Yalata lies on the traditional lands of the
Wirangu people. Decades after the
European settlement of South Australia began in 1836, a
sheep station known as
Yalata station was established, with its
homestead built in 1880 on a high hill inland from
Fowlers Bay, where there was then a town known as Yalata. Its land stretched from the
Nullarbor Plain across to Point Brown near
Streaky Bay on the
Eyre Peninsula. The huge sheep station ran up to 120,000 sheep at times. In the 1950s, areas around
Maralinga and
Emu were used for
nuclear testing by the British Government. Around this time the
Australian Government resumed much
Anangu land to be used for the
Woomera Rocket testing Range. Aboriginal people in the area, who were
Pila Nguru (Spinifex people, of the
Great Victoria Desert) were moved to a
United Aborigines Mission (UAM) at
Ooldea, before that closed in 1952 due to internal divisions. The people did not want to move from there, as they were used to ranging the desert, and had used the Ooldea Soak as a water source for many generations. In 1951
South Australian Government bought the entire Yalata sheep station, including its 7000 sheep, A group of Ooldea people who were in the process of moving themselves to
Ernabella and many others were forcibly removed to Yalata, which was an environment quite alien to them. Before the mission was set up, the Lutherans were concerned that having a different denomination such as the UAM running a mission so close to Koonibba would confuse the Aboriginal people who would inevitably move between the two, as the teachings were different. The Lutheran missionaries planned to teach the mission residents how to raise sheep, and the mission would be run in conjunction with Koonibba. The government would take about 50% of the
gross income of the station. The mission included administrative buildings, a school and a store. Residents lived in two camps: the "Big Camp" moved around the reserve at different times of the year, while Aboriginal mission workers and their families", and some of the elderly or sick residents lived in the "Little Camp". (which by around 2007 was part of the Yalata Indigenous Protected Area). In 1974 the Yalata Community Council took over the whole reserve, and the mission ceased operation as a mission. In August 2007, fire destroyed the shed-structure
police station and associated home, with damage estimated at 500,000. In July 2018, a unit of the
Australian Army were posted in Yalata charged with building a new staff house and a child care centre; roadworks; upgrading the
caravan park; and safely demolishing the old asbestos-riddled Yalata roadhouse. ==Governance==