Warburton or Warburton Ranges is an Aboriginal Australian community in Western Australia, just to the south of the Gibson Desert and located on the Great Central Road (part of the Outback Way) and Gunbarrel Highway. At the , Warburton had a population of 576. History The settlement was established as an Aboriginal mission under the auspices of the UAM (United Aborigines Mission) in 1934 by Will Wade, his wife and his children. It was named after explorer Peter Warburton, the first European to cross the Great Sandy Desert. The Ngaanyatjarra people of the Western Desert cultural bloc were nomadic people, but with the arrival of missionaries in 1933, they were drawn to the mission. By 1954, around 500 to 700 Aboriginal people lived at the mission. There was a school where they were taught in English, and traditional culture discouraged. Domestic skills were taught to women and girls, and the men collected dingo or became shearers or builders. More people were attracted to work at the copper mine which opened nearby, and by the 1970s there were few Aboriginal people living as nomads in the bush. In 1973, the UAM handed control of the settlement to the Aboriginal people represented by the Ngaanyatjarra Council, while the Aboriginal Affairs Planning Authority of the Government of Western Australia became responsible for economic development. The town was hit by a flash flood in February 2011. Water levels in some parts of town reached as high as resulting in 60 homes being evacuated. Water flowed through 15 homes to a height of and two people had to be rescued from a stranded four-wheel drive vehicle that had water reach window level. Warburton Ranges controversy In 1957, the "Warburton Ranges controversy" or "Warburton Ranges crisis" arose, after it was reported in 1956 that at least 40 Aboriginal people had been discovered to be ill and malnourished in the Central Desert. The matter came into public consciousness after, in partnership with the British Government, the Commonwealth government had started testing nuclear weapons in the desert, and the Government of Western Australia raised concerns about the Western desert people living nomadically in the area. The response from the Commonwealth was that Aboriginal welfare was a state government matter. Activists protested and many concerned members of the public wrote letters to the Prime Minister of Australia, Sir Robert Menzies, as well as their local MPs. An enquiry into