It is southwest of Alice Springs, west of the Stuart Highway, near the Western Australia and Northern Territory border.

The township is on a wadi called the Docker Creek on the north side of the west end of the Petermann Ranges in the southwest corner of the Northern Territory of Australia.

During the 30s and 40s Luther(a)n missionaries told the Pitjantjatjara people of the Kaltukatjara area to go to Areyonga (then an outstation of Hermannsburg mission) where they would be supplied with food and clothing.

In the 1960s Areyonga Anangu strongly desired to move back to the area around Docker River and with government assistance a permanent settlement was established there in 1967-8.

Based upon the climate records of the nearest weather station at Giles across the border to the west in Western Australia, Kaltukatjara experiences summer maximum temperatures of an average of 37.2 degrees Celsius in January and a winter maximum average temperature of 19.9 degrees Celsius in July.

The 2001 Census revealed that Kaltukatjara was second only to its northern neighbour Kintore in the having the highest proportion of its population engaged in health and community services (26.3%).

Water for the Kaltukatjara supply system is obtained from three bores, one located near the ground tanks and one approximately 1.5 km west of the community.