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Marcus Barber: Does the water taste different in those places? Does T-Bone water taste
different from where there‟s prawns?
Philip Yam: We don‟t know because we don‟t drink it.
Jeff Shellberg: Earlier in the season in June, is it clear?
Louie Native: No, it‟s still the same.
Philip Yam: I think the water stays the same. Some places you go and there‟s water clean
there, like back in Kowanyama the water is clean, then later on in the year it gets dirty.
Viv Sinnamon: You can drink it most years, but some years it‟s bloody awful. It gets dirty,
there‟s a lot of cattle and that, and the aquatics, it‟s a bit of a problem.
Philip Yam: We don‟t drink that water, where the crayfish, the crayfish can. We just pop
back into the Crosbie.
Further comments about the role of animals in water quality appear in subsequent sections.
Human activity can also have a significant effect on water quality. When constructing the new
elevated house at Oriners, septic toilets (which might have resulted in high faecal coliform
levels in the adjacent lagoon) were avoided. The waterless “clivus multrum” composting toilet
systems which were installed were also positioned above the flood height in the area.
However the primary concerns related to human effects on water quality relate to the
presence of non-locals:
Philip Yam: Those waterholes that we use for fishing and drinking. Some of them you go
and you find dead pigs in them. The pig shooters they want to shoot them but they don‟t
want to drag them away so they just leave it there.
Jeff Shellberg: What about wild cattle fouling the water?
Philip Yam: Wild cattle, we get a few wild cattle. There was a few, a couple of blokes, I
don‟t know who they are, they shot some up here. One died near, coming out from Crosbie,
near that waterhole, small one. I don‟t know if that one got shot right there…
Viv Sinnamon: They are good bait for pigs. They‟ll shoot beasts just to attract the pigs.
They let them get a bit smelly and it brings the goannas and the pigs.
Philip Yam: That‟s what they do eh? They used to do that up in Dixie, up here this way.
2.3 Native animals
The following section reviews comments made about native animals, their distribution, and
interactions with each other and with humans. The section title and categories reflect
ecological (aquatic animals, birds) and conservation (native vs introduced) perspectives, but
the comments naturally cross cut and interlink such classifications to a degree. Combined
with 2.4, this section provides some broader context regarding animals in the area that is
relevant to later synthesis.
2.3.1 Aquatic animals
The aquatic animals most commonly referred to by people talking about Oriners included
fish, turtles, freshwater crocodiles, and crustaceans (prawns and crayfish). Aquatic resources
are very important in hunting activities at Oriners (see 2.5.3 below). The following comments
contain information about aquatic animal distributions, food species preferences (including
the order in which people list species), and connectivity between aquatic habitats (notably in
terms of barramundi). Ezra Michael noted the presence of freshwater shellfish in the Oriners
Lagoon, and also identified key animals at Horseshoe:
Working Knowledge at Oriners Station, Cape York
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