How the West was Lost (1987)
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This was made on the premise that my grandfather Major Harold de Vahl Rubin at De Grey Station in WA was underpaying all our staff. Noakes directed but Pilger drove this.
Now. Macleod and the Aboriginal Lands Trust had Strelley Station and later six other properties eg Warralong on our boundaries. Macleod was a big advocate of aboriginal rights but also a registered communist at a time when that mattered in Australia. He demanded a pay rise for aborigines and station staff from A£1 3 shillings a week to A£1 6 shillings. The Ngalya and tribes down to Carnarvon followed him and eventually it spread to Queensland and the whole country...Fair enough but Pilger blamed my grandfather (and called him a slaver) who was actually paying A£2 13 shillings a week. Good bucks back then.
After three years and this strike spreading all across Australia and across 12 million acres of Rubin properties Harold CUT the wages to A£1 6 shillings a week and the whole lot went back to work. Since then the ALT properties remain next door, utterly stagnant, and we have the record of being the biggest employer of the aboriginal community in station work in the Pilbara ever since.
Richard de Vahl Rubin
#1 from Richarddvr – 3 years, 8 months ago.
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