Aboriginal Labour and the Cattle Industry
Queensland from White Settlement to the Present

This book uncovers the central role of Aboriginal labour in the Queensland cattle industry from first contact to the present.

Cattle has been big business in Australia for well over a century and earns substantial export dollars. Yet the contribution that Aboriginal people have made to this key sector of the Australian economy has not been widely recognised. This book uncovers the central role of Aboriginal labour in the Queensland cattle industry. It looks at a broad period, from Aboriginal land use at the time of first contact, resistance to white settlers and rapid absorption of Aboriginal people into the pastoral economy. The book also considers the impact of the introduction of equal pay rates in the 1970s and land management in the 1990s. Dawn May shows that the use of Aboriginal labour was a complex process involving a high degree of state intervention. Her book is an important economic and social history of the cattle industry in Queensland, but the pressing issue of native title makes the book highly relevant throughout post-Mabo Australia.

Introduction
1. Aboriginal land use at the time of contact
2. The arrival of white people
3. The entry of Aboriginal workers into the cattle industry
4. 1897 and its aftermath
5. Opponents of the Act
6. Continuity and change
7. The 1919 Employment Regulation
8. Increasing government involvement
9. Missions
10. World War II and beyond
11. Equal pay
12. Contemporary land management
Conclusion
Bibliography.