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Freedom Ride: A Freedomrider Remembers by Ann Curthoys, Allen and Unwin 2002 Endnotes to the book
Ann Curthoys, Freedom Ride: A Freedomrider Remembers (Sydney: Allen and Unwin, 2002) Note: The book was published without endnotes, though it does have a comprehensive list of sources and bibliography. To aid researchers and others this complete list of endnotes has been compiled. Please contact the author at Ann.Curthoys@anu.edu.au if you have any additional information or corrections, either to what is in the book or what is listed here. Please note that the records listed as ‘Curthoys Collection, AIATSIS’ and ‘Healy Collection, AIATSIS’ have only recently been donated to AIATSIS Library. It may take some time before they can be accessed.
ENDNOTESPage 1 Student opposition to apartheid is discussed in K.T. Fowler, ‘The Next Wave’, Outlook, August 1960, pp. 9 - 10; Peter Coleman, ‘The Student Generation: After the Stagnant Fifties, a Revival of Politics’, The Bulletin, 11 August 1962. p. 14; and Lani Russell, ‘Today the Students, Tomorrow the Workers! Radical Student Politics and the Australian Labour Movement 1960-1972, PhD thesis, University of Technology, Sydney, 1999, esp. p. 72. Page 2 Menzies’ and Labor’s stances on apartheid are discussed in Jennifer Clark, ‘The Wind of Change’ in Australia: Aborigines and the International Politics of Race, 1960 – 1972’, International History Review, vol. XX, no. 1, March 1998 (89 – 117) pp. 92-3. Student anti-apartheid protests are reported in Tribune 8 May 63, p. 12, 15 January 1964, 5 February 1964, p. 10, 12 February 1964; and in the following student newspapers: Lot’s Wife (Monash), National News supplement, 1964; Farrago (Melbourne), 15 March 1963, p. 1, 24 February 64, p. 1, 15 May 1964; Chaos (Monash), 3 April 64, p. 2. An anti-apartheid forum at the University of Sydney on 12 June 1964 was reported in Honi Soit, 16 June 64. The NUAUS decision in February to institute an anti-apartheid campaign was reported in Honi Soit, 23 July 1964 and Lot’s Wife, national news supplement, 1964. For the 1971 protests, see Penny O’Donnell and Lynette Simons, eds, Australians Against Racism: Testimonies from the anti-apartheid movement in Australia, Pluto Press, 1995. Martin Luther King’s gaoling and Letter from Birmingham Jail are discussed in Peter B. Levy, The Civil Rights Movement, Greenwood Press, Westport, Connecticut, 1998, p. 20. Page 3 Robert Weisbrot is quoted from his Freedom Bound: a history of America’s civil rights movement, New York, Norton, 1990, p. 71. For the impact of graphic images on public opinion, see Peter Levy, The Civil Rights Movement, p. 19. Australian press coverage of the Alabama demonstrations included: The Sun, 4 May 1963, p. 1-2, 6 May p. 4, 22 (editorial); Daily Mirror, 6 May, p. 1, 5, 20 (editorial), 8 May, 10 May, p. 4, 13 May, p. 3, 14 May p. 16, 16 May p. 31; Daily Telegraph, 6 May p.1, 7 May p. 7, 9 May, 10 May p.13, 11 May; Tribune, 8 May 1963, p. 1. Page 4 The leaflet produced by the Eureka Youth League, with the photo of dogs attacking protesters, is in the Noel Butlin Archives, P120/983. The Daily Mirror editorial appeared on 6 May 1963, p. 20. The impact of the Birmingham events on President Kennedy is in Weisbrot, Freedom Bound, p. 72, and the growth of the Civil rights movement in Levy, The Civil Rights Movement, p. 23. Nine’s program on ‘The Negro Revolution’ is in Robert Raymond, Out of the Box: An Inside View of the Coming of Current Affairs, Seaview Press, Adelaide, 1999. The program is listed in The Sun, 28 August 1963, p. 70. Page 5 Some of the history of Commem Day at SU can be found in Clifford Turney, Ursula Bygott, and Peter Chippendale, Australia’s First: A history of the University of Sydney, volume 1, 1850 – 1939, Sydney: The University of Sydney and Hale and Iremonger, 1991, p. 329-31. The decision to make the South African Committee for Higher Education the Commem Day charity for 1964 is in Philip Chandler, Treasurer SU SRC, to Secretary AAF, 27 October 1964, ‘Student Action for Aborigines’ file, AAF Papers, ML MSS 4057/15; also in Honi Soit, 12 May 1964 p. 4. Honi Soit, 28 April 64, p. 1, advertised