July 2015 - www.nlc.org.au NEWS Land Rights News - Northern Edition - 5 Yarralin – Justice after 40 years What I saw at Wattie Creek Philip Nitschke, known these days as always going to be tough, and in that tension and hostility between those at the an advocate for voluntary euthanasia, first wet, with the Wattie Creek popula- camp and manager Ian Michael. graduated in medicine from tion swollen to almost double its size, we I awoke one morning camped about University, and his first job as a doc- saw some of the worst camp conditions 100m from Yarralin camp centre with a tor was in 1989 as an intern at Royal experienced. VRD helicopter metres above my swag Darwin Hospital. That was not his An almost audible sigh of relief could and watched as my clothing, cooking first job in the : in be heard, when a sit-down camp area and camping equipment were blown the early 1970s he travelled to Wat- at Yarralin on the Wickam River was away in the cloud of dust. tie Creek where the decided upon, and people could finally Coming back via Top Springs there had camped after their walk-off from return to their country. was always trouble. As we moved in for Wave Hill Station. He signed on as But if things were tough at Dugarugu, a drink, owner Ma Hawkes would watch a gardener, but would soon take up they were significantly tougher at Yar- carefully, and the comments from the duties as an administrative manager. ralin, and there were many calls for white ringers at the bar would inevitably Dr Nitschke was at Wattie Creek when help. Every morning when I attended the start. “Southern shit-stirrers; now you’re the Aboriginal stockmen and their meetings under the central bough shelter stirring up the blacks at VRD!” families walked off from VRD station – meetings between the elders, Vincent But there were other white supporters. in 1972. He’s penned for Land Rights Lingiari, Donald Nangiari, Jerry, Long Jean Culley, a nurse who had long made News his memories of those times: Jack and Long Johnny, Pincher Nyurrmi- trips to Wattie Creek in the dry, and who yari, Hoppy Mick Rangiari and Hobbles had a reliable vehicle, did what she could MORE than 40 years have passed since DR PHILIP NITSCHKE Danayarri, himself a Mudburra man to support the struggling Yarralin group. I went out to work at Wattie Creek, with the Gurindji, and so some details of that time have faded. But many memories are vivid, as clear as if yesterday. It was an intense two years. Inspired by a talk given at my university by Gurindji elder Captain Major, Lupna Giari, I drove north, wanting to do what I could to support and the Gurindji mob who had thrown down such a challenge to the establishment when they walked off Wave Hill station. This wasn’t just a strike over wages and condition, this was about much more. This was about the ownership of their land. Above and below: Scenes from Yarralin, 1980 -NT Office fo Local Government Photographic Collection

She would run back and forth ferrying people, and occasionally to Katherine, even Darwin if necessary. I got to know her well, accompany- ing her on several trips where an extra vehicle was needed. She would leave and return to Melbourne when the wet started, and it was in Melbourne, after I’d finished up at Wattie Creek after Cyclone Tracy that I met and spent the next 10 years with her daughter Paddy, the mother of my only child. Jean was in Darwin during Cyclone Tracy. Her caravan, now on my Darwin block, was upturned, the hole in the caravan ceiling At Wattie Creek/Dugarugu, conditions placed under threat with Social Security from Yarralin – the problems and con- was the size of Jean’s broken arm. were hard. There was tension over the bureaucrats in Katherine insisting on cerns of the day were discussed, and the And other visitors came and went future of the small 10 square mile ‘sit- often unavailable documentation such as needs of Yarralin were a constant topic. during this period. Hannah Middleton, down’ lease, the reliability of the beef birth certificates. Occasionally, I was asked to take a Patrick McConvell, and Jack Doolan all food supply for the 200 or so residents, It was into this community, already vehicle up there, usually with people spent time there and gave me a better coming as it did from cleanskin ‘killers’ under stress, that the walk-off mob from needing to return, or with some essential understanding of the community I was mustered in from Vestey’s Wave Hill VRD station some 100km north arrived. piece of equipment. These trips, some- trying my best to work for. Station that surrounded the lease, and The Gurindji supported what the times via the highway and Top Springs It was all so long ago. And it’s been ongoing strained relations with Welfare VRD mob were trying to do, indeed Pub, but more often through Mt Sanford a shock to hear now, a lifetime later, at the neighbouring Kalkaringi/Wave many said the VRD walk-off happened and Pigeon Hole outstations would take that the Yarralin refugees who spent Hill Settlement. only because those working on VRD for some time, and I would usually camp on that wet in Wattie Creek after the VRD The community was struggling to little more than tobacco and beef could edge of the Yarralin settlement. walk-off still don’t own that land. None cope; cash needed to buy essentials from see that the Wave Hill strike and the They were always difficult trips. of the adults who made that trip would the Settlement store was in short supply. demands made by those at Wattie Creek While there was some acceptance of likely still be alive; perhaps some of Unemployment benefits were not being settlement were finally being taken seri- Wattie Creek’s existence by Vestey’s the children are and can remember and received – after all, the Gurindji stock- ously. and occasionally even some coopera- describe the time. And it will be them, men were on strike, not retrenched, and But the pressure on Wattie Creek tion between the Gurindji and Wave Hill the children, who might now be the ones income that should have been secure with the influx of Gurindji, Ngarrinman manager Ralph Hayes, this was not the to finally benefit when this Yarralin land from old age pensions was increasingly and Mudburra people from VRD was case at VRD where there was ongoing is returned.