Waringarri Radio is part of the Waringarri Media Aboriginal Corporation, and was originally developed in the early 1980’s from local pressure for an information and media service appropriate to the needs of local people. The founders envisaged a station that would be the voice of local Indigenous mobs, informing the wider community about Aboriginal and community issues from Indigenous perspectives. This was a new concept at the time and Waringarri Radio is credited for being Western Australia’s first Indigenous owned and controlled radio station.
Initial broadcasting began on Wednesday 9th December 1987 with the support of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, which allocated one hour of broadcasting per week out of a mobile caravan studio beaming out on ABC Regional Radio.
Wayne Bynder was the first Aboriginal Broadcaster-Manager to oversee the media project in these early years and Dot West continued the work from 1989 until early 1992.
In mid-1989 a self-contained demountable studio, purchased with funds made available by the then Aboriginal Affairs Planning Authority, was installed on Waringarri land at the current Speargrass Road location on Miriwoong country.
In the following year, an office building was constructed with assistance from the then Department of Aboriginal Affairs, the Aboriginal Development Commission, and the Argyle Social Impact Group.
Building of the main office block took over a year and the Waringarri Media complex was officially opened on the 26th of June 1990.
In early 1992 Tony Walker was seconded from ABC Darwin as the station manager to get all the necessary approvals for a transmitter and obtain the community radio license.
Broadcast hours grew to 10 and then as many as 25 hours per week until Waringarri Radio obtained its very own license community broadcasting licence in October 1992.
6WR Waringarri Radio commenced broadcasting on 1 September 1993 on the 693AM frequency, and was officially opened on the 22nd of October 1993.
This makes us the first established Aboriginal community radio station in Western Australia, and shortly afterwards other stations were formed across the Kimberley using the same model.
Waringarri Media has grown to become an integral part of the East Kimberley community, broadcasting to all major towns and remote grazing stations and outback communities in the region, including Kununurra, Wyndham, Warmun, Oombulgurri, El Questro, Home Valley, Diggers Rest, Argyle, and Timber Creek.
Post COVID, the organisation is in a period of rebuilding and innovating with new management and staff, a new website and multimedia channels, to ensure it continues to be a vital local institution and thrive into the future.
See this history board & video launched at our REVIVAL PARTY event on Friday 20th October 2023!
See previous history videos produced in 2012 and 2017 below.
THE STORY OF OUR LOGO
Waringarri Media’s logo has gone through various iterations since our humble beginnings in the late 1980’s, but 30+ years on, we are going back to our roots with a new logo inspired by an original painting from well-known local artist, the late Paddy Carlton.
Mr Paddy Carlton or “Gwanbany” (1926-2006) began painting from a young age and is internationally renowned for painting his country and stories that were passed down to him through his elders. His legendary trademark painting ‘lightning man’ is known world-wide.
As a key artist and mentor for Waringarri Arts, Paddy demonstrated his extensive cultural knowledge, respected status in the community and his strong connection to country, through his art works.
In this painting which he donated to us in our early years, tells the meaning of ‘Waringarri’ in his familiar style of depicting ‘big mob people coming together one place to meet’.
Miriwoong elder David ‘Joomala’ Newry, who was a good friend of the late artist, describes the meaning of this painting as signifying:
Big mob of people (elders) coming together to talk, and make decisions on things (represented by the rectangular like shape at the centre of the painting surrounded by dots for each participant), and then those deliberations and decisions being disseminated outwards to everyone on country across the region (represented by the arms or branches going out from the centre).
This painting perfectly encapsulates our vision and our role – to bring communities of people together to talk, and beam those conversations and information out to everyone in our region.
We do this in a way that truly celebrates local Aboriginal peoples – their cultures, stories and traditions – providing their unique perspectives on local history, issues and events.
At the same time Waringarri Media is inclusive of our broader communities of peoples, to help build greater understanding, mutual respect, and trust.
In October 2023 we met with several members of the late Paddy Carlton’s family, who graciously gave us permission to use a closer likeness of his painting for our brand-new logo. We are honoured and extremely proud to showcase his professional work for our image, as we believe it beautifully encompasses our vision and values.
Photo of Paddy’s son and grandson – Jimmy and Lindsay Paddy, with Warginarri Media Aboriginal Corporation Directors, David Cox and Tanya Hill .