the proposed demonstration at the American consulate. Darce Cassidy remembers the demonstration being organised by the ALP Club in a ‘rather manipulative’ manner. ‘Knowing that in 1964 the student body was still pretty conservative’, he wrote to me, ‘we arranged the demonstration to be on Commem Day, when students traditionally did stupid pranks in the city’. There is a copy of the ALP club leaflet, headed in the Cassidy Collection, AIATSIS. It was not in fact the last day the Bill could be passed. After a ruling limiting each Senator’s speaking time on any bill to one hour broke the filibuster tactic, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was passed on 2 July. Page 6 The student demonstration is reported in Daily Mirror, 6 May 1964 and Daily Telegraph 7 May 1964. Page 7 John Powles is listed as one of those arrested in Daily Mirror, 7 May 1964, p. 1. The ALP leaflet is in the Cassidy Collection, AIATSIS. Michael Kirby’s calling a meeting is reported in Honi Soit, 9 June 64; his positions are given in the University of Sydney Calendar 1965. Page 8 The special issue of Honi Soit was 12 May 1964. Tribune reported on 2 September 1964 that two girl students arrested had been fined $2 each the previous week, and that wharfies and seamen at Wollongong had paid $50 for their defence. It also reported those who had been acquitted, those dismissed under the First Offenders’ section of the Crimes Act, and those fined. Pat Healy remembers that she was found guilty, but let off on a ‘556A... first offence’. She also remembers that: ‘Michael Kirby was the SRC solicitor at that stage and he defended me and kept telling me to shut up in the court. I wanted to keep saying all these radical things in the court and he wouldn't let me.’ There is a copy of the Ceylon Observer comment of 10 June 1964 in the Australian Archives, A1838, 557/2, Part 4, Publicity Abroad Relating to Australian Aborigines (1962-6). Page 9 The Life comment and the letter from Charlie Pyatt III are in Honi Soit, 30 June 1964. Page 10 For Barrie Pittock’s thinking on land rights see Barrie Pittock, ‘First Impressions of Maori-Pakeha Relations’, source unclear, located in Correspondence file ‘G' AAF Papers, ML MSS 4057/11; also his article ‘Compare Overseas’, Crux, June-July 1965, pp. 4 – 5. See Brian Fitzpatrick, ‘Lesser Tribes without the Law’, Meanjin, vol 17, no 4, December 1958, pp. 400 – 8. For information on pro-Aboriginal writers, see J.J. Healy, Literature and the Aborigine in Australia, 1770-1975, St Lucia: University of Queensland Press, 1978, 2nd edition 1989, and a review of Kylie Tennant by Roland Robinson, Sydney Morning Herald, 19 September 1959. Page 11 The Communist Party 1951 Congress policy, ‘Safeguard the native Races’ is mentioned in Communist Review, July 1951, p. 841; the new approach was articulated in an unsigned article, ‘A New Stage in the Development of the Aboriginal People’, in Communist Review, September 1954, p. 282. Communist policy is discussed in: On Aboriginal Affairs, 27 February 1962; Hannah Middleton, But Now we Want the Land Back, 1977, 131-2; and Bob Boughton, ‘The Communist Party of Australia’s involvement in the struggle for Aboriginal and Torres Strait islander people’s rights, 1920 – 1970’, in Ray Markey, ed, Labour and community: Historical Essays, Wollongong: University of Wollongong Press, 2001, pp. 263-94. An analysis of Communist policy and influence is in ASIO Report ‘Aborigines: Summary of Communist Party of Australia Policy and Action’, p. 5, enclosed with ‘CPA – Activities amongst Aborigines in Australia – Vol. 6’, November 1962, NAA: A 6122/43 (1416). Henceforth ‘ASIO Report, November 1962’. Aboriginal women in the Union of Australian Women are discussed in Barbara Curthoys and Audrey McDonald, More than a Hat and Glove Brigade: The Story of the Union of Australian Women, Sydney: Union of Australian Women, 1996, especially Chapter 7, ‘The Pride of Race’. Page 12 Key Aboriginal members of the AAF in addition to Pearl Gibbs and Faith Bandler were Bert Groves, Ray Peckham, Charlie Leon, and Ken Brindle, while important non-Aboriginal members from left wing and Christian or Jewish circles included Hans Bandler, Muir