Details

Latitude

-20.7475

Longitude

117.1402778

Start Date

1930

End Date

1975

Layer Warning:

This layer contains historical information about Aboriginal people that may be distressing. It contains names of people who have passed away.

When an area was carved out for a station in the Pilbara in the early 1880s the land included the people who traditionally lived there. They became the slaves of the station owner. Life under this regime was hard and brutal but they remained on their land and were able to take care of sacred sites and pass on law and conduct ceremony. When people got too old or were sick or injured in their work they were taken and dumped on a ration station. Later they were rounded up and taken to coastal towns. There was a reserve at Yirramagurdu (Roebourne) called Gudjawarral. This had no amenities, no tap, no toilet no buildings. After the referendum in 1967 station owners were required to pay Aboriginal workers full pay. Rather than do this many owners rounded up the Aboriginal people and trucked them to the nearest reserve. Suddenly at Gudjawarral (and other reserves) there were hundreds of people. One tap and a cement tub was installed, people had to construct tents and shacks out of what they could find. Many children died there of preventable diseases incurred by poverty, poor nutrition, overcrowding and no access to medicines (Condensed from Robertson and Nannup, 2017).

Sources