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Philip Yam: Drumduff. We got blamed a couple of times for that. Just the fires, somebody
else lit it and it went right up through Drumduff, all them other places, King Junction, right
up through there. Dixie.
Marcus Barber: Does it go north, or does it come towards the Mitchell?
Philip Yam: The fire, it‟ll work its way back up.
Marcus Barber: Are there neighbours up there that you talk to, or is it Dixie and Drumduff
that you will hear from if there is a fire?
Philip Yam: Yeah, well, they‟ll always be ringing here [Kowanyama]. They‟ll ask this mob,
and this mob will ask us, and we say „no, we don‟t drop matches, somebody else did it.‟
Like this year, another one just went up.
Marcus Barber: There‟s one around Horseshoe Lagoon I heard about, is that right?
Philip Yam: Yeah, one came from Horseshoe. I think that one is still going too, when we
came back [to Kowanyama]. But I did not bother about that one because it won‟t burn the
[Oriners] homestead, because we already cleared around the homestead. But that‟s how
fire starts, see, from people from that end dropping matches, and it come all the way to
Oriners. There‟s one started at the Alice River, way up the top, burnt one side of the Eight
Mile, right down, right back to the Alice River, to the crossing going back to Koolatah way.
All that area got burnt, this year.
Marcus Barber: And that wasn‟t lit by someone from here?
Philip Yam: No, that fire came from up the top. We was watching that fire coming down,
coming towards us. So it can‟t be us! Someone else to blame! That manager, old Jim
Waylan, he know who dropped it, he said.
Marcus Barber: Why don‟t they like it? What‟s the problem with having the country getting
burnt like that?
Philip Yam: Well, you are burning other people‟s country out. Neighbours. Because you
burn too much grass then you got your horse and cattle, whatever is there, they won‟t eat
nothing. Food problem for animals, cattle. So that‟s why we‟ve got to be very careful with
grass.
Marcus Barber: So even back in the 1990s, with Oriners and lighting fires, you were very
careful about that, you mostly did not do it?
Philip Yam: Yeah.
Marcus Barber: What about, does the country need to get burned sometimes?
Philip Yam: Yeah, if you do it early in the year you‟ll be right, then you get the green grass
back for cattle and horse, wild horses.
Marcus Barber: Do you know if people used to do it in the past, when they were mustering
that area, did they light it up then?
Philip Yam: I don‟t know see, because I never been with them people. But when we did it
[mustering] with Dixie, we had to burn a few spots, so we can put yards in. We burnt a few
patches where we were going to put portable panels up for a yard for cattle.
Marcus Barber: So just small areas…
Philip Yam: Yeah, just like if there‟s a creek there and maybe another creek here, you know
that fire won‟t go too far, that the creeks will stop it.
Marcus Barber: I‟m wondering about what has been happening in the last few years. You
guys were there in that 1990s era, but even then you weren‟t burning a lot?
Philip Yam: No. We had one feller there who was a firebug. We had to control him, stop
him from throwing match. „Don‟t drop match! Don‟t do stupid things!‟ He was being silly. He
done it a few times with us. We had to go and fight the fire, get it all out again. „Don‟t drop
Working Knowledge at Oriners Station, Cape York
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