Many Aboriginal people were exploited and forced to work long hours between 1936 and 1972, and often only paid in rations under discriminatory Western Australian laws.
Senior Gooniyandi elder, artist and former stockman Mervyn Street launched legal action against the state in the Federal Court in 2020 seeking damages for surviving workers and their relatives.
Under a stolen wages class action settlement recently approved by the court, between 8000 and 9500 claimants could receive about $16,500 each, minus costs, from the WA government.
"There is no dispute that over that 36-year period, thousands of Aboriginal men, women and children in WA lived under strict legislative controls and many worked for little or no pay," Judge Bernard Murphy wrote in his reasons released on Wednesday.
The Federal Court has backed a claim by Indigenous workers for unpaid wages. (James Ross/AAP PHOTOS)
Many Aboriginal men and boys worked on pastoral stations, often from dawn until dusk seven days a week.
Aboriginal women and girls were employed as household domestics and nannies and although fed or given rations, they received little or no pay for their labour.
Indigenous children taken from their parents and placed in state or church-run institutions worked before and after school and on weekends in laundries and on farms.
"Those Aboriginal people were treated in a grossly discriminatory fashion compared to non-Indigenous people," Judge Murphy said.
The court also acknowledged the "appalling" treatment Aboriginal people endured during the period but Judge Murphy said it was not the focus of the wages case.
"In the course of the proceeding, the court heard evidence from many Aboriginal people who were taken away from their families," he said.
"Many of the children suffered inestimable grief and trauma by being forcibly removed from their families, and many were cruelly treated within the institutions and discriminated against.
"The stories that I heard will stay with me forever, and I am deeply sorry that First Nations people were so disgracefully treated."
Judge Murphy said the proposed settlement was not an attempt to compensate Aboriginal people for the shameful way they were treated in WA.
He also said the settlement sum was not supposed to be full compensation for the unpaid or poorly paid work Aboriginal people performed.Â
"The court has reviewed the confidential opinions of expert forensic accountants and economists," he said.
"Whatever expert estimate is used, it is plain that the proposed settlement represents a very substantial discount on full compensation plus interest."
West Australian Premier Roger Cook's government apologised to Indigenous workers in 2023. (Richard Wainwright/AAP PHOTOS)
Under the settlement, the WA government promises to pay up to $180.4 million, minus costs.
Shine Lawyers spent more than $32 million on the case and offered to reduce the bill to $29.25 million, but Judge Murphy decided it was too excessive, knocking it down to $27.5 million when he approved the settlement.
Funders, Litigation Lending Services will be paid a commission of 16 per cent of the yet-to-be-determined total judgment amount, four per cent less than it wanted, plus the $14.4 million it paid the lawyers to run the case.
WA formally apologised to Aboriginal workers in November 2023, with Premier Roger Cook describing the laws as a "shameful part" of the state's history.
The wages policy allowed the government to withhold up to 75 per cent of an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander worker's wage.
13YARN 13 92 76
Lifeline 13 11 14
