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Robert Burns recalled that the water went through the house „nearly every year‟ and also
gave a similar measure of its height. Colin Hughes confirms the flooding of the old house to
the same level:
No I‟ve never been there [at Oriners] when it was actually flooded around the station, but I
know Dad [Herbert Hughes] had marks on the wall of the old house, and it used to get
about waist deep. This is the old house. It was right on the bank of the lagoon, between
where they‟ve got that two story house, pretty well straight in line with that, straight south
on the bank of the lagoon. It came about waist high, 1.2 or 1.3 metres. That was quite a
regular thing. Not every year.
Colin Hughes
Like Colin, Philip Port did not stay at Oriners during the wet but also saw the marks on the
wall, at about 3-4 feet high. Edwin David did see it during the height of the wet season:
Marcus Barber: did you ever stay there when it was really raining? Flooding up?
Edwin David: Yeah, yeah, it used to [flood] right up into the house eh? Right up into the hut
there. The white stockman‟s shed used to have water in it. You can‟t get about see, when it
was really wet.
Marcus Barber: How did you sleep?
Edwin David: We used to sleep alright, sleep on top of the cupboard or something like that.
Make a bunk.
Marcus Barber: What did the white stockman do? Was he sharing the room with you?
Edwin David: Yeah we used to share the room. Sometimes used to come back to Koolatah.
Marcus Barber: When the water was there, was it raining right on the house?
Edwin David: Yeah.
Marcus Barber: You said sometimes the water in the billabong was milky, was it really clear
when it was raining hard?
Edwin David: Yeah, it gets really clear.
Marcus Barber: Did it have any dust in it?
Edwin David: No.
Marcus Barber: Was it moving, or just sitting there?
Edwin David: Bit slow eh?
Marcus Barber: And if you saw the rain coming and it comes up and floods the house, how
long does it stay there?
Edwin David: It used to stay there for quite a while.
Marcus Barber: Like 1 day, or 5 days?
Edwin David: About 5 days. It‟s 3 to 4 months until the water [really] goes down.
Marcus Barber: So how many times were you in the wet season, like full flooding?
Edwin David: Oh, three or four times.
Marcus Barber: Ok. And was it different, sometimes the lagoon was flooding up and
sometimes it stayed, or was every year always flooding up?
Edwin David: Every year.
Working Knowledge at Oriners Station, Cape York
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