Just four years after being brought back into production to provide training and employment for Indigenous people, Emeroo Station will shut down.
Bungala Aboriginal Corporation's chief executive Rob Laundy said funding changes had made continuing the program untenable.
Emeroo Station is a 6,386 hectare property in an arid landscape but only 15 kilometres from the one of South Australia's major regional centres, Port Augusta.
The corporation used to employ five Indigenous people to run the station and supervise young people as part of the Work for the Dole program.
However, Mr Laundy said funding changes implemented by the Indigenous Land and Sea Corporation meant the project's funds would no longer cover their staff wage bill and may not even provide enough funding for even one staff member.
The ILSC's funding guidelines do say that wages can be covered by funding but Mr Laundy said in his conversations with organisation it seemed it would not be enough to keep the station going.
In South Australia, Indigenous pastoral programs are funded by the State Government and administered by Aboriginal corporations as part of the North West Indigenous Pastoral Project.
Three staff have already been let go as the program winds down, and the last two will be made redundant when Bungala Aboriginal Corporation leaves the North West Indigenous Pastoral Program on June 30.
Mentoring
Mr Laundy said that without experienced staff, running a station becomes unviable.
"We used the mentor 15 people at a time," he said.
"They would gain skills in the program and then move on to full-time employment, so we have the infrastructure to run those programs.
"Because they'd had so much experience out here and they were Indigenous they used to mentor some of the younger members who came through here for work for the dole."
Since taking over Emeroo Station, Bungala Aboriginal Corporation has spent about $500,000 on infrastructure on the property, including a new shearing shed.
Hard work could go to waste
Hamish Taylor, one of the employees who helped build that infrastructure said he wanted to find more farm work, otherwise everything he had learnt at Emeroo would go to waste.
"I had no experience whatsoever, everything I learned out here was on the job," he said.
"Hopefully if I can find any work [with farm work] but if I can't I guess I won't be using any of these skills, like fencing."
Mr Taylor said it was frustrating to imagine some of their hard work would go to waste.
After June 30, Mr Laundy said Emeroo Station would enter "maintenance mode", with one employee visiting the property to check the security of the site and do basic repairs.
Kokatha Aboriginal Corporation, Antakirinja Matu-Yankunytjatjara Aboriginal Corporation and parts of the APY lands are also part of the North West Indigenous Pastor Project.
Kokatha Aboriginal Corporation chief executive Cate Ballantyne said in a statement: "I am newly appointed to the KAC GM position and my first and only dealings with NWIPP since March have been positive."
The Indigenous Land and Sea Corporation has been contacted for comment.
