AustLit

'Wave Hill Station was originally established by Nat "Bluey' Buchanan in 1882 at Malyalyimalyalyi and Lipanangku, an area of the Victoria River just downstream of the area now known as Kalkaringi. The old yards are still in evidence. Sam 'Greenhide' Croker, who managed the first station, named the station 'Wave Hill' based on the terraced form of the hill on the southern side of the Victoria River. As Michael Terry, who first visited the station in 1923, noted, 'Behind the station to the south, there was a high terraced hill from which the station had received its name. The waves on its side could easily be seen from a considerable distance." The station was then stocked with 500 head of cattle in 1883 by Buchanan, brothers Hugh and Wattie Gordon, and Croker. As described in Chapter 3, the first decades of the occupation of Gurindji land were brutal. Gurindji numbers were severely depleted during this time; however, they actively resisted the occupation. Resistance involved killings of white pastoralists, ambushes of travelling parties and arson of station houses. Nonetheless, by 1901 Wave Hill Station had a 'blacks camp and by 1910 there were 30 Aboriginal station hands working on the station.' The following stories begin with Dandy Danbayarri's account of the death of a station manager at the hand of Gurindji men. Ronnie Wavehill then describes how Gurindji people came to settle at the station. The conclusion to the first era of occupation is marked by the destruction of Wave Hill Station by a massive flood in 1924.'  (Introduction)