Millijiddie Station (1981 - 1981)

Millijiddie Station was one of a number of pastoral stations that the Department for Community Welfare utilised to provide young, Aboriginal males who had been convicted of offences with an alternative to detention in Perth. In the 1981 annual report (Signposts 2004, p.338) the department explained what it saw as the benefits of this approach: 'At Millijiddie near Noonkanbah, a small Aboriginal community operate a cattle station both in the traditional pastoral sense and also as a training centre for wayward youths. A great deal of success has been achieved by this community in guiding these teenagers concerned through the difficult late adolescent years. The Department is appreciative of the opportunity to be able to place these youths, often from other areas of the Kimberley, for their care, discipline, training or employment. Placements of this kind very often have the effect of stabilising the youths who otherwise continue offending with the likelihood of prison' or being sent to a juvenile detention centre in Perth.