Hermannsburg

Hermannsberg Gallery

In 1877, German Lutheran missionaries established a mission 125 km west of Alice Springs at permanent waterhole known to the local Arrernte people as Koprilya. The missionaries named the settlement Hermannsburg after their town of origin in northern Germany. They had trekked overland from Bethany in the Barossa Valley region of South Australia for 18 months from with a herd of cattle and sheep, after the explorer Giles had explored the Western MacDonnells in 1872 and subsequently briefed the Lutheran Church.

The Lutherans built a church and commenced preaching to the local Arrernte people. Within two years a school had been established and by 1881 seven boys and one girl had been baptised. By 1891 the missionaries had created a dictionary of the Arrernte language, eventually translating the bible into the Western Arrernte language. Hermannsburg was the first town in Central Australia, predating both Arltunga and Alice Springs, and at one stage had a population of 700 inhabitants, mainly Western Arrernte. Despite being discouraged by the missionaries, traditional culture has remained strong in Hermannsburg to this day.

The first phase of settlement at Hermannsburg lasted from 1877-1891, a period of alternate successes and failures. By the early 1880s the mission was refuge for the Arrernte from the excesses of local pastoralists and police who regularly carried out massacres of the indigenous inhabitants in reprisal for petty theft and cattle stealing. Nevertheless, few Arrernte gave up their traditional ways for Christianity and in 1891 the missionaries deaparted and left Hermannsburg abandoned for the next three years.

Pastor Carl Strehlow took charge of the mission in 1894 and remain there for the next 28 years. His son, T.G.H. Strehlow became a noted anthropologist, and was one of very few Europeans to become fully initiated into the Arrernte tradition. Pastor Strehlow found the original buildings in bad repair and from 1896 began the construction of the buildings which still stand in the settlement today. The buildings, now classified by the National Trust, were built using galvanised iron, stones from the nearby Finke River, mulga logs and lime made in an onsite kiln. The buildings include a school, manse, mess house, and missionary quarters. Strehlow planted two gums in front of the church, now a museum, and erected the church bell between them.

During Strehlow's administration Hermannsburg grew and became a relatively progressive centre for the Arrernte and other indigenous inhabitants of the region. Strehlow died in 1922 at Horseshoe Bend on the Finke River while on his way to hospital in South Australia. The mission subsequently achieved a number of historic firsts. In 1925 Strehlow's successor, Pastor F. W. Albrecht began a program to train the local people in various skills and trades, which led to the establishment of a tannery in 1936. In 1930 Hermannsburg became the first location in the Northern Territory to use a pedal wireless.

The Lutheran Church handed control back to the traditional Western Arrarnta owners in 1982, with control of the settlement (now known as Ntaria) passing to a community council. The original mission buildings at Hermannsburg have been restored and visitors are welcome to explore the which is of great importance in Central Australian history. Both the old church and the old mission building still standing.

In recent years, many Arrernte residents have left the old mission to establish around 35 outstations in their traditional country around Hermannsburg, some with their own schools. The family of Hermannsburg's most famous son, the famous Arrernte watercolour artist Albert Namatjira, still lives in Hermannsburg and a collection of his paintings can be viewed in the old mission building. Born at Hermannsburg in 1902 and baptised by Strehlow, Namatjira met the artist Rex Battarbee in 1934 and the result was a series of paintings of Central Australia which, while drawing on the European watercolour tradition, are inspired by the landscape of the area and evoke the beauty of the Western MacDonnell Ranges from the perspective of one who knew the land intimately.