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the late 1960s. From this period on, Oriners mustering activity was primarily based at and
organised from New Dixie, and Colin recalls himself and his brother Brian being responsible
for it in the 1970s and 1980s:
Oh we used to do all of the mustering at Oriners. We would have been about sixteen or
seventeen.
Colin Hughes
Oriners was ultimately sold in the early 1990s to the Kowanyama Council on behalf of the
Hughes family. The sale was negotiated by David Hughes, the nephew of Cecil and then
manager of Koolatah Station, by David‟s father Bill Hughes, and by Herbert Hughes, the
now-deceased owner of Dixie Station and the father of Colin Hughes, current manager of
Drumduff and Highbury Stations. At this point, the Hughes family ceased playing a direct role
in Oriners, other than managing the common boundaries between Oriners and the stations
they continued to operate, formerly Dixie Station and currently Drumduff Station.
1.6.3 The Finches at Sefton
Sefton Station, lying to the west of Oriners, is also owned by the Kowanyama people and it is
often included in discussions about the future of the Oriners area. Nugget Finch and his wife
Pam established Sefton in the mid 1960s as tenants in common with Edward Loudon and
operated it as a pastoral property until the 1990s following transfer of Loudon‟s interests to
the Finches in late 1981. The station was far smaller and operated independently as a
lifestyle block (Strang 1997: 120-121) rather than as part of a larger assemblage as the
Hughes‟ properties did. It therefore did not have a permanent Indigenous labour force,
although Nugget participated in joint mustering efforts with adjacent station holders on a
regular basis and was known for his positive relations with Indigenous cattlemen (V.
Sinnamon, pers. comm.). Water resources were an ongoing challenge, and a small excision
from Oriners was negotiated between the Hughes and Finch families in order to improve
water supply to Sefton. The final transfer did not occur prior to the Hughes‟ selling Oriners,
but the agreement was honoured by the Kowanyama people, and the transfer of this small
parcel occurred in 1994. Financial difficulties required Sefton to be sold in 1996 (to
Kowanyama Council), but the Finches remained there for some time as caretakers, before
being requested to leave in the late 1990s by the Kowanyama Council of that time, which
was acting on poor advice about development possibilities for the station and a lack of full
awareness about the positive role that the Finches played in maintaining Sefton (V.
Sinnamon, pers. comm.). As it was unoccupied from that point onwards, Sefton subsequently
fell into disrepair, and much of the infrastructure is now destroyed by fire. Nugget Finch died
in 2008. Sefton is an important component of contemporary Kowanyama people‟s territory,
and a significant amount of the information presented here may apply to Sefton as well.
However the primary emphasis of the current report is on Oriners Station.
1.6.4 Indigenous cattlemen
The above paragraphs provide a brief history of the changes in non-Indigenous tenure and in
particular of the Hughes family‟s relationship to Oriners. However this is only one part of the
story, for cattle work was a primary means through which Indigenous people, particularly
Indigenous men, were able to exercise a degree of autonomy, learn valued traditional
knowledge in situ, and visit and maintain connections with areas such as Oriners. A history of
Oriners is also a history of these movements, even though most were undocumented and
are now not always remembered with clear markers of the dates and times they occurred.
However there are exceptions:
Michael Ross: Let the young fellow know how long you been there, when you started in all
this country here.
Working Knowledge at Oriners Station, Cape York
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