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Corporation. 12 Viv Sinnamon provided his recollections of the excision of Oriners from the
Koolatah block and the subsequent sale:
It was a family decision though, I think. And David took us on a trip [around the property],
we met him out at, where did we meet him? Crosbie Gorge I think, and we had a group of
people there. Timmy Malachi, Ivan Jimmy, Wilfred might have been there, I don‟t think
Philip [Yam] was. Anyway, we met Dave and he took us on a tour, just a preliminary sort of
tour that you‟d normally have if you were buying a property, just showing us around.
Marcus Barber: Were Paddy and Lefty [Yam] there?
Viv Sinnamon: Yeah, some of the old fellas were there, we‟ve got photos of that. It was the
first time really I‟d talked to David either, sort of one on one, you know? And what
happened was, after that trip, we formed a negotiating team. He and old Herbie [Hughes] I
think. 13 We‟ve got a photo of that, together. It was me and I think James Bernard, Timmy
Malachi and they had their stock and station agents and we met. It was actually at a time
when there was a lot ILC and DAA money in those days and they were buying property and
the price of property suddenly went up because people saw that they could harvest a few
black feller dollars. The thing with Kowanyama was the purchase wasn‟t going to be made
that way - it was actually bought from the [Kowanyama] Enterprise Fund, something we
later found out David didn‟t realise. But anyway, they offered it to us for $100,000 less than
the price they had asked for it the previous year when they‟d offered it to National Parks.
National Parks were in the middle of forming their master plan for the State, and they said
„oh no no, we‟re busy planning, we don‟t think we‟re in the position to talk about buying
anything yet‟. In negotiations we managed to negotiate a price that was $100, 000 less and
12 months to pay. De-stocked, knowing that you can‟t de-stock this country in 12 months
and plus there wasn‟t many cattle on there anyway. And we successfully bought it, paid for
the property in 12 months under all the payment agreements and everything else.
Figure 7. David Hughes speaking at a Mitchell River workshop attended by KALNRMO staff
during the early 1990s. Image © KALNRMO
12 Strang (1997:69) describes hearing complaints from pastoralists that cattle properties were being
purchased by Indigenous groups „with our tax money!‟ This did not occur in the Oriners case.
13 David Hughes indicated in a subsequent interview that his father Bill had been more heavily
involved than Herbert.
Working Knowledge at Oriners Station, Cape York
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