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Marcus Barber: Were you building it or fixing it up?
Ezra Michael: It was there, but we were making it new. We made it bigger and wider. It was
already there, but we made it a bit wider. We used to get tractor and get hard tyre, wheel,
wagon wheel, and drag it up and down. I think it was a tractor [that] was there….No no no,
it wasn‟t a tractor. It was bronco horse. I was riding a bronco horse.
Marcus Barber: So that airport was already there, and planes could already land there.
After the wet season, did you see was there damage to the airport from the water?
Ezra Michael: No, it was all alright.
Ezra‟s involvement in widening of the airstrip was part of the ongoing work of improvement to
station facilities. The Hughes family constructed various buildings during the pastoral working
life of the station, and the low level house adjacent to the lagoon was still present when it
was sold. However white ants destroyed the structure of the building and it is now gone. The
decline of the older-pastoral era buildings was offset by the construction of new ones. The
first was a large workshop shed, which was built by the Oriners Mob themselves, using
outside supervision and assistance. Louie Native, who was involved in construction, proudly
recalled that it was supposed to take 3 months, but they completed the job in two and a half
weeks. Following the shed was the construction of the large purpose-built house which still
stands at the site. The Oriners Mob were heavily involved in the construction of this building,
and at times their advice was not heeded when it should have been. Philip Yam recalled the
construction of the now failed water tanks:
Yeah that plumber was from here [Kowanyama]. He came up here [to Oriners]. That‟s what
I was trying to say to him. „Hey mate, that tank stand, I thought it‟s supposed to be a flat
surface on the bottom for the tank to sit on.‟ And he said „oh no, it‟s better like this‟ [sitting
on a wooden frame]. Bullshit. When you going to fill it up with water it‟s going to all bulge
out and bust out inside. That should be on a flat surface, like every other tank in every
other station got a flat surface. I don‟t know whose idea was this one. [But] He didn‟t listen.
Philip Yam
The solar power system was another important element of construction, and once installed,
people were able to stay during the wet season and maintain communications. Staying
through the wet enabled another generation to gain firsthand experience of the conditions:
Philip Yam: We couldn‟t go nowhere! For the first time we stayed up there, well you could
not go anywhere with the quadbike, because sometimes the quadbike used to get bogged.
The road was damaged, no good, very soft. Even when you were walking, you‟d hit a soft
spot.
Marcus Barber: Did anyone tell you that beforehand?
Philip Yam: No, but some old fellers said sand ridge country is no good when you are in the
wet, it gets very boggy. You‟ve got to know where the hard spot is.
Philip Yam became the mainstay of wet season residence at Oriners, and enjoyed the
experience:
Marcus Barber: So Philip, how many wets did you stay there?
Philip Yam: 3 times.
Louie Native: I think about 4.
Working Knowledge at Oriners Station, Cape York
87