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Conditions under the Vesteys single work   prose  
Issue Details: First known date: 2016... 2016 Conditions under the Vesteys
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

' Biddy Wavehill, Violet Wadrill and Vincent Lingiari's account of work on the station is typical of Aboriginal accounts of the time. Most Gurindji people lived and worked at Jinparrak (old Wave Hill Station), along with Mudburra, Warlpiri, Bilinarra, Malngin and Ngarinyman people. This station was owned by the English lord, William Vestey, who was the largest land holder in Australia at the time, owning a number of cattle stations across the north of Australia. The conditions of the Aboriginal people working and living on the stations were appalling. Other Gurindji accounts from Gurindji people, and a report by Ronald Berndt and Catherine Berndt which was commissioned by the Vesteys to investigate the welfare of Aboriginal employees concur, describing the conditions as substandard. Two-hundred-and-fifty people, including ninety-two men, lived in a small area. Gurindji people received no wages for their work. ' (Introduction)

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon Yijarni : True Stories from Gurindji Country Erika Charola (editor), Felicity Meakins (editor), Canberra : Aboriginal Studies Press , 2016 9469367 2016 selected work prose Indigenous story

    'On 23 August 1966, approximately 200 Gurindji stockmen and their families walked off Wave Hill Station in the Northern Territory, protesting against poor working conditions and the taking of their land by pastoralists. Led by Vincent Lingiari, this land-mark action in 1966 precipitated the equal wages case in the pastoral industry and the establishment of the Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Act 1976. While it is well known that the Walk Off was driven by the poor treatment of Aboriginal workers, what is less well known is the previous decades of massacres and killings, stolen children and other abuses by early colonists. Told in both English and Gurindji, these compelling and detailed oral accounts of the events that Gurindji elders either witnessed or heard from their parents and grandparents, will ignite the interest of audiences nationally and internationally and challenge revisionist historians who question the extent of frontier battles and the legitimacy of the Stolen Generations. ...' (Source: AIATSIS website)

         Canberra : Aboriginal Studies Press , 2016     pg. 183-186
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Last amended 26 Oct 2017 08:29:25
Subjects:
  • Daguragu / Kalkaringi / Wave Hill, Victoria River area, Central Northern Territory, Northern Territory,
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