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Major introduced animals at Oriners include cattle, pigs, horses and cane toads. These have
all been present in the landscape for a long time, with the cane toads being the most recent
arrival as they were first observed in the 1960s. Comments about each of these animals will
be considered in turn.
2.4.1 Cattle
As described in the introduction, cattle were the reason for human presence at Oriners for
several decades in the latter half of the 20th century, and although it is no longer used as a
cattle station, wild cattle remain a significant feature of the contemporary property. The cattle
are both a potential resource for human consumption and an issue for Indigenous land
managers, but it has already been noted that the Oriners area is not rich cattle country and is
largely unfenced, reducing the level of impact that the animals have had on the area. Cecil
Hughes remembered that, prior to the Hughes family taking the property up formally in 1952,
it was vacant but used occasionally by cattlemen from Koolatah and Strathleven. Based on
this casual use prior to 1952 and on strays from stations like Koolatah (established 1912), it
seems almost certain that there would have been at least some cattle on Oriners from at
least the 1940s and probably cattle present some decades earlier. However Robert Burns,
whose experience of it dates back to the 1940s, did not remember large numbers in the early
years
Marcus Barber: What about wild cows? Were there any on that country when you first saw
it?
Robert Burns: Not really, it was quiet, that country. They had them all up here [at Laura].
In discussing soil type at Oriners (2.1.1), Colin Hughes recollected that the Hughes family
used to run about 1500-1800 head of cattle in the Oriners area in the 1970s and 1980s. Cecil
Hughes provided independent corroboration of this figure from his own memory of the 1950s
and 1960s suggesting that there would have been about 500 around Oriners itself, and about
1500 across the whole area. When the property was sold back to the Kowanyama people, it
was largely de-stocked. However with the assistance of Dixie station, it was mustered a
couple of times in the 1990s:
Marcus Barber: When you first saw it, were there lots of cows up there, or were they
cleared out?
Philip Yam: Oh, there were a few heads there, not too much. Maybe just a couple of
hundred.
Marcus Barber: What happened with the cows? Were people just leaving them alone to
breed up or were they mustering them in that early period?
Philip Yam: We had a couple of times mustering there. We did the muster ourselves, we
had to work in with Dixie. They used to come in and give us a hand. We just split the cattle
up with them. They take half the bulls, and we take half, and then they do the selling. Sell
them off, and just leaves the cows and calves there.
Marcus Barber: Can you remember how many times you did that?
Philip Yam: Only twice.
Philip recalled that Kowanyama people and the Dixie Station owners shared the proceeds of
the bulls 50:50. The property has not been mustered since that time and wild cattle are
visible whenever visitors travel through the property. Thinking about the damage that
introduced animals with hard feet can do to the country, Viv Sinnamon felt that cattle were
less significant than pigs, but still had an impact on waterholes and lagoons:
Working Knowledge at Oriners Station, Cape York
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