Noonkanbah Station (or just Noonkanbah) is a pastoral lease, both a cattle and sheep station, on the Fitzroy River between Camballin and Fitzroy Crossing in the south central Kimberley region of Western Australia.
The station was pegged out in the 1880s and covered approximately 4,000 square kilometres.
During World War II the Royal Australian Air Force established a base, at the civil airfield at the station on 1 March 1943.
Large petrol and bomb dumps were established and the airfield was used by the Netherlands East Indies Air Force as a staging base. No 24 Squadron, 25 Squadron and 31 Squadron all utilised the airfield. The airfield was large enough to handle B-24 Liberators.
On 30 September 1944, the airfield base was made non-operational, and on 24 December 1945, the airfield was disbanded.
The traditional owners – the people of the Yungngora Community – were employed by the station owners until 1971 when they walked off over a pay and conditions dispute.
In 1976 the station was purchased by the Aboriginal Land Fund to be developed by the traditional owners. It has since then been run by the people of the Yungngora Community.
The station was the scene for an intense political dispute when the government of the day allowed exploration company AMAX to drill for oil in sacred sites.
The mining boom experienced in the 1970s led to hundreds of resource tenements being pegged on the pastoral station in the Kimberley, but an anthropological report found the land covered by the station had spiritual significance for the Yungngora community.
Western Australia’s Premier, Charles Court, was adamant that the exploration should go ahead regardless – and a convoy of 45 non-union drilling rigs and trucks left Perth protected by hundreds of police on 7 August 1980.
Violent confrontations between police and Noonkanbah protesters ensued, culminating in the drilling rigs forcing their way through community picket lines onto sacred land.
In April 2007, the Yungngora people had their native title recognised over the Noonkanbah land.
Source – Wikipedia
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