Cattle stations were established and Aboriginal people were forced to work on them. Keep in mind that many Aboriginal people chose to work on cattle stations so that they could be close to there country. It was the only way to survive in these very difficult times. Even when Aboriginal people worked in the cattle industry they experienced injustices, for example being paid in rations, or non-award wages, and enduring substandard working and living conditions. Berndt and Berndt in End of an Era (1987) give an example of ration payments:
“At the end of their season’s work, the stockboys would come to the station store to receive their ‘walkabout rations’, which were officially supposed to last them for one month. This consisted of half a bag of flour (twenty-five pounds), eight pounds of sugar, one pound of tea, one tin of baking powder, twelve sticks of tobacco, one handkerchief, and three boxes of matches (Berndt and Bernd 1987: 70)”.
Bessie Malarvi (RIP) asked me to try to restore old stockman photograph , her father is second from the right.
The ongoing poor quality of life was intolerable and this lead Gurindji elders to stand up and fight for their rights. “On 22 August 1966 the Gurindji people, working as stockmen and station hands in the north-west of Central Australia, walked off Wave Hill Station, then owned by England’s Lord Vestey. Soon after, they set up a permanent camp nearby on part of their traditional land at Daguragu, a waterhole on Wattie Creek. A ten year battle led by Vincent Lingiari followed,which moved from strike for wages and better working conditions to a political struggle that eventually led to the Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Act 1976.
Then Prime Minister Gough Whitlam handed over the lease to Daguragu Station in August 1975 by pouring a handful of soil into the hands of Vincent Lingiari and saying the land would belong ‘to you and your children forever (Wright, 1998: 1)”.
Gurindji elder, Mr Inverway, recalls Vincent Lingiari as a hard man with a strong heart. ‘Donald Nangiari, Vincent Lingiari and Captain Major-they been talk really hard to Vestey’s. Because Vestey’s been treating these people all over Australia just like a dog. They were good stockmen, really good men’ (Inverway, 1998: 2). These historical changes that led to land rights for the Gurindji and eventually for other Aboriginal people were positive, but there were also negative outcomes. Many Gardiya people who owned cattle stations where unable to accept the idea of equal pay for Aboriginal employees and of land rights, and preferred to see my grandfather and his family leave the station rather than pay them wages for their work. A new way of life began which was the result of unemployment. Aboriginal people were relocated to artificial Aboriginal communities and were taught to become dependent on welfare and government funding.