick Up service to provide transport for Aboriginal people with alcohol addiction issues. Later that year, Congress opened the first Aboriginal health service in Alice Springs at 78 Hartley Street. As Congress’ focus on healthcare grew in the late 1970s, other Aboriginal organisations were formed to take care of issues like housing, education and land.
Established in the 1970s, Congress Welfare Section provided many services to assist Aboriginal people, including: liaising with government departments and community organisations; issuing social security cheques; acting as a post office for those with no permanent address; providing banking facilities including budgeting advice; assisting with funeral arrangements and transporting deceased people; assisting with administration and helping people obtain food vouchers, clothes and accommodation.
The Racial Discrimination Act 1975 was a significant landmark in Australian legal history. Enacted by the Whitlam Government, this legislation marked the country's first federal human rights law, making racial discrimination unlawful in Australia. The Act responded to global human rights developments and to Australia's commitment to eliminating racial discrimination, following the government's ratification of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD) in 1975. The Racial Discrimination Act made it illegal to discriminate against a person based on their race, colour, descent, national or ethnic origin or immigrant status. It also provided a legal framework to address racism and promote multiculturalism, setting a precedent for subsequent anti-discrimination and equal-opportunity legislation in Australia.
Congress opened its first clinic at 78 Hartley Street on 10 October 1975. The building was purchased with a federal government grant, and the clinic employed two doctors, two nurses and, a year later, Aboriginal Health Workers. As well as providing Central Australia’s first Aboriginal health service, the clinic provided a bank, a school lunch program, a dental clinic, transport, a mobile clinic to town camps, and men’s and women’s-only health clinics. The first clinic was called "Njarlka caterpillar", then renamed "Anuna Angkerretyeke Clinic" when the building was extended in the early 1980s. Congress moved out of the Hartley Street premises and into the purpose-built Gap Road Clinic in December 1988.
In 1976, Congress published ‘CAAC Report on Community Health Model – Health by the People’. This report was written by Dr Trevor Cutter, based on his extensive field research at Papunya and Utopia into how an alternative health model might work to deliver a better health service to Aboriginal people and what resources would be needed for its implementation. This alternative health model informed how Congress has developed in addressing the social determinants of health through Aboriginal community control.
On 12 March 1976, over 500 Aboriginal people protested in Alice Springs for land rights. Congress supported this advocacy, as Aboriginal people’s control and care for their land is critical to their health. Congress also helped raise funds and organise transport to send an Aboriginal delegation to meet with leaders in Sydney and Canberra to lobby for land rights. Nine months after the protest in Alice Springs, the Aboriginal Land Rights (NT) Act was passed on 16 December 1976. Click on “find out more” to view the poster from this event.
In 1976, Congress bought the Farm on Emily Gap Road to establish an Alcohol Rehabilitation Centre and produce vegetables and fruit to distribute to Aboriginal families. Congress's Alcohol Rehabilitation Programme also encompassed the Night Shelter and Pick-up Service on the corner of Hartley and Parsons Streets, which were transferred to Congress from the Regional Council for Social Development. This began Congress' long history of advocating for alcohol measures in Central Australia – advocacy that continues to this day.
Medibank came into effect under the Whitlam government in July 1975. Medibank was an Australian government, not-for-profit private health insurer.
At the Congress Annual General Meeting held at Amoonguna in 1976, members voted to change the organisation’s name from “Central Australian Aborigines Congress Incorporated” to “Central Australian Aboriginal Congress Incorporated”, and “Executive Committee” to “Council” and “Management Committee” to “Cabinet”. Congress also formally adopted the “black hands” emblem created by Congress founder, Neville Perkins, with permission from his relative Harold Thomas to incorporate the Aboriginal flag.
The Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Act 1976 was a fundamental piece of social reform. It was the first attempt by an Australian government to recognise the Aboriginal system of land ownership and put into law the concept of inalienable freehold title.
Congress was active in the development of community-controlled primary health services in several remote communities during the 1970s and 1980s, including Papunya, Kintore, Mutitjulu/Imanpa and Utopia homelands in the NT, and Nganampa Health and its predecessors in the north of South Australia. Following proposals based on Dr Cutter’s investigation of health service delivery to remote Aboriginal communities, the Department of Aboriginal Affairs auspiced Congress to support the establishment of Angarrapa Health Programme (later the Urapuntja Health Service) at Utopia in 1977, then Llyapa Health Service at Papunya in 1978. The Pintubi Homelands Health Service, which was established at Kintore in 1983, grew out of Llyapa. Congress supported the development of Anyinginyi Congress at Tennant Creek in 1985, and ACCHS at Imanpa and Mutitjulu (Uluru) in 1986. During the 1970s and 1980s, Congress also ran daily radio schedules reporting to remote communities on the welfare of family members hospitalised in Alice Springs, long before remote communities had telephone lines, let alone mobile phones and internet.
