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

management of country are not new. Yet if it is carried through, the current CYPAL process
will significantly increase Indigenous ownership of the traditional areas of the Olkol speaking
peoples, and significantly increase the degree to which those areas are being managed for
contemporary Indigenous values which incorporate conservation, cultural heritage, and
sustainable pastoral activities. From this perspective, Oriners is not just an important
individual property; it is part of a significant and growing assemblage of properties that have
a varied range of hydrological, ecological, and cultural connections with one another.
However although these new properties are Indigenous owned and reflect similar
management values and aspirations at the general level, the terms and conditions under
which the transition to Indigenous ownership may occur may be quite different from the
situation at Oriners. Under the terms of the agreements, the stations are purchased by the
State and then freehold ownership is passed on to an appropriately constituted Indigenous
land trust. That land trust is obliged to reach an Indigenous Management Agreement (IMA)
with the State, which results in approximately 50% of the property becoming a designated
National Park in perpetuity on Indigenous freehold land. However although the other 50% of
the land becomes non-National Park Indigenous leasehold, that 50% can contain areas
which are the subject of further conservation restrictions. In certain locations, these
restrictions are further augmented by the Wild Rivers legislation, which further constrains
permissible forms of development in designated Cape York river catchments. These kinds of
restrictions can be experienced as interference by Indigenous people, particularly by older
cattle workers who value activities and developments which are perceived as incompatible
with high-value conservation areas:
The 50:50 legislation is really much less than that. High preservation areas and nature
refuges greatly reduce the amount of land available to Indigenous people, and there is a
hell of a lot of people involved in the management of it. You can‟t do what you want to do
on that area. Now with this Wild Rivers coming on, it makes it even harder for us. Wild
Rivers includes the whole watershed, so all the creeks running in as well. If you want to
build a dam or clear a paddock, you have to fill out all of these forms. You won‟t be waiting
a week; you‟ll be waiting a year. And the minister still has sign off at the end.
I‟ve been all around, I know the places. Now they don‟t want cattle on the property, don‟t
want horses in the area. We made a 50:50 deal with them, and they are sort of coming
back, giving us 80:20, and what‟s going to happen when its 90:10, then it‟s got to come to
100%! We‟ll be out the gate! That is what we are looking at. It should be 50:50 and that‟s it.
Look at my country here, its mountain country not flat country. Get on horseback and go up
a beautiful mountain, spring waters, different kinds of insects, frogs, birds. All these things,
they are there in the rainforest. Don‟t stop me riding up there, just because of the cow!
They say „No you ride down here, we got to fence that off‟. That‟s what I‟m upset about.
They‟re making me back into an 80:20.
The changes in land management associated with the transition from cattle stations to
conservation management zones can also create generational tensions:
And then one of my family works at Wild Rivers. And he said „Dad, we can look after this
place if you listen to us‟. Little boy come and told me, you know! And I grew up on there!
How can we have the young people working in National Parks, on the other hand we want
money, to have cattle and enjoy our life on the land where we work?
Oriners is managed according to contemporary Indigenous land management principles
which, as the comments above suggest, may crosscut or hybridise the forms of management
characteristic of cattle stations on the one hand, and National Parks on the other. In effect,
Oriners (and nearby Sefton) are closer in ownership and management status to the Deed of
Grant in Trust (DOGIT) lands of the former reserves and missions such as Kowanyama and
Pormpuraaw than they are to a number of the newer NRM-focused properties emerging from
Working Knowledge at Oriners Station, Cape York
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