ILKURLKA 21
Ilkurlka sunset - 6/10/2025
The Ilkurlka Roadhouse just turned 21 and I was invited to the party. I’ve been really lucky to be part of its history, as an employee and also as an occasional visitor on other business. For those who don’t know, the ‘roadhouse’ is one of the most isolated facilities on the planet. Only Antarctic bases and a few others on severe latitudes and island bases in the forbidding southern oceans can compete. Ilkurlka is at best 700km from any kind of civilisation in any direction. Travelers can only access it via one very rough public road. It is a business venture for the Tjuntjuntjara community and is a place of deep cultural significance for the Spinifex People of Western Australia’s Great Victoria Desert. It’s a refuge, a place of rest, a chance to restock and repair. You can buy diesel or a fantastic painting by a local artist. These days there’s even Optus wifi and mobile coverage. Have a look - https://maps.app.goo.gl/gJQvsSHTUuLgF2Hr6
This time I travelled out from Ceduna SA by road (with Fe, Andy and Tris), an all day 1000km bash through the Maralinga lands, then on to Tjuntjuntjara/Ilkurlka. Ilkurlka’s 21st was celebrated by some of the very same people who witnessed it’s birth, including the Desert Stars. They performed for the 120 or so people who gathered for the night, ripping out the original desert-Oz-Rock they are known for. Later on, we watched the same band as they were 21 years earlier, the archival footage projected onto a corrugated iron wall. Some of the songs were the same, albeit a lot faster and we saw their younger faces up on the makeshift stage. And, just as they did on this evening, they played Wipe Out, a curiously ubiquitous tune played in communities across the country. A singular type of dance then occurs - a leader runs forward to the centre of attention, a cluster of kids follow, they dance for a moment in this unique style that needs to be witnessed to understand, then the leader runs off, as if suddenly shy, then everybody follows, then they do it all over again. Often, one or two dancers stay up front, holding their own ground. I haven’t a clue what it’s really about, other than being some form of cheeky peer-group chicanery. It’s fascinating.
L to R - Andy Blacher, Fiona and Tristan Pemberton - The kids at Ilkurlka 21 - Jay Minning, Ashley Franks and the alleged Mr. Ian Baird.
Scattered about were long-term friends of mine - Fiona Pemberton, ex-CEO and GM of the community (and the one who got me roped into all this), her brother, Tristan Pemberton, who was again making films and being right at the centre of it all. Andy Blacher, Fe’s partner and erstwhile handy guy, along with long-serving manager and answerer of all my questions, a proper Englishman abroad, Phil Merry. Of course there was the alleged* Mr Baird, backbone of the community, with his endless dispersals of mirth and wisdom in equal ratios. Holding a stable home-front was Danielle Bayard with her partner Macca, who was in between regular stints of global racehorse relocation. Danielle has been helping orchestrate my work to realise the next Desert Stars album and once the dust had settled on ILK 21, that’s exactly what we settled into, utilising the big machine shed.
The Desert Stars, 6th Oct 2025, Derek Coleman, Ashley Franks, Jay Minning and Justin Currie @ The Ilkurlka Roadhouse, WA Australia.
It’s a bit noisy in there, but sounding good with the close mic’ing of the drums and amps. After a day and a half of that, the band had to head off to a funeral in the APY lands, around 900km of desert roads away. It’s all completely normal. We decided to reconvene later in the year, probably at Maralinga village, and keep on working. When we recorded last, in 2016, the band was in a different headspace. just as I was. Adults are hard to corral. Allowances have to be made. We become less flexible. I know from my end of things, it’s a lot harder to raise the levels of energy you need to keep a project like that alive. As ever with rock music, it relies on an energy transfer; you give what you get back and vice-versa. The band? I think they’ve had many things to contend with; business, family, obligations, and basically, just getting older and having to adapt. I know a little of what they must feel, but the fact a solution was found and and intention to carry on was resolved, well, that’s enough. Although I’ve been to Ilkurlka several times over 13 years, this was the first visit in which I arrived and departed without really considering it. By that I mean I felt at home; a familiar place from a life just-as-ever on the road.
* Mr Baird is alleged, just in case he isn’t quite real. > > > > > > > > > Also, I’ve been trying more photo heavy style, having been advised by a well-storied news editor friend of mine, “Show, don’t tell.”