A community radio station was worried that a group of Aboriginal women applying to become members would ''take over the station'' after ''fighting on the street corners''.
But yesterday, after a drawn-out court battle, a magistrate ordered the station to pay the women $12,000 and grant them immediate membership.
Federal Magistrate Warwick Neville found QBN-FM 96.7 had racially discriminated against outspoken Aboriginal elder Matilda House and her daughter-in-law when it turned down their joint application in 2006.
The station was accused of making racist remarks when rejecting membership applications from five women associated with the Aboriginal community, after draft minutes from a board meeting in July 2006 were leaked to a local newspaper.
The minutes showed board member Wayne Brennan opposing the applications because ''they [the applicants] wanted to take over the station''.
The minutes also had him saying ''the Aboriginals were fighting on the street corners and he didn't want them''.
When another member asked what the station was doing to meet the needs of the community, Mr Brennan answered that ''he played country music for the Aboriginals''.
When it was pointed out that this was not meeting the needs of indigenous listeners, board president Ron Coffey said he ''played Jimmy Little for them''.
The members also moved to expel or refuse membership to one of the applicants because they said she was a troublemaker, while another had previously been a member and Mr Brennan ''didn't want her back''.
Ms House, a Nganbri elder, and her daughter-in-law Antoinette House were initially told their applications for a joint membership had been turned down because the two women did not live at the same address.
They lodged a complaint with the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission in October 2006, but were advised there would be no chance of settling the matter by conciliation.
They brought an action in the Federal Magistrates Court last year seeking damages and a declaration that refusal of their membership application was an unlawful act of racial discrimination.
Mr Neville said he did not believe that the board members had intended to be racially discriminatory towards the applicants.
But he said the Racial Discrimination Act did not require there to be intent for the actions to be made out.
He made a declaration that refusing the women's membership applications constituted an act of unlawful discrimination, and ordered the station not to repeat their behaviour.
He also ordered that the applicants be admitted as members as soon as they had paid the membership fee.
He awarded them damages of $6000 each, and ordered that the radio station pay their court costs.
Ms House said she was happy with the outcome.
''It started from discrimination and has now moved to justice and accountability,'' she said.
She said she and her daughter-in-law would be filling in membership applications that afternoon.
Mr Coffey declined to comment on the judgment yesterday.
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