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2.2.5 Water quality
Water quality in the Oriners area is affected by geographic variability, seasonal factors,
animal activity, and human actions. In general, Oriners Lagoon is known for good quality
water compared with smaller lagoons nearby. Viv Sinnamon reported that water tests
organised by KALNRMO in 2002 confirmed this, and he also noted the variability of water
quality in the Oriners landscape:
There are a range of lagoons and wetlands with very different morphology. Two round
lagoons almost side by side within a woodland can be totally different to each other - one
blue and clean and the other muddy brown.
Viv Sinnamon
Alongside this geographic variability, Edwin David described the seasonal variability in the
main Oriners Lagoon, how in the dry season the water at the homestead lagoon would drop
and the cattlemen would have to drink milky water. This was contrasted with the situation in
the wet season, as reported by Ezra Michael:
Marcus Barber: That water [in flood time], what colour was it when it was going
downstream? Was it brown?
Ezra Michael: It was pure white. You know water like this?
Marcus Barber: You could see clear?
Ezra Michael: You could see clear, you could see water was clear, running. But when the
water was, when the wet season, there‟s all fresh water then, in the lagoon.
Marcus Barber: When I was there at the lagoon, there was all dust in it, you could not see
that?
Ezra Michael: No, no dust, no nothing. It was all clear water.
Marcus Barber: Was there things floating on it, like leaves and things like that?
Ezra Michael: All the leaves was all gone in the wet, all washed away. Downstream, gone,
finished.
Marcus Barber: And if you looked down at the water, was that moving or sitting still?
Ezra Michael: Still sitting there. It wasn‟t flowing. Only time it started flowing was coming
into March.
Responding to a question about cane toads and fish kills, Paddy Yam confirmed the
observation that the toads did have an initial impact, but went on to describe another
seasonal variation, how the first wet season flush could alter water quality and also result in
fish kills:
Marcus Barber: Cecil said some of the fish were dying from eating the small cane toads.
Paddy Yam: Eating the small ones yeah. [But] they got used to it, them fish. And they know
that toad, that its poison, so they won‟t touch it. Even the goanna. They won‟t touch it.
Goannas everywhere now. Bluetongue, wanguwu. Now all the fish dead over here! [From]
that rain, first rain. Poison leaves.
Marcus Barber: So the first rain kills the fish?
Paddy Yam: Yeah poison leaves. They died everywhere.
Marcus Barber: Does that happen every year?
Paddy Yam: Every year do that.
Working Knowledge at Oriners Station, Cape York
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