Holburn, Roland Robinson, Jack and Jean Horner, and Helen Hambly. See Heather Goodall, Invasion to Embassy: Land in Aboriginal Politics in New South Wales, 1770 – 1972,Sydney: Allen and Unwin, 1996, pp. 276 – 7; and Faith Bandler and Len Fox, The Time was Ripe: The Story of the Aboriginal-Australian Fellowship, 1956 – 1969, Chippendale: Alternative Publishing Co-operative Ltd., 1983. The Constitution of the APA is a cyclostyled sheet in Mitchell Library, AAF Papers 4057/5. For the situation in the early 1960s, see Shirley Andrews, ‘The Australian Aborigines: A Summary of their Situation in All States in 1962’, cyclostyled paper, Melbourne: FCAA, 1962, 9 pp. See also Tim Rowse, ‘Assimilation and After’ in Ann Curthoys, Allan Martin, and Tim Rowse, eds, Australians Since 1939, Sydney: Fairfax, Syme, and Weldon, 1987, pp. 133 – 50. Page 13 Aboriginal rights groups in the 1950s actively sought Commonwealth intervention. On 5 April 1950, Victorian Aboriginal activist, Bill Onus said Aborigines were facing extermination unless the Federal Government took over, Daily Telegraph, 5 April 1950 (cutting in Charles Rowley Collection, AIATSIS). A couple of months later, veteran campaigner for Aboriginal rights, Dr Charles Duguid, urged the creation of a new Commonwealth portfolio to enable Australia to develop Aboriginal policy consistent with the Declaration: Charles Duguid to Secretary United Nations Association, Adelaide, 30 June 1950, ACT Division of the AAUN, copy in Charles Rowley papers, AIATSIS. The early Referendum campaign, and especially the role of Jessie Street, is discussed in Jim Crawford, Tribune, 6 May 1964, p.11; Peter Read, ‘Aboriginal Rights’, in Heather Radi, ed., Jessie Street: Documents and Essays, Sydney: Women’s Redress Press, Inc., 1980, pp. 259-73; Marilyn Lake, Faith: Faith Bandler, Gentle Activist, Sydney: Allen and Unwin, 2002, pp. 60 – 83; Peter Sekuless, Jessie Street: A Rewarding but Unrewarded Life, St Lucia: University of Queensland Press, 1978, p. 166, and Bain Attwood and Andrew Markus, in collaboration with Dale Edwards and Kath Schilling, The 1967 Referendum, or When Aborigines Didn’t Get the Vote, Canberra: AIATSIS, 1997, chapter 3. The formation of the FCAA in February 1958 is discussed in Sekuless p. 166-71, 175-6, and Sue Taffe, The Federal Council for the Advancement of Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders: the politics of inter-racial coalition in Australia, 1958-1973, PhD thesis, Monash University, 2001. Page 14 Krushchev’s comment at the UN General Assembly was reported in SMH, 14 October 1960, p. 3. The development of Commonwealth policy is discussed in John Chesterman and Brian Galligan, Citizens without Rights: Aborigines and Australian Citizenship, Melbourne: Cambridge University Press, 1997, pp. 156 – 82; Bain Attwood and Andrew Markus, The 1967 Referendum, or When Aborigines Didn’t Get the Vote, Canberra: AIATSIS, 1997, pp. 31-6; Taffe, The Federal Council for the Advancement of Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders. The establishment of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Select Committee to Enquire into Aboriginal Voting Rights is in Commonwealth Parliamentary Debates (CPD), 18 April 1961. An analysis of Communist policy and influence is in ‘ASIO Report, November 1962’. Page 15 The activities of the Inter-Departmental Committee on Racial Discrimination are at NAA, Department of External Affairs, Folder entitled ‘Aborigines - Inter-Departmental Committee on Racial Discrimination’, NAA, A1838/1 557/5. See NAA, Department of External Affairs, A/1838/1, 929/5/6 part 1 for the Report of the Inter-Departmental Committee on Racial Discrimination, March 1964, also quoted in John Chesterman, ‘Defending Australia’s Reputation: How Indigenous Australians Won Civil Rights, part II, Australian Historical Studies, no. 117, October 2001, p. 205. See Shirley Andrews, Campaign Organiser, FCAA, ‘Wages and Employment of Aborigines’, 15 pp., ACTU Records, Noel Butlin Archives N68/1; ‘FCAATSI Conferences on Aboriginal Affairs 1964 – 1966’, 7th Annual Conference 27-29 March 1964, p 1; Equal Wages for Aborigines Committee of the Federal Council for Aboriginal