The Wire

After five weeks of intensive training, ten young Indigenous men are on their way to becoming skilled station hands. The group has been taught basic horse-riding skills, machinery maintenance, fencing and cattle work as part of the NT’s Indigenous Pastoral Program. The program aims to expand Indigenous participation in the pastoral workforce and help Indigenous land owners implement sustainable enterprises. Australia’s largest private holder of pastoral land, S. Kidman & Co Ltd, is involved in the project and all trainees have been promised work experience at three of the company’s stations in the NT. S. Kidman Ltd’s Human Resources Manager Terry Omond says the program meets the needs of Indigenous people looking for work and the pastoral sector, which is looking for workers. But Bill Fordham, an experienced stockman who trained the group, says it wasn’t easy to get placements for the group.