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Indigenous West Australian station workers and their families will share $144,375,000 in compensation for unpaid wages in a landmark Federal court judgement.
The judgement was streamed online from a Melbourne courtroom on Wednesday, four weeks after Justice Bernard Murphy approved the $180 million class action settlement on October 30.
The case was first brought by Gooniyandi stockman and Kimberley artist Mervyn Street, who had his wages withheld until his 30s, after working on stations most of his life.
Represented by Shine Lawyers, the complaint later led to 8,750 successful claims being registered.
The compensation granted by the court will amount to $16,500 per eligible claimant.
The judgement comes following a discriminatory government policy between 1936 and 1972.
Justice Bernard Murphy presided over the stolen wages class action settlement. (Supplied: Federal Court)
In handing down his judgement, Justice Bernard Murphy said the compensation did not take into account the trauma this period inflicted on Indigenous people.
"In the course of the proceeding, the court heard evidence from many Aboriginal people who were taken away from their families at the young age, placed into into an institution run by the state, or a church where they are then required to work for no pay or little pay," he said.
"Many of the children suffered inestimable grief and trauma by being forcibly removed from their families, and many were cruelly treated within institutions and discriminated against.
"Many suffered lifelong psychological scars as a result."
The payments will be distributed to the claimants or their family representatives after lawyers and a third-party litigator that partly funded the action were paid for legal costs associated with the case.
Justice Bernard Murphy said Shine Lawyers, which spent just under $30 million on the class action, would receive $27.5 million for their legal costs.
"That reduction is centrally based, in my view, that the hourly rates Shine sought to charge for legal and paralegal work were excessive and the costs of the post-settlement registration regime were overblown," he said.
Funders, Litigation Lending Services (LLS), would be paid $15.4 million.
A Federal Court room was set up at the Broome Civic Centre to hear evidence. (ABC Kimberley: Hannah Barry)
The multi-million-dollar class action included site visits to regional towns and remote communities across Western Australia, with makeshift Federal Court rooms set up across different locations.