Advancement, ‘Wages and Employment of Aborigines’, April 1964, 13 pp., Noel Butlin Archives, Series Z236, Box 10; The Facts of Wage Discrimination Against Aborigines’, pamphlet authorised by the Equal Wages for Aborigines Committee, FCAATSI, 1964. The ACTU resolution of 1963 is in Australian Council of Trade Unions, Decisions of the Australian Congress of Trade Unions held at the Assembly Hall, Collins Street, Melbourne from September 16 to 20, 1963, Melbourne: ACTU, 1963, p. 4. Kim Beazley’s proposal for equal wages is at CPD, 25 February to 20 May 1964, 1st Session, 8 April 1964, pp. 821 – 4. Page 16 The meeting of 6 October 1962, and the petition to parliament on 27 September 1963 were reported to the FCAATSI 7th Annual Conference, 27 – 29 March 1964; see FCAATSI, Conferences on Aboriginal Affairs, Report on Proceedings, 1964. See also On Aboriginal Affairs, no 6, January-February 1963, p. 7. Bain Attwood and Andrew Markus, The 1967 Referendum, or When Aborigines Didn’t Get the Vote, pp. 26 – 7. The impact of the Colombo Plan on public attitudes is discussed in Daniel Oakman, Crossing the Frontier: Australia, Asia and the Colombo Plan, 1950-1965, PhD thesis, ANU, 2002, chapter 7. The demonstration at the West End Private Hotel is reported in Chaos (Monash University), vol. 1, no. 18, 12 October 1961, p.1; see also James Jupp, Immigration, Sydney: Sydney University Press, 1991, p. 83. The formation of and responses to Student Action are at Ross Terrill, ‘New shoots? A Comment on Student Action’, Crux (journal of the Australian Student Christian Movement), February-March, 1962; and in Anonymous, ‘There are mean things happening in this Land’… Outlook, February 1962, p. 19; Rodney Allen, ‘Student Action’, Dissent, vol. 2, no. 1, March 1962, pp. 18 – 20; Lauchlan Chipman, ‘Student Action in Victoria’, Vestes, vol 5 no 1, March 1962, pp. 33 – 4; Farrago, 24/2/64; see also Russell, Today the Students, Tomorrow the Workers! pp. 75-84. The demonstration by students in Sydney and Brisbane is at Tribune, 17 January 1962, p1. Page 17 The protests in Melbourne over the deportation of Willie Wong are in Chaos, 25 April 1962 and the Queensland protest at a hotel is in Chaos, 19 September 1962, p1. Darce Cassidy’s interview includes the information that he attended a committee meeting of the Association for Immigration Reform at the invitation of Philip Ruddock, later to become Minister for Immigration in the Howard Government and much criticised for the treatment of refugees and illegal immigrants, but at this time a member of the Pennant Hills branch of the Young Liberals. For further information on the Immigration Reform Association see also Student Handbook, University of Sydney, 1965. The NUAUS position on the White Australia Policy is at Farrago, May 1962 and Chaos, 19 March 64, p. 10. The early history of Abschol is at Clark, ‘The Wind of Change’ in Australia: Aborigines and the International Politics of Race, 1960 – 1972’, p. 96; ‘Universities’ Aboriginal Scholarship Scheme’, On Aboriginal Affairs, no. 4, August-October 1962, p. 5; and Tom Roper, National Abschol Director, ‘A Brief History of Abschol’, 1967, yellow cyclostyled paper, copy in Hannah Middleton Papers, Mitchell Library, MSS 5866, Box 10, Item 27.2 (Abschol Folder). Page 18 The arrival of four Aboriginal students at the universities of Sydney and Queensland in 1963 is noted in A.B. Barry, ‘Report of the National Aboriginal Affairs Officer’, August 1964, Jim Hagan Collection, NUAUS Folder, Noel Butlin Archives, P24, Series 5. See also Tom Roper, ‘A Brief History of Abschol’, loc. cit. Page 19 Information concerning Gary Williams’s matriculation and arrival at the University of Sydney is in Report of the Aborigines Welfare Board for the Year ended 30th June 1963, Parliament of NSW, Papers 1962-63-64, Sydney: Government Printer, 1964. There is a photo of Gary Williams on the cover of the report. See ‘Triumph for study: two Aborigines students qualify for University in history-making year’, Dawn, 1963, vol. 12, no. 2, pp. 4-5. For information on Charles Perkins see Peter Read, Charles Perkins: a biography, publisher, 1990, 2nd edition 2001, pp. Ted Noff’s background is in Phil Jarratt, Ted