Wave Hill Station
The property is best known as the scene of the Wave Hill walk-off, a strike by Indigenous Australian workers for better pay and conditions, which in turn was an important influence on Aboriginal land rights in Australia.
[4] The southern portion is based mostly on kandosols with a landscape composed of open woodland to the south west and shrubland to the east with smaller areas of hummock grassland dispersed throughout.
[7] The area was first explored by Europeans in 1854 by Augustus Charles Gregory, and later in 1879 by Alexander Forrest during his journey from the coast of Western Australia to the Overland Telegraph Line.
This was providing prime fresh beef, at sixpence per pound, to the men at the nearby gold diggings and at the port at Wyndham.
[22] The first person to cycle around Australia, Arthur Charles Jeston Richardson, was to stop at the station during his ride, and found the burnt out building.
[25] A droving record was set by William Philips in 1906 when he overlanded 1,260 bullocks from Wave Hill some 2,100 miles (3,380 km) to Burrendilla, near Charleville in just 32 weeks.
[31] A subsequent manager, Oswald Quinn, died in 1921 – also at age 35 – from malaria and complications arising from the effects of gas from overseas military action.
Following heavy rains the river rose rapidly and swept away buildings, plant and stock worth thousands of pounds.
[39] The explorer and author Michael Terry passed through Wave Hill as part of his expedition to drive from Broome in Western Australia to Darwin in 1927.
[40] Following the disappearance of the Southern Cross that was piloted by Charles Kingsford Smith in early April 1929 as part of the flight from Sydney to Wyndham, messages had been sent using the Wave Hill wireless station.
[41] Several search-planes went to look for the Southern Cross, including the Kookaburra, flown by Lieutenant Keith Anderson with mechanic R. Hitchcock, which took off from Alice Springs on 10 April.
The wreckage of the Kookaburra was found in desert country south-east of Wave Hill on 21 April with Hitchcock's body beneath one wing and Anderson missing.
[45] Another drought struck in 1936 when the monsoon failed to deliver any significant rain, Wave Hill lost about one quarter of its stock from lack of water and feed.
[52] Parts of the route include the old Wave Hill homestead, the fence-line down to the Gordy Creek waterhole crossing, and the track to the Victoria River camp (Lipanangu) although it is now traversed by the Buchanan Highway.
[57] A native title claim was lodged in 2016 by the Central Land Council on behalf of the traditional owners, as there were mining interests in the area covered by Wave Hill Station's pastoral lease.
[58] On 8 September 2020, the Federal Court of Australia recognised the native title rights of the Gurindji people to 5,000 square kilometres (1,900 sq mi) of the Wave Hill Station, allowing them to receive royalties as compensation from resource companies who explore the area.
Justice Richard White said that the determination recognised Indigenous involvement (Jamangku, Japuwuny, Parlakuna-Parkinykarni and Yilyilyimawu peoples) with the land "at least since European settlement and probably for millennia".
[58][59] The court sitting took place nearly 800 kilometres (500 mi) south of Darwin, and descendants of Lingiari and others involved in the walk-off celebrated the determination.
