The Waanyi territory was in well-watered limestone and sandstone country, including parts of theGregory River. InNorman Tindale's estimation, the Waanyi held about 9,700 square miles (25,000 km2) of territory, extending from the vicinity of the south of the upperNicholson River,[3] west of Corinda, and atSpring and Lawn Hill creeks. Their eastern extension lay at the Barkly (Barclay) River, Lawn Hill and Bannockburn. Their western frontier was at Old Benmara, and south-west they roamed as far as Mount Morgan.[4]
The whole area of the north was affected deeply by the pastoral boom opened up in 1881 in the Northern Territory, with massive stations under the control of a few eastern investors hastily stocked with cattle: the key watering sites were locked out, tribes were shot at sight, and many groups moved east into the Gulf of Carpentaria, where the same phenomenon repeated itself. The Waanyi and the Garrwa, like many tribes local to the area that found their lands taken over for pastoral leases and resisted dispossession, found themselves threatened. The Eastern Waanyi were wiped out;[9] settler vigilantes and police magistrates employed native mounted troopers to ambush, murder and massacre any Aboriginal groups they came across. The lessees of Gregory Downs submitted testimony in 1880 that the police rounded up blacks and then shot them, while that ofLawn Hill five years later said that on his cattle run alone police had shot over a hundred blacks in three years, without achieving their aim of stopping the killing of livestock.[10] The displaced Waanyi eventually took over the territory in the Lawn Hill area of the extinctInjilarija.[11]
The Waanyi first lodged anative title claim over an area known to them traditionally asWugujaji in June 1994.[12] Under a Queensland Government land act of 1989,CZL was granted two mining leases covering 23,585 hectares extending through Waanyi land theCentury Mine was established on it.[13] Eventually the terms of a settlement were agreed on, and CZL paid funding, training and employment to the traditional peoples, an accord known as the $90 million offer.[14]
