A telegraph repeater station was built at Tennant Creek in 1872 and the six men who manned the station were the only non-Aboriginal people in the area for several years. In 1880, pastoralists claimed land throughout the Barkly Tableland, two wells were sunk in the area and geological surveys were begun to determine the composition of the land. In 1892 the first Aboriginal reserve was established east of the Tennant Creek Telegraph Station. The reserve area overlapped, Jurnkkurakurr, one of the main dreaming sites for the Warumungu. Even with the reserve area set up, Warumungu people, along with Warlpiri, Warlmanpa, Alyawarr, and Kaytetye continued to live, hunt, forage and perform ceremonies in the area.

Although for the first years of the Reserve's life Warumungu people were able to move around with little restriction, after gold was found in 1932 that relative isolation was lost. In 1933, upon review of the information for and against redrawing the boundaries of the Warramunga Reserve, Chief Protectorate C.E. Cook addressed potential difficulties:

It must be determined whether the Commonwealth proposes to continue a protection policy which I have described as a veil more or less effectively screening exploitation and repression until the aboriginal becomes extinct, whether a policy is to be evolved which will ensure the survival of the aboriginals as a subject race retaining its old characteristics and social organization, or whether the aboriginal is to be lifted to the white standard of citizenship like the Maori of New Zealand and the Negro of America…Specifically one cannot with confidence advise upon the question of the Warramunga Reserve without definition of Commonwealth policy on the above lines (SRC, Northern Territory Medical Service, December 1933)

Cook's concerns show the ambiguity not only within national policies, but in the mind's of government officials as well. It seems the boundaries of the new national frontier were ambiguous. Yet, less than a year after Cook's report, miners and pastoral lease-holders claims trumped Warumungu concerns. By late in 1934, Warumungu were banned from town limits and their original 1892 reserve was relocated to what became known as the ‘Six-Mile depot’ (Davison 1989, 8; Nash 1984, 5) east of the original reserve.

Some Aboriginal people worked at the Telegraph Station and others came to the station to receive rations. Many Warumungu divided their time between Seven Mile where they could obtain rations and various soakages competing for water with cattle ranchers and new town residents. Water was quickly to become a source of contestation as a severe drought during 1938 made water even more scarce than usual. Many older Aborigines and children who were not as mobile as others were forced to stay at the Telegraph Station or close by cattle stations to ensure rations. On his inspection of reserves in the area, patrol officer Ted Strehlow sent a telegraph to the Aboriginal Minister in Darwin outlining the poor state of the Warumungu Reserve and the ration system. On October 8, 1938 Strehlow reported that:

At Tennant's Creek the abos are only getting 4lbs. Or less on the average per person. They have not been getting any tea for some weeks and the sugar allowance is only 2lbs. per person. In view of the dry season, such an allowance is a starvation diet for the natives cannot wander far afield in view of the scarcity of water at this time of year (SRC 1938)

Following up his telegraph, Strehlow sent a report on 13 December stating that, ‘the present system of government alms is thus inadequate and conducive to the total ruin of the native population’ (SRC 1938). Cook responded to Strehlow's report on December 30, 1938 almost three months after his first telegraph and well into the dry season. Cook informed Strehlow that he had ‘disregarded’ his suggestion for increased rations, citing the ‘official’ provision that rations ‘are to be supplemented by native game and food’ (SRC, Northern Territory Administration, December 1938). Not only was the drought hampering water supplies, but the scarcity of bush food also rendered those who might normally leave the Reserve immobile.

These government policies, both formal and informal, aimed at reducing the Aboriginal population, however, did not prevail. As part of the Warumungu Land Claim a portion of the land was handed back to traditional owners in 1991 and today several families have outstations on the land behind the Telegraph Station. With these overlapping tracks and histories, Jurnkkurakurr remains a rich site of Warumungu history and a place where people continue to live, camp, hunt, collect bush tucker and perform ceremonies for their country.