Just one of the examples Pastoralists gave of Aboriginals unreliability was that they had a ‘habit of going walkabout’. For thousands of years Aboriginals survived by working only when they were hungry, and not all Aboriginals were keen to put in the extra effort white bosses expected.
There was a time when a white boss might be told, by an Aboriginal worker ‘we're going walkabout’. This is, more than anything, a polite Aboriginal way of explaining the unexplainable, of saying “we’re leaving for a while and we are not going to tell you where we are going or why’.
It wasn’t the ‘can’t-be-bothereds’ that drove Aboriginals to go bush from time to time, but secret business, sacred or family business, or a sorry time. These were not matters Aboriginals could or would freely discuss with outsiders.
The white perception that this leave-taking was purposeless was so widespread the expression ‘to go walkabout’ became part of the Australian language. If some thing 'went walkabout' it was lost or missing (like my car keys, maybe). Any person who ‘went walkabout’ was someone whose mind wandered because they lacked focus.
No one bothered to include Aboriginals in these wage negotiations. Given a chance, they might have pointed out they were reliable. The station work was seasonal and when required Aboriginals worked their buns off, often existing on rations that were not nourishing.
If given a chance they might have pointed out that no sane white person would bother doing more than their wage justified. They might have asked how anyone sitting on a horse not yet broken in could ‘go slow’.
On the other hand, some Aboriginals were more westernised and more suited to station work than others.
In many instances, it was an Aboriginal person who allocated Aboriginals to tasks, because they knew who could work with whom (based on relationships), who was free or who needed to go away for some reason, and so on.
Pastoralists wanted workers they could deal with directly, who would be literate, and had a 24/7/52 desire to work hard.
On the other hand, some Aboriginals were more westernised and more suited to station work than others.
In many instances, it was an Aboriginal person who allocated Aboriginals to tasks, because they knew who could work with whom (based on relationships), who was free or who needed to go away for some reason, and so on.
Pastoralists wanted workers they could deal with directly, who would be literate, and had a 24/7/52 desire to work hard.
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