healcountry

In Australia, a stockman (plural stockmen) is a person who looks after the livestock on a large property known as a station, which is owned by a grazier or a grazing company, traditionally on horseback. In this sense, it has a similar meaning to "cowboy". A stockman may also be employed at an abattoir, feedlot, on a livestock export ship, or with a stock and station agency. Aboriginal Australians were good stockmen who played a large part in the successful running of many stations. With their intimate bonds to their tribal places, and local knowledge they also took considerable pride in their work. After the gold rushes white labor was expensive and difficult to retain. Aboriginal women also worked with cattle on the northern stations after this practice developed in northern Queensland during the 1880s. A Native Administration Act later stopped the employment of women in cattle camps. Aboriginal people often received only food and clothing to retain their labor,[3] until they began to be paid a small cash wage in the 1950s and 1960s, much less than their white counterparts. In 1966, Vincent Lingiari led Gurindji workers on the Wave Hill walk-off, a strike on the large Vesteys cattle station in the Northern Territory, which brought about wage parity two years later. In the 21st-century class actions for these "stolen wages", as they have been dubbed, have taken place in Queensland, Western Australia, and the NT.[4] Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stockman_(Australia)

The Aboriginal population is believed to have entered Australia at least 60,000 years ago. Current opinion favors migration through various parts of northern Australia including Cape York Peninsula.[1] Traditional local Aboriginal stories recall hunting and fishing on land that once extended past Green Island during a time of lower sea levels.[2] Archaeological evidence shows Aboriginal peoples living in rainforest in the Cairns area for at least 5,100 years, and possibly for much of the often suggested 40,000-year period.[3] The first recorded human occupants of the Cairns area were Australian Aboriginal peoples. Tribal groups speaking the Gimuy Walubara Yidinji language were generally on the south side of the Barron River. On the northern side, particularly in the coastal area from the Barron to Port Douglas, Yirrganydji groups generally spoke dialects of the Djabugay language.[4] Yidinji (also known as Yidinj, Yidiny, and Idindji) is an Australian Aboriginal language. Its traditional language region is within the local government areas of Cairns Region and Tablelands Region, in such localities as Cairns, Gordonvale, the southern part of the Atherton Tableland including Atherton and Kairi. The area is known in the local Yidiny language as Gimuy. Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Cairns#:~:text=Archaeolo...

Some Aboriginal people work for the settlers. They are dressed in European clothes, fed European food, and live in camps near the homestead. They play a vital role in the development of the Queensland pastoral industry. The owners of Booubyjan had a good relationship with the Aboriginal people who lived and worked on the station. They commissioned FW Whitehouse to paint the portrait of Cobbo, which was hung on the homestead. Source: cherbourgmemory.org/booubyja-cobbo-at-booubyjan-station-1...