WfHC - cover page (not to be used with pre-printed report ... - CSIRO

The primary contexts for learning knowledge about a place that has not been a major
residential site in living memory;
The purposes for undertaking the project – Indigenous NRM in the future; and
The provisional quality of what was recorded.
From an Indigenous standpoint, the scope of „Working Knowledge‟ is constrained –
functional and materialist rather than holistic and culturally comprehensive. From a scientific
perspective, some or much of it may lack rigor and appropriate empirical foundations.
However, as a source of fine-grained, detailed information about local ecosystem patterns
and process, Indigenous knowledge is increasingly considered to be of value to natural
resource assessments, especially in those areas where scientific knowledge is poor or nonexistent
(Fabricius, Scholes et al. 2006) and where extant systems of customary resource
management prevail. From a non-Indigenous pastoralist perspective some of the knowledge
described here may be unreliable and/or unnecessary. Yet focusing on observations and
insights from a (sometimes shared) history of work enables collation and combination of the
knowledge emerging from these different sources. It also establishes some degree of
equivalence between different knowledge bases. For example, labouring in a cash economy
is not normally emphasised as the key context for acquiring „Indigenous Knowledge‟, nor as
the primary basis by which scientific knowledge is generated, yet here that emphasis can
function as a useful „levelling device‟ that accurately describes the local context.
Oriners is ecologically distinctive and valuable, is scientifically under-studied, and lies at the
heart of a growing assemblage of properties in the area moving to a combination of
Indigenous, NRM and/or low intensity pastoral regimes. However, the fact that Oriners was
purchased from its original settler inhabitants using community funds, and purchased as a
commercial pastoral lease on the open market also makes it locally distinctive, increasing the
power of local Indigenous managers to act autonomously. The successes and failures of
attempts by the Oriners Mob to reside in and manage a remote and inaccessible area over a
twenty year period provide important lessons for future attempts, both at Oriners and at the
stations surrounding it which are planned to revert to Indigenous residence and/or control in
the years to come. It demonstrates the need for sustained funding sources and for
government agencies to support the long term vision of local Indigenous managers. This
study is timely for Oriners and the Oriners Mob as they develop a new management plan for
the Oriners area, but also for other nearby stations and the extended family of „Forest
People‟ who are connected to them.
5.2 Flooded forest country – key characteristics
The data from the interviews in Part 2 demonstrate key characteristics about Oriners country
and also about the Indigenous and non-Indigenous cattlemen who have worked there. Some
key characteristics of Oriners country apparent from the interviews in Part 2 are:
Different plant species and numerous trees giving a „forest‟ look when
compared with areas further down on the delta;
Fragile, easily erodible soils which become boggy in the wet season
A large area of higher but distinctly vegetated sand ridges;
The availability of stone, including for stone tools;
Fluctuating water turbidity for much of the year around Oriners Lagoon, due to
turbid flood waters, clear early-dry season baseflow, and again turbid water in
the late-dry season due to desiccation, animal disturbance, and suspended
clays;
Fast flowing flood waters along the centre of watercourses, particularly the
Eight Mile Creek;
Slower flowing floods across low lying areas, insufficient to knock down
fences.
Working Knowledge at Oriners Station, Cape York
198