In the early 1980s, Congress established a child care centre that operated out of the old church manse opposite the post office on Hartley Street. The centre provided child care for working parents and casual childcare to children who came in from communities. In 1985, Congress Childcare moved to Bloomfield Street (pictured) and later to its current location on Gap Road.
Congress applied for funding to establish a dental clinic in 1978, which opened in May 1980 at Hartley Street. The Congress Dental Clinic was staffed by a dentist and two trainee dental assistants who received on-the-job training from the dentist. The dental clinic provided a range of dental care to clients including check ups, fillings, fixing dentures and advice on how to maintain good dental health.
While Family Support activities were originally part of the Welfare Program, by the 1980s Family Support had become a separate program performing several roles to support individuals and families. Family support staff were often the first point of contact for those who needed assistance and advice about accessing social security, budgeting, nutrition, health and hygiene. The Family Support team also ran the school lunch program and assisted failure-to-thrive children to attend medical appointments.
Congress first gave advice to researchers in 1982, when CEO John Liddle and Deputy CEO Barb Shaw recommended six guidelines (pictured) for future research into Aboriginal matters. These were based on experience from two Congress research projects: Health Business and Settle Down Country: Pmere Arlaltyewele. Congress sent these research guidelines to the Australian Institute for Aboriginal Studies (now AIATSIS) in Canberra and arranged for them to be presented at the Australian Anthropologists Association conference in Sydney. Four years later, Aboriginal delegates spoke about the need for better research practice at a national conference in Alice Springs on improving Aboriginal health. This led the conference to recommend that the National Health and Medical Research Council develop ethical guidelines for health research involving Aboriginal people. The Congress guidelines were a landmark in the struggle for Aboriginal empowerment in many fields of research.
In 1983 the book, Settle Down Country: Pmere Arlaltyewele, was launched at Congress Hartley Street Clinic. Settle Down Country was written for Congress by Pam Nathan and Dick Leichleitner Japanangka to present the outstation movement from an Aboriginal point of view. Congress strongly supported the outstation movement as a significant way of improving Aboriginal people’s social and medical health. Congress also assisted Aboriginal people to move out of town camps and former mission camps back to their own country around Ingerreke and Watarrka Kings Canyon. The book was accompanied by the release of a documentary film, also titled Settle Down Country, filmed by David Batty for CAAMA. Using archival footage, the documentary focused on the Pintupi people, who were removed in the 1950s from their desert land 700 km west of Alice Springs, to settlements such as Papunya in the Northern Territory, where it was expected they would assimilate with Western culture. In the words of Smithy Zimran, Tjanpitjinpa Chairperson, Western Desert Outstations Council, Kintore: "We say strongly we are not going back to the settlements. We are saying strongly that the stories, the sacred sites, the dreamings, are here on the spot, and it is better we stay here and look after them instead of leaving them behind so that white fellas can come in and take it away."
In 1983, Congress published Health Business, a book researched by Pam Nathan and Dick Leichleitner Japanangka, who spent several years talking to Aboriginal people in Central Australia about their views of health. The aim of Health Business “was to achieve a redefinition of the Aboriginal ‘health problem’ and to clarify the process required to improve Aboriginal Health in the Centre. It is an attempt to understand how Aboriginal people think about health and illness, manage sickness and perceive their health needs and priorities.” Health Business was launched at an outside rally in Alice Springs, with speeches from Vincent Forrester, Neville Bonner, Gary Foley, Pat Dodson, Pam Nathan, and Dick Leichleitner Japanangka, who acknowledged the importance of Health Business as the first publication to deal with Aboriginal peoples’ health needs plus the need for greater understanding of traditional health systems by those responsible for the allocation of funds.
In 1983, traditional owners set up a protest camp at the Telegraph Station in response to the NT government’s proposed construction of a dam to create a “recreation lake” on the Todd River. Congress joined the protest against the dam’s construction because of the potential damage to sacred sites. In 1984, a Committee of Inquiry found that locations such as the Telegraph Station and Junction Waterhole were not suitable for a dam or a lake because sacred sites would be damaged.
During the 1970s, Congress began looking after the health needs of Aboriginal people on Town Camps by employing Aboriginal Health Workers (AHW) who lived there. In 1984, Congress implemented the Town Camp Health Program with a team that included a doctor, senior health worker, each town camp's specific Aboriginal Health Worker and a part-time educator to work with the Town Camp AHWs. The Town Camp Health Program team was also supported by two Aboriginal Health Workers from the Clinic with a purpose-built mobile clinic. The project team provided treatment for wounds, minor infections as well as following up patients who had been in hospital or seen by the Congress Clinic. The program also implemented a range of preventive programs, including screening patients for diabetes and other issues, immunisations, environmental health surveys and health education The Town Camp Health Program was replaced by the Community Health Program in 1993, so that the program would reach a broader community.
