Wave Hill Walk-off (1966): The Gurindji Strike for Land Rights

The Wave Hill walk-off began on 23 August 1966, when about 200 Gurindji Aboriginal workers and their families walked off the Wave Hill cattle station in Australia’s Northern Territory. Led by the stockman Vincent Lingiari, the protest started over wages and living conditions but grew into a demand for the return of Gurindji land. It lasted almost nine years and helped bring about the first Aboriginal land rights legislation in Australia.

Background: cattle stations and Aboriginal labour

Wave Hill station was founded in the 1880s on the traditional country of the Gurindji people, in the Victoria River district, several hundred kilometres south-west of the town of Katherine. In the early twentieth century it came under the control of the Vestey family’s British pastoral company, one of the largest landholders in northern Australia.

Like most northern cattle stations, Wave Hill depended on Aboriginal stockmen and domestic workers. They were paid far less than white workers, often partly in rations of flour, tea, sugar and tobacco, and lived in poor housing without proper water or sanitation. Many Gurindji stayed on the station because it lay on their own country, near sites of deep spiritual importance.

In 1965 the Commonwealth Conciliation and Arbitration Commission ruled that Aboriginal pastoral workers should receive award wages. However, it delayed the change until December 1968, partly because employers argued it would cost them heavily. For many workers the decision promised equality but delivered nothing immediate.

The walk-off

Earlier in 1966 the Aboriginal unionist Dexter Daniels of the North Australian Workers’ Union had encouraged strikes on Northern Territory stations, including at Newcastle Waters. At Wave Hill, Vincent Lingiari, a senior Gurindji man and experienced head stockman, decided to act. On 23 August 1966 he led workers and their families off the station.

The strikers first camped in the bed of the Victoria River near the settlement of Wave Hill. The union and supporters in the cities collected money and food for them. The writer Frank Hardy, who visited the camp, helped spread their story to the wider Australian public.

From a wage strike to a land claim

What began as an industrial dispute soon became something larger. In March 1967 the Gurindji moved to Wattie Creek, which they called Daguragu, a place of cultural significance on their own country. There they began to build a settlement and made clear that they wanted their land back, not only better pay.

In April 1967 the Gurindji sent a petition to the Governor-General, Lord Casey, asking for a lease over about 500 square miles (around 1,300 square kilometres) of land around Wattie Creek. They planned to run their own cattle enterprise. The government of Harold Holt rejected the request, arguing that it would set an unwelcome precedent for pastoral leases.

The Gurindji remained at Daguragu despite the refusal. Their protest drew support from trade unions, students, churches and campaigners for Aboriginal rights. It took place at the same time as the 1967 Australian referendum, which showed strong public support for change in Aboriginal affairs.

The 1975 handback

Political change came with the election of Gough Whitlam’s Labor government in December 1972. Whitlam’s government negotiated with the Vestey company, which agreed to surrender part of its lease. On 16 August 1975, at Daguragu, Whitlam handed Lingiari documents granting the Gurindji a lease over about 3,200 square kilometres of land.

During the ceremony Whitlam poured a handful of local soil into Lingiari’s hand. The photograph of the moment, taken by the Aboriginal photographer Mervyn Bishop, became one of the most famous images in Australian history. Lingiari responded in his own language, and his words were interpreted for the crowd.

Consequences

The Wave Hill struggle helped to shape national policy. The Woodward Royal Commission, set up by the Whitlam government, recommended a system of Aboriginal land rights in the Northern Territory. The resulting Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Act was passed in 1976 under Malcolm Fraser’s government and came into force in 1977.

Under that Act the Gurindji later gained inalienable freehold title to much of their land, in 1986. The walk-off also influenced other protests, including the Aboriginal Tent Embassy established in Canberra in 1972, which also put land rights at the centre of its demands.

Legacy

Vincent Lingiari was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia in 1976 and died in 1988. The walk-off is commemorated each year at Kalkaringi and Daguragu with the Freedom Day festival, in which participants retrace the route of the 1966 walk.

The story reached a new generation through the song “From Little Things Big Things Grow” by Paul Kelly and Kev Carmody, released in 1991. In 2007 the Wave Hill walk-off route was added to Australia’s National Heritage List. Historians often compare the strike to other movements of farm workers in the 1960s, such as the Delano grape strike in California, though its focus on land made it distinctive.

Timeline

• 1965, March: The Arbitration Commission grants award wages to Aboriginal pastoral workers but delays them until late 1968.
• 1966, 23 August: Vincent Lingiari leads about 200 Gurindji people off Wave Hill station.
• 1967, March: The Gurindji move to Wattie Creek (Daguragu) and begin building a settlement.
• 1967, April: The Gurindji petition the Governor-General for a lease over land around Wattie Creek; the request is refused.
• 1975, 16 August: Gough Whitlam hands back part of the land to the Gurindji at Daguragu.
• 1976, December: The Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Act is passed.
• 1986: The Gurindji receive freehold title to much of their land.

Why it matters

The Wave Hill walk-off showed that Aboriginal workers could organise and sustain a long protest against powerful interests. By turning a wage dispute into a claim for land, the Gurindji placed land rights at the centre of Australian politics, and their success led directly to the first national land rights law.