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shooting [at] crocs there! We saw the shells along the Alice River, on the gorge. And [they
were] using quad bikes to get around, killing pigs for the tusks. Shooting the crocs, that‟s
wrong.
Marcus Barber: Is it good to have pigs there?
Wilfred Jimmy: Pigs are good eating. We got to learn to keep them. They are destroying
too much. But the pig hunters get in there [and] they got no permit. They‟ve been living in
the home there [at Oriners] and they took the windows and used it for firewood. It would be
good to get back there and have someone living there.
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Philip Yam: [The pig hunters] would tie the meat up with ropes, hang them, maybe just that
far above the water.
Marcus Barber: And when the croc comes up for it they‟d shoot it?
Viv Sinnamon: Oh they‟d come hanging around there because they can smell it.
Philip Yam: And you find some bullet shells, where they are camping.
Viv Sinnamon: It was [also] an old traditional way of catching fish. They used to get green
frogs and warm them up, then bash them a bit and wrap them in bark with grass, and hang
them above the water. And the drip, the drip would attract the fish, and then men used to
just stand there with spears and wait, and they‟d wait until the biggest fastest looking fish
used to come along, and that‟s how they used to catch fish. So it‟s the same idea. Some of
the other pig shooters may have put meat hooks on the ropes, so when the croc leaps, the
poor bastard catches on it. I think we‟ve got a photo. Boxhead [Michael Yam] took a photo
that time they came with us.
Some stations in the area, such as Strathburn, attempt to use pig hunters as an economic
opportunity by running a pig hunting safari business venture
(http://www.strathburnsafaris.com.au/safari.php). Early planning sessions at Oriners did
discuss potential ecotourism and other low impact tourist ventures, but ecotourism ventures
are not currently planned for Oriners, with the main emphasis of activity on public and private
sources of revenue relating to conservation and natural resource management.
During one research visit to Oriners in the mid-dry season, a number of vehicles were
observed passing through in both directions in a single morning. The current road passes
directly past the homestead, making monitoring of passing traffic easy when people are living
there, but leaving the homestead and station vulnerable when people are not. The impact of
a new road which re-directs traffic a few kilometres around the homestead is yet to be felt.
The crucial issue in managing ongoing tourist traffic and trespass through the area is regular
residence there, particularly in the early dry season when the road from the east may
become passable before the road west to Kowanyama is. Regular residence requires people
committed to staying there and resources to support them. The latter issue is considered in
the next section.
2.5.7 Resources and funding
A lack of funding for resources constrains the logistics of supporting Oriners, and therefore
the ability of people to remain there. That lack of residence has had consequences for the
care and maintenance for infrastructure at the site, which in turn increases the longer term
costs of remaining there. Both Louie Native and Philip Yam, who have extensive recent
experience of living in the area, referred to the chopper costs in the wet season, particularly
when a larger and more expensive chopper was needed to ferry a number of people or a
significant amount of supplies from Kowanyama. However cyclone evacuations, which had
been another basis for chopper flights, were not felt by either of them to have been
Working Knowledge at Oriners Station, Cape York
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