KIMBERLEY STOLEN WAGES HEARINGS

Courts are taking evidence from older Aboriginal people claiming stolen wages in the Kimberley this week.

Shine Lawyers’ Tristan Gaven said they were mounting a class action on their behalf.

He said although the main court hearing would not start until next year, they were conducting “evidence preservation hearings.”

“We’re focussing on people who worked from the early 1930s until the mid-1970s,” he said. “And as you can imagine people who were working back then are now generally quite elderly … given how long the cases take, because they are so large and complicated, there is a real risk that some people may not be alive to give evidence when the time comes to go to trial.”

Kija man Stanley Bedford is due to give evidence this week.

Mr Bedford worked on several cattle stations in his tribal country north of Halls Creek, beginning at Bedford Downs.

“In the beginning, we were only working for tucker and a shirt and trousers,” he said. “After a couple or three years they said ‘we’ll give you five bob a week’, and that’s pretty low. I was working with a white bloke, well his father used to own the property next door, He was on 30 bob, one pound ten a week, and I was on five bob a week.”

Mr Shine said not all stolen wages claimants were former station workers as some had worked for missions.

The sessions will be in Fitzroy Crossing until Thursday and Beagle Bay on Friday.

Next week they will be in Bidyadanga on Tuesday and Broome on Monday and Wednesday before moving south to New Norcia and Calingiri in the Wheat Belt on Friday.