Mintabie, South Australia

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Mintabie
South Australia
Population: 250 (OACDT)
Established: 1978
Postcode: 5724
Elevation: 353 m (1,158 ft)
Location:
LGA: Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara
State District: Giles
Federal Division: Grey
Mean Max Temp Mean Min Temp Rainfall
37.1 °C
99 °F		 5.0 °C
41 °F		 222.6 mm
8.8 in

Mintabie is an opal mining community in the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara or "APY" Lands in South Australia. It is unique in comparison to other communities situated in the APY Lands, in that:

  • its residents are largely not of Indigenous Australian origin; and
  • significant mining activity (of opal gemstones) is occurring.


Contents

[edit] Geography

Mintabie (27.3° S 133.616667° E) is situated west of the Stuart Highway and approximately 35 kilometres northwest of Marla [1] and 980 kilometres northwest of the capital of South Australia, Adelaide [2]. Mintabie is approximately 200 kilometres south of the Northern Territory border [3].

Mintabie sits in a geographical basin [4]. It is therefore not surprising that there is a lake basin near Mintabie. The Mintabie Miners Progress Association describes the lake as follows:

The lake at Mintabie is fed by many small surrounding creeks. In the past 15 years, it has been filled twice. The first time was in 1988, when higher than normal rainfall filled the lake to capacity. Although the rainfall returned to normal, the lake retained water for approximately three years. Rains in 2000 again filled the lake Today the lake has once again dried up awaiting another big rain [5].

[edit] Geology and Mining

The ABS 1999 Yearbook for South Australia states, concerning Opal Mining at Mintabie, that:

The opal fields at Coober Pedy, Mintabie and Andamooka, together with fields in New South Wales, supply most of the world’s precious opal. The estimated value of raw opal production in South Australia was $40.7m in 1997. Most of this is exported to Hong Kong, Japan, United States of America and Germany [6].

The South Australian Department of Primary Industry and Resources describes Mintabie's geology as follows:

the Eromanga Basin borders onto old basement rocks which are about 1,500 million years old and consist of granite and gneiss. Also on the western margin lie the sediments of the Officer Basin which comprise sandstone, quartzite, siltstone and shale about 500 million years old. These sediments were tilted by crustal forces and form prominent hills such as the Mount Johns Range near Marla. The opal deposits at Mintabie occur in a sandstone unit which was bleached and weathered by the same process that affected the Eromanga Basin sediments as described above [7].

[edit] Climate

Based upon the climate records of the nearest weather station at Marla Police Station, Mintabie experiences summer maximum temperatures of an average of 37.1 degrees celsius in January and a winter maximum average temperature of 19.7 degrees celsius in June. Overnight lows range from a mean minimum temperature of 21.8 degrees in January to 5.0 degrees in June.

Annual rainfall averages 222.6 millimetres. [8]

[edit] Population

Mintabie's population is approximately 200-250 people. The OACDT states that Mintabie's population:

... can fluctuate significantly between the hotter and cooler parts of the year. Some of the Mintabie miners also work claims at the new Seven Waterholes opal field well to the east[9]

The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) Census data showed a fall from 239 residents in the 1996 Census to 201 in the 2001 Census [10].

ABS analysis of its 2001 census data showed that Mintabie, like other South Australian mining communities, had one of South Australia's highest proportions of male to female residents (62.5%). Mintabie had the highest ratio of lone person households (51.2%), again a characteristic of South Australian mining communities. Mintabie also recorded one of the State's highest unemployment rates (30.8%, second only to Iron Knob, South Australia with 32.8%) [11].

Significantly, the Indigenous Australian population in Mintabie is far lower than other parts of the APY Lands. The 1991 Census found just 21 indigenous people, which had decreased to 12 by 1996. Hence, despite being situated in the APY Lands, Mintabie's profile is much more like its sister opal mining communities like Roxby Downs, Andamooka and Coober Pedy [12].

[edit] History

The Mintabie Miners Progress Association, through its promotional website, gives the following early history of the area:

As in many other parts of South Australia, Aborigines were reportedly the first people to find opal at Mintabie. They sold black opal at Coober Pedy during the first world war but it was many years before miners braved the harsh conditions to mine the area. The first miners to work in Mintabie found the sandstone too hard to successfully mine. It was not until 1976, when large machinery was introduced, that the potential of Mintabie was fully realized and the fledgling township was established [13].

The OACDT states:

Open cut, ‘bulldozer’ mining of opal began in earnest in 1976 at Mintabie and permanent settlement there began in 1978 when the Mintabie Opal Miners Association Inc. was formally recognised for assistance purposes by the Outback Areas Community Development Trust [14]

There was some controversy in the 1980s concerning interaction between the largely "European" community and Mintabie and the largely indigenous communities in Indulkana / Iwantja Community and other places in the APY Lands. In the context of suggestions that Mintabie ought to be a "mixed" community, a South Australian Parliamentary inquiry in 1986 heard that:

Mr Ray Connelly, then its Municipal Services Officer, described the proposal to establish a mixed township as “ludicrous,” suggesting it would only increase Mintabie’s capacity to be a “back door” through which alcohol, drugs and pornography enter the AP Lands ...

