Oscar Yanigee does not know how old he is because his birth was never recorded, but he does know what he was paid for a lifetime of work.

"Sugar and tea and a bit of corned beef," he told Lateline.

Mr Yanigee was an Aboriginal stockman on Moola Bulla Station, in Western Australia's far north.

Moola Bulla was run by what was then known as the Native Welfare Department and it is remembered for its brutal punishments and strict controls.

Mr Yanigee is one of the many Aboriginal stockmen and women who spent their lives working to build up the Kimberley region's pastoral industry.

Until 1972, the West Australian government withheld up to three quarters of their wages.

Promises were made that the monies would be dispersed, but the funds disappeared into government coffers and financial records vanished.

In 2012, the State Government made a limited one-off payment to a restricted group of former Aboriginal pastoral and government workers.

That payment, capped at a maximum of $2,000, caused outrage and continues to do so.

Many of the former station workers have died or are now elderly and there is an increasing urgency to win back the wages those still alive never saw.

A legal challenge to the State Government's limited compensation offer is now being prepared.

Dennis Eggington, the chief executive of the Western Australia Aboriginal Legal Service, said the 2012 payment was humiliating for the people that played a vital role in developing the state's cattle industry.

"Many people worked a lifetime for near to nothing and then to get $2,000 was just disgusting," he said.

"We felt hurt and disgusted and that's probably one of the reasons that's driving us today, is that mean and paltry amount of money was nothing compared to the work and the effort that Aboriginal people put into building a great state like Western Australia."

Aboriginal children branding a calf at Moola Bulla Station in Western Australia's Kimberley in the 1910s. ( Courtesy of the State Library of Western Australia )

Stolen children put to work on station

Jane Butters remembers the day she arrived at Moola Bulla, after being snatched from her mother at the age of six.

"We used to do our work in the morning. Get up about 5.00 and go to the goat yard and put the beds out before sunup," she said.

The Moola Bulla settlement was one of a number run by the Western Australian government for children of mixed blood, labelled back then as half castes.

"You know when I first went there, there was more half caste kids than white man and black people," Ms Butters said.

An Aboriginal stockman in the Kimberley, 1953. ( Courtesy of the National Archives of Australia )

Now in her 80s, Ms Butters wants compensation for her working life.

"I should be paid for all the work I've done. Every day. I worked hard, I deserve the money. I didn't complain you know? I did it," she said.

The day the government sold Moola Bulla station in 1955, Aboriginal workers and their families were forcibly removed and scattered.

State Government MP Josie Farrer was nine years old when she and her family were moved on to another property.

"I worked from when I was about 14 years old and that work was milking the goats in the mornings to make sure there was fresh milk and cream on the table for our white or European bosses," she said.

"And then later when I got married, I worked on a number of stations with my husband. He worked as a horse breaker, and I used to do a lot of sewing for the white managers and their families."

She said she was never paid for that work and was angered by the Government's meagre compensation effort in 2012.

"Today Australia is marketing live cattle from the Kimberly to Asian countries," she said.

"If it weren't for these Aboriginal people and the number of Aboriginal people who worked on these cattle stations, the lone pastoralist wouldn't have got to where he is today."

Lawyer Judy Harrison has been documenting the cases of hundreds of claimants.

"Some people might have spent their entire working lives without receiving any income and the West Australian Government gave them $2,000," she said.

"So Aboriginal people in general felt insulted and demeaned by the Government taking that position."

In a statement, the West Australian Government said more than 1,200 people received compensation under the 2012 pay-out scheme.

The Government said it was a complex matter "due to the lack of surviving records and the passing of time".

"The State Government's response aimed to balance the claims of those affected against the contemporary needs of Aboriginal Western Australians.