Early on, Congress recognised the cultural importance of having separate men’s and women’s clinics at Hartley Street Clinic in 1978. In 1981, Aboriginal women spoke out about their sacred women’s business, saying “We have no choice but to tell our story”, and that their customary law had been violated and babies had died: “We want healthy babies and we want our Law”. They asked Congress to make a place for them where they could maintain Aboriginal women’s law and culture. In June 1984, Congress held a birthrights conference for Aboriginal women at Basso’s Farm. Deputy Director Betty Carter said it was the “first time that Aboriginal women in central Australia all come together from different countries and sit down and talk like this”. The conference generated the philosophy, aims and objectives of the “Alukura Model” based on women’s health and birthing being women’s business.
On 26 January 1988, while most Australians celebrated 200 years of white invasion, 27 Congress staff joined the Northern Territory convoy of Aboriginal people to attend a protest march in Sydney. Approximately 20,000 people participated in this peaceful protest mourning the impact of white invasion on Indigenous peoples. A staff member who attended said: “it gave you a good feeling with thousands of Aboriginal people getting together to show their support for each other and their unity.”
In March 1988, Congress published “All That Rama Rama Mob”, a report about Central Australian Aboriginal people's perceptions of disturbed behaviour and how these behaviours could be better managed. This research was conducted in response to individuals with disturbed behaviour being locked in gaol or kept in hospital because there were no appropriate facilities to house them, and the. In 1990 Congress published a summary of this report and its recommendations for better managing disturbed behaviour, with a front cover image created by Congress staff member Alby Mackay.
The struggle to fund the Alukura model, which supports women’s health and birthing as Aboriginal women’s business, took many years. Congress started a community-based ante-natal care program in 1985 which provided the information to lay the groundwork for Alukura. Helen Liddle recalled: ''In 1988 Congress was in a continuous battle with NT Health over getting Alukura funded. Congress had been told lots of stories by Federal government people about funding for Alukura but there was no action''. Members of Congress and the community attended a World Health Organisation (WHO) event in Adelaide and advocated for funding for Alukura. Embarrassed about their lack of action, the federal government decided to fund the service, which opened its first premise at 13 Mueller Street in May 1988. Alukura (in Luritja) or arlwekere (in central and eastern Arrernte) is a women’s camp or women’s place, where men do not go.
Medicare, a universal health insurance scheme, began on 1 February 1984. Introduced by the Keating government, Medicare was funded by a 1% levy on taxable income and provided everyone with a Medicare card could get basic hospital and medical services. It also covered part or all of the cost of treatment by GPs, medical specialists and surgeons.
When the AIDS virus began to spread throughout the Australian community in the early 1980s, Congress decided that the best way to reduce this risk to Central Australian Aboriginal people was to educate the community by establishing an AIDS Education Program. In 1988, the AIDS Education Program entered Phase Two which involved educating the community (including in Aboriginal languages) through advertisements, posters, stickers, condom distribution, training Aboriginal Health Educators and holding workshops.
The Congress health promotion logo was created in 1988. The design stands for all the things needed for Aboriginal people to be healthy: being strong, eating good tucker, drinking fresh water, telling stories and talking, exercising, growing generations, families and sticking together.
On 28 December 1988, Congress moved out of the Hartley Street Clinic and into a new purpose-built clinic at 25 Gap Road. The Gap Road Clinic was officially opened on 27 January 1989.
In 1990, Congress bought the store known as McLeod's Store or the Red Shop at 19 Gap Road, next to Congress Gap Road clinic. Before it was purchased, the shop had a takeaway liquor licence which led to drunk disorderly people hanging round Congress and non-drinkers being harassed by drinkers. Congress Cabinet converted the store into a grocery, and Congress President D Abbott poured all the remaining alcohol stock into the gutter during the public opening ceremony. Abbott recalled in 2003: “Congress bought a shop as far as I remember over here, and there was some grog left over there that Congress owned and there was some discussion we had here at the cabinet level … Some was for and some was against selling it, selling the grog back to make a bit of money … I was real hardheaded grog fighter at that point in time. I said, ‘No, it kills enough of our people, let’s pour it down the drain.’ And everyone was for it at that point.”
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Congress produced several community service announcements for TV to promote AIDS prevention. Some of these announcements used the popular health promotion character Cuz Congress to advocate safe sex and other healthy lifestyle choices.
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