The Role of the Aboriginal People in White Settlement

Many aboriginal labourers worked for nothing on cattle stations. They provided an enormous amount of skilled, but unpaid labor. Pasturalists would use aboriginal labour, but they didn't try to change these people unlike missionaries. In the wet season, which occurred up in the north of australia, they often said, ok, you fellers, go off for three months and turn up for work when the wet season's over. So it was unjust, but it allowed them to retain their culture. And yet, they didn't get paid for it.