In the early 90s I worked at Halls Creek Cattle Station as a stockman/ringer for six months. My question is does the Halls Creek hotel still practices segregation. They were three bars in the pub , the cocktail bar( no hats allowed or aboriginals ) the Animal Bar ( hats and blacks allowed ) and the Snake pit( only indigenous people ) which had concrete seats and a fire pit.
Then I just accepted it as the way things were done , but now if the same system was in place I might complain ( by letter).
So are things still the same?

I highly doubt that system is 'officially' in place these days.

First-hand experience, as recently as 10 years ago some pubs in Kalgoorlie still had segregated bars - complete deniability of course, but very much in practice. "Blacks out the back." As a community member I was always more comfortable out the back.

PSD-Kiwi wrote:I highly doubt that system is 'officially' in place these days.

Is there the like in NZ with the Maori ?


Side note, I have meet loads of Maori expats and travellers , but only one Aborigine traveller who was a member of dance group (so not really a traveller ).

Any ideas why?

Looking for that job wrote:Any ideas why?

Simple numbers.

First, less than three percent of Australians self-identify as aboriginal, and most of those are not genetically 100% 'original people' - unless you have lived/worked with most skin groups you probably wouldn't recognise them as such.

Second, the percentage of aborigines in receipt of welfare payments is disproportionate to the population - so not many can afford to travel internationally.

Looking for that job wrote: Is there the like in NZ with the Maori ?

Not sure if the norm, but three of my good mates from NZ were happy in admitting they were Maori. Might be different in Japan though vs. Oz.

Don't know if things have changed, but WA was extremely racist when I lived there. I was quite shocked to hear otherwise intelligent white guys talking about "coons". Not everyone of course, but people who were racist were not hiding their views, especially in small towns and rural areas. I suspect that these same people are now more PC in their speech but probably still think the same.
In Broome and also in Darwin, I worked in hotels which had "coon bars" . In Broome they kept a metal bar under the bar for their unruly coloured customers. In quite a few hotels in WA and NT, the aborigines would get their drinks to take away and sit outside, probably because they were not welcome inside. No need for signs.

NZ is different again; also a lot of racism but it's a little more subtle. Maori don't put up with a lot of shit. It's a lot more disguised as socio-economic snobbery.
And, of course, most people have at least one Maori "friend" (read aquaintance) to show that they are not racist. Maori culture is also quite trendy among the educated classes.

Ummmmm.... just a suggestion - wouldn't you be better asking this question on a W.A centric forum rather then a CAMBODIAN centric forum? The fact we are expats sort of suggests that perhaps we aren't quite up to speed/don't give a shit with whats going on in some small West Australian out back town that nobody gives a fuk about anyhow. You think?

Hotdigr wrote:Ummmmm.... just a suggestion - wouldn't you be better asking this question on a W.A centric forum rather then a CAMBODIAN centric forum? The fact we are expats sort of suggests that perhaps we aren't quite up to speed/don't give a shit with whats going on in some small West Australian out back town that nobody gives a fuk about anyhow. You think?

But then I wouldn't hear your two penneth !

ps Does WA have the internet yet?

Hotdigr wrote:Ummmmm.... just a suggestion - wouldn't you be better asking this question on a W.A centric forum rather then a CAMBODIAN centric forum? The fact we are expats sort of suggests that perhaps we aren't quite up to speed/don't give a shit with whats going on in some small West Australian out back town that nobody gives a fuk about anyhow. You think?

Just general chatter - people chatting. The fact that we are expats means that we come from all over, so seems natural that we will talk about different places, don't you think ?

Funnily enough, I have also been to Hall's Creek.
How on earth did you know that it's "a small WA town that nobody gives a fuk about " is more or less an exact description of the place ?