Western Australia’s north is never short of a good yarn \u2014 if one knows where to look.<\/p>\n
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised that the following article may contain images of people who have died.<\/p>\n
Take the stranger at the roadside, his thumb stuck towards a sprawling night sky.<\/p>\n
“Got up two or three in the morning, and then just wait out in the road probably two or three, four hours maybe before I get a ride to Dampier,” Kevin Guiness recalled.<\/p>\n
“Sometimes then I would start walking.”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Mr Guiness would hitchhike to work from Roebourne as he did not own a car. (ABC News: Alistair Bates)<\/p>\n
For more than 25 years, the Yindjibarndi elder has travelled the dusty roads between some of Australia’s largest and most lucrative industrial ports.<\/p>\n
At 17, he landed an apprenticeship as a diesel mechanic at Rio Tinto’s Dampier Salt project, about 1,530 kilometres north of Perth.<\/p>\n
But his home in the Pilbara town of Roebourne was 60 kilometres away, and he did not own a car.<\/p>\n
“I ended up hitchhiking from Roebourne to Dampier Salt,” Mr Guiness said.<\/p>\n
“Sometimes when it’s raining, for my coat, I’d use a rubbish bag.<\/p>\n
“It was still pitch dark, but I was just quite happy there waiting for a lift.”Hitching through Pilbara history<\/p>\n
Mr Guiness’s journey began with the roar of an engine.<\/p>\n
“I was seven years old and walking around with my dad and uncle,” Mr Guiness said.<\/p>\n
“We’d muck around with the old Land Rovers.<\/p>\n
“My dad would maintain them and fix them up, and I would be there probably like an assistant.”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Kevin Guiness (back row, second from right) moved from Mulga Downs to Wittenoom in the 1970s. (Supplied)<\/p>\n
Mr Guiness was born on Mulga Downs Station at the foot of the Hamersley Ranges.<\/p>\n
Dripping with pale spinifex yellows and deep earthy reds, the pastoral lease is often credited as the birthplace of the Pilbara mining industry.<\/p>\n
It has long been held by the Hancock family: controversial patriarch Lang drove the region’s first forays into blue asbestos and iron ore.<\/p>\n
His daughter, Gina Rinehart, is still Australia’s richest person<\/a>.<\/p>\n Loading…<\/p>\n Life on Mulga Downs was hard, Mr Guiness said.<\/p>\n “Being out on the road, early hours of the morning, I think what \u2026 kept me going was my mum and dad.<\/p>\n “Because on the station, they work for nothing \u2026 basically tobacco and tea leaves.<\/p>\n “If my old people can do it for nothing, then I can do it for them.”<\/p>\n Hard-earned lessons<\/p>\n Many Aboriginal people worked on Pilbara pastoral stations for little or no pay.<\/p>\n The stockman who turned ‘black pennies’ into an Indigenous stolen wages settlement<\/a><\/p>\n Mervyn told the stories of his old people. They led to\u00a0a $180m settlement for Aboriginal stolen wages.<\/p>\n Equal wages were only legislated by the Commonwealth in 1968, and exploitation remained rife through WA’s north for years following.<\/p>\n The harsh conditions were not without their lessons.<\/p>\n By 12 years old, young Kevin could take apart and reassemble a car engine.<\/p>\n “You can put it [together] like a jigsaw puzzle,” he said.<\/p>\n “If it’s maybe a dead car, and then when you get it up and running and alive \u2026 you feel good.” Mr Guiness first began working at Rio Tinto’s Dampier Salt operations at 17. (ABC News: Alistair Bates)<\/p>\n In search of better work, Mr Guiness’s family moved to Wittenoom, where Lang Hancock opened a mine later catapulted into infamy<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n