When Harry Mowarin was a boy, the trip to school in Roebourne, in the Pilbara, meant riding down Cherratta Road on the back of a flatbed Bedford truck.

The road takes its name from Cherratta Station, where his father was station manager. So does Cherratta Lodge, the workforce accommodation village that now sits on that road in Karratha's industrial estate, and Mowarin, a Ngarluma man, owns half the business that runs it.

Mowarin holds a 50 per cent stake in Cherratta Lodge Pty Ltd, alongside its four original owners. The partnership came together as Cherratta Lodge won a three-year, $35 million contract to house Woodside's Pluto Train 1 modifications workforce from 1 January 2025. Woodside says it is the first village accommodation contract it has awarded to a Traditional Owner-owned business.

"I just thought straight away, this is a good opportunity for me and my family to make something of it, set up for the rest of our life," Mowarin says.

The youngest of eight children, Mowarin grew up on Cherratta Station, about 35 kilometres from Karratha, mustering sheep on motorbikes and horses in the school holidays. Although no longer a working station, it's an Aboriginal community where he lives.

Mowarin is also a partner in GWA, an electrical, off-grid solar and building maintenance business of close to 50 staff, a business he continues to operate.

"I haven't got a trade or anything like that. I was just driving trucks and pushing lawnmowers for a living," he says.

"To come to this stage now, it's something that I'm really proud of because it's all for my family. At the end of the day, they're going to benefit it more than I will."

GWA's work at Cherratta Lodge brought Mowarin together with director Malcolm Wylie, who was born in Karratha and had been looking for an Indigenous partner.

Swapping stories, Wylie learned Mowarin had been raised on the station that gave the Lodge its name.

"We offered half of the business to him and he accepted," Wylie says.

Without the assets for a bank loan, Mowarin bought in through vendor finance from the original owners, interest free at first. The share transfer was completed in August 2025, and bank finance is under way.

"The only thing that I think that will really help the community long term is commercialising and getting people into business," Wylie says.

"An Indigenous business has got a way better chance of getting young people to feel inspired to work and giving them something to aspire to."

Mowarin's stake covers the operating business rather than the land and buildings, and he is talking to the banks about buying a share of those as well.

"I know there's maybe a bit of debt, but it's something that's needed in town, more accommodation for workers, so we know it's going to be making money," Mowarin says.

"I've got seven grandkids, so I'm doing this for them, and the extended family, oh, there's too many to count.

"Hopefully down the road, they'll go and work there or take over, in some way."

He leaves the daily running of the Lodge to its team. "I still like to get involved a little bit, but it's not in the day-to-day stuff," he says.

Cherratta Lodge employs 23 people and has signed up to a return-to-work jobseeker program with the Ashburton Aboriginal Corporation. Roebourne students will start placements in its kitchen and maintenance teams next term.

"At the moment, if people want to get into mining, they got to go out on the mine sites and drive the big machines and all that stuff. That's well and good and good money, but they're away from family," says Mowarin, who turns 64 this year.

"If they want to stay in town, close to family, and still earn some good money, it gives them options," he says.

Mowarin says Woodside indicated it would prefer an Indigenous business for the contract, and "they sort of encouraged us to go down that track".

Woodside says its spending with Indigenous businesses rose from $53.1 million in 2021 to $89.95 million in 2025, including $64.79 million with Traditional Owner businesses.

Woodside local procurement adviser for the North West, Julie Attwood, says Indigenous ownership was not a condition of the contract, and Cherratta still went through a competitive tender.

Attwood says Wylie and Mowarin approached Woodside to discuss the opportunity.

"They were looking to go into business together and wanted to understand a bit more about what that meant to Woodside," she says.

"We had a deeper conversation with Harry to understand what the opportunity would mean to him, and to discuss in a little bit more detail how it would impact him and his involvement.

"It's not my job to tell someone how to run their business or set them up, but it is certainly important for us to do that bit of due diligence to understand that the relationships are genuine and that the individuals involved are feeling positive about moving forward."

Mowarin was the first Traditional Owner Attwood met when she arrived in Karratha four years ago.

"He's the sort of person I would bump into in town and, you know, we will stop and have a yarn," she says.

She says Woodside intends to keep working with Cherratta Lodge after the Pluto contract ends in 2027.

"We want this to be a long-term partnership and a long-term relationship. It's not just about ticking some KPIs," she says.

Mowarin's advice to other Traditional Owners is plain.

"Explore opportunities, don't just knock them back. Just have a go at it all," he says.

"When opportunities get put in front of you, just take them and run with it."