WEST KIMBERLEY PLACE REPORT - Department of Sustainability ...

In 1965, award wages were granted to Aboriginal pastoral workers who were
members of the Australian Workers Union. The Kimberley, however, was exempt
from the award on the ground that workers there were mostly 'full bloods', without the
capacity to manage money, and that the introduction of an award would likely result
in mass dismissal (Jebb 2002; Sharp and Tatz 1966). Equal wages regulations were
not applied in the Kimberley until 1972, when legislation brought the whole of
Western Australia into line with the Commonwealth.
In the period following the 1967 referendum, the majority of Kimberley missions
were closed either by the relevant government revoking the reserve, or the missionary
body leaving for a variety of reasons. Titles were often handed over to Aboriginal
communities to run via governing bodies such as Community Councils. Many
contemporary Aboriginal people are still affiliated with a range of churches and
missions and some are involved in the management of these sites.
Equal wages, combined with other factors including government payments and new
work practices in the pastoral industry, led to an exodus of Aboriginal people from
stations into towns in the late 1960s and early 1970s. But many who left regarded
their departure as temporary – as 'waiting' to get their country back rather than being
'stuck' on a town reserve (Jebb 2002). For some people the wait was not long. In 1972
the Commonwealth Government purchased the remote Panter Downs station lease on
behalf of the Mowanjum community who renamed the station 'Pantijan'. Pantijan
became a major stock and horse training station for young Worrorra and Ngarinyin
people, and was also used as a camp to 'dry out' people with alcohol problems (KLC
2004).
In the same year, the Commonwealth Government also overturned the White
Australia policy and introduced universal visa and citizenship systems. This rejection
of the longstanding policy was further reinforced by the enactment of the Racial
Discrimination Act 1975 (Tavan 2005). The exemption of Asian labourers in the
pearling industry from the White Australia policy appears not to have played any part
in the policy's gradual dismantling. Its cessation reflected changing opinions in
Australia and internationally, and was influenced by a wide range of factors. These
included the diminution of the British Empire following the Second World War,
lobbying by Australia's Asian neighbours, and greater contact between many
Australian citizens and Asian students during the 1950s. Moral concerns were raised
by church and other groups in Australia over injustices relating to Asian war brides.
Individual cases relating to migration, deportation and citizenship also had an
influence, as did the movement for Aboriginal rights, the radicalisation of young
people during the Vietnam War, and the need to seek Asian markets after the United
Kingdom joined the European Economic Community in 1971. The eventual end of
the policy in 1972 was the result of a complex intermingling of international politics,
economic transitions, and changes in individual perceptions (Tavan 2005).
Noonkanbah
In 1976, Noonkanbah station lease was purchased by the Commonwealth Government
and handed to the Yungngora Aboriginal Association. Within two years of
Noonkanbah's return to Aboriginal people, 497 resource exploration claims held by
about thirty companies or prospectors, covering a total of nearly 60,000 hectares
(about 35 per cent of the station area) had been filed (Allbrook 2009). In 1978, the
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