Indeed, many individuals and organisations told the Committee about the negative social costs borne by Anangu communities as a consequence of activities conducted at Mintabie.368 The Committee heard that communities close to Mintabie believed that all they got from the settlement “was grief, drugs, secondhand cars that are overpriced and underperforming, … alcohol and … dodgy operators who hang onto their key ATM cards.”

Such ill-effects are not a recent development. The use of Mintabie as a base for “grog-running” on to the AP Lands was noted in the 1988 Report of the Pitjantjatjara Lands Parliamentary Committee. The Select Committee heard that these operations have now expanded to include the production and selling of marijuana.370 Significant concern was expressed to the Committee about the operation of stores at Mintabie and how these had resulted in the financial enslavement of many Anangu. A submission from the Iwantja Community at Indulkana described how store operators at Mintabie “allow Anangu people to enter into a book up arrangement, for large debts, then accept their bank key cards and PINs as security.” [15]

In September 2007, two non-indigenous men in their late 30s were arrested for trafficking marijuana from Mintabie to indigenous Australians in the APY Lands [16].

The Adelaide Advertiser reported on its front page on Monday April 14, 2008 claims by the APY Lands Council that:

"Stores in the mining town of Mintabie offer large amounts of easy credit on cars and groceries to the Anangu community, leaving them in a vicious debt cycle"[17]

APY Lands Council chairman Bernard Singer was quoted as saying up to 1000 ATM cards were being held and accused stores of overcharging for household goods and secondhand cars. A store owner responded that cards were held as security if people needed food or groceries.

[edit] Facilities

Mintabie has an "all-weaather" airstrip, school, health clinic and 7-day supply of fuel and services[18]. Most accommodation is catered for at nearby Marla [19], but the Mintabie Hotel has 6 rooms of accommodation [20]

The Mintabie health clinic, called the "Clarice Megaw Clinic" was opened in 1990 and so named in honour of a bequest from a deceased estate which enabled health authorities to commit more resources to the region. The clinic shares 3 nurses with the Marla Clinic. The Uniting Church in Australia operates the clinic through its health arm, Frontier Services.

The Mintabie Area School is a R-12 school with approximately 20 students.[21]

Mintabie does not have a permanent police presence. South Australian police are based at Marla and run patrols in the area.

A permit from the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara is required to access Mintabie, as the land is owned freehold by the resident Aboriginal people.

For State elections (ie to elect the Parliament of South Australia), a mobile polling booth is taken to Mintabie.

[edit] Native Fauna

Native animal species commonly found in and about Mintabie include the galah, thorny devil and netted dragon lizard and the larger lizard variety known as goanna [22].

[edit] Footnotes

  1. ^ GeoScience Australia Gazetted Co-ordinates[1]
  2. ^ Bonzle.com Profile; [2]
  3. ^ "Every Pub", Vol. 2, Chris Dittmar, Bruce Abernethy & Australian Hotels Association (SA branch), 2006, ISBN 0-646-46619-4, [3]
  4. ^ Bonzle.com Topographical profile; [4]
  5. ^ "Scenic Tour of Mintabie"; [5]
  6. ^ ABS "South Australian Yearbook 1999" [6]
  7. ^ PIRSA Soil Conservation information page[7]
  8. ^ Commonwealth Bureau of Meteorology data[8]
  9. ^ OACDT Profile Page[9]
  10. ^ 2001 Census Data (Microsoft Excel Spreadsheet)[10]
  11. ^ ABS 2001 Census Analysis [11]
  12. ^ 1996 Census Analysis of Population and Housing [12]
  13. ^ Mintabie Opal Fields Information Page
  14. ^ OACDT Community Profile page; [13]
  15. ^ SA Parliament 1986 Final Report [14]
  16. ^ 'Men arrested for cannabis sales', Adelaide Advertiser, September 4, 2007 'Retrieved on September 4, 2007'
  17. ^ 'Businesses accused of preying on the poor', Adelaide Advertiser, April 14, 2008
  18. ^ OACDT Community Profile Page; [15]
  19. ^ OACDT Profile Page[16]
  20. ^ "Every Pub", Vol. 2, Chris Dittmar, Bruce Abernethy & Australian Hotels Association (SA branch), 2006, ISBN 0-646-46619-4, [17]
  21. ^ SA Government Dept. Education & Childrens Services; [18]
  22. ^ Mintabie Miners Progress Association website; [19]

[edit] Further external links