It was established around a
bore in the early 1980s as a
Pintupi settlement, as part of the
outstation movement, and became a permanent community in 1983. It was one of the last areas with
nomadic Aboriginal people until about that time, the
Pintupi Nine. It was flooded in early 2000, and further flooding between 3 and 5 March 2001 forced the evacuation of its population of 170, first briefly to
Kintore and then for four weeks to
NORFORCE's base in
Alice Springs and finally to Morapoi Station in the
Goldfields of Western Australia, SSW of Kiwirrkurra. The stay in Alice Springs and Morapoi brought the community into contact with alcohol for the first time and led to violence and social disruption. By late 2002 the community had moved back to Kiwirrkurra. On 19 October 2001 the Kiwirrkurra people gained
native title over of the surrounding land and waters. On 19 June 2009, a 26-year-old man from Kiwirrkurra was the first Australian to die of the
2009 flu pandemic; he was initially treated in Alice Springs hospital but he died in
Royal Adelaide Hospital. A
Perth Catholic boys' school,
CBC Fremantle, has established an immersion partnership program with the local Kiwirrkura community to further Indigenous relations, improve local facilities and further the students' social and pastoral developments. Students and teachers organise trips about once a year. The Kiwirrkura community worked to establish the Kiwirrkurra
Indigenous Protected Area, which was formally launched in September 2014. ==Location and description==