Noffs: Man of the Cross, Sydney: Macmillan, 1997, p. 159. He wrote an article entitled ‘Is Our Aboriginal Policy Sound?’, SMH, 4 May 1953, using his knowledge of Wilcannia. Page 20 Ted Noffs is quoted from The Methodist, 4 July 1964, p. 4. His relationship with Charles Perkins is in Phil Jarratt, Ted Noffs: Man of the Cross, Sydney: Macmillan, 1997, p. 159. Page 21 Charles Perkins’ involvements in Sydney Aboriginal politics are discussed in Peter Read, Charles Perkins: a biography, p. 81. The role of Bill Geddes is in Jeremy Beckett, ‘Against the Grain’, in Geoffrey Gray, ed, Before It’s Too Late: Anthropological Reflections, 1950 – 1970, p. 97. A copy of the leaflet calling the meeting of 1 July is in the Charles Rowley papers, AIATSIS, and the meeting was reported in SMH, 7 July 1964 p. 7. The University of Melbourne meeting of mid 1963 is in Farrago, June/July 1963, p. 3. Page 21-2 The role of Robert McDonald in NUAUS is in Honi Soit, 10 March 1964, p. 1. Page 22 The relationship between NUAUS and the FCAA is mentioned in the Report of Bob Ellis, Assistant Education Officer, to August Council of NUAUS, on representation at FCAA, in ‘Resolutions and Reports, NUAUS 1964 August Council, Melbourne’, Hagan Collection, NUAUS, Noel Butlin Archives, P24 Series 5. The University of Sydney Labour Club motion to the Australian Student Labour Federation conference in 1964 is mentioned in C. Rootes, Australian Student Radicals: the Nature and Origin of dissent, BA Hons, Government Department, University of Queensland, 1969, p. 43, as quoted in Russell, Today the Students, Tomorrow the Workers! p. 92-3. The demonstration in Melbourne in National Aborigines Week is reported in Farrago, 13 July 1964. There is a copy of the leaflet, ‘Australia’s Disgrace’, 1964, in the Hannah Middleton papers, Mitchell Library, ML MSS 5866, Box 10, Miscellaneous folder. The formation of the Sydney University Organising Committee for Action on Aboriginal Rights is in Honi Soit, 14 July 64, p. 1, in which I am misreported as Ann Curlewis. Page 23 Louise Higham’s letter to Jack Horner was dated 6 July 1964, and is in Correspondence file ‘H’, AAF Papers, ML MSS 4057/11. Hall Greenland’s letter to the Sheetmetal Workers Union is in the records of the Sheetmetal Workers’ union, NSW and Federal Council, Tom Wright Papers, Noel Butlin Archives, E206/1: ‘Aboriginal Organisations 1960-1972’. The leaflet is in the Curthoys Collection, AIATSIS. and also in Correspondence File ‘D’, AAF Papers, ML MSS 4057/9. The speeches made at the meeting are reported in a typescript (no author noted) in the Charles Rowley papers, AIATSIS, Information about Alf Clint is at Heather Goodall, Invasion to Embassy, 1996, pp. 300 -1. Pages 25 – 7 The concert at Hyde Park and demonstration at Parliament House on 8 July 1964 are reported in SMH, 9 July 1964; Honi Soit, 14 July 1964; and Target, the Magazine of the Eureka Youth League of Australia, vol. 2, no. 6, July 1964. The information concerning and a copy of ‘Aboriginal Charter of Rights’ are in Kath Walker, My People, Brisbane: Jacaranda press, 1981 (first published 1970). Michael Kirby’s comments were reported in the SMH, 9 July 1964. My letter to the clubs and societies seeking financial help is dated 12 August 1964, Student Christian Movement Records, General Records 1960s Folder, Sydney University Archives. Page 28 Charles Perkins’s role is mentioned in Jim Spigelman, ‘Student Action for Aborigines’, Vestes, June 1965, p. 116. The early formation of SAFA is also in Sam Lispki, ‘The Freedom Riders’, The Bulletin, 20 February 1965, p. 21. The information about Student Action in Melbourne excluding Communists is in Lani Russell, ‘Today the Students, Tomorrow the Workers! Radical Student Politics and the Australian Labour Movement 1960-1972, p. 76. She quotes a student newspaper, Guardman, 5 December 1961, p. 2. Henry Mayer’s The Press in Australia was published in Melbourne by Lansdowne. The Seven Days program was advertised in SMH, 9 July 1964. Page 29 A copy of the leaflet, headed ‘Are You a Racist?’, sent to 29 clubs and societies is in the Curthoys Collection, AIATSIS, donated by Jim Spigelman. Page 30 The quotation from Public Opinion (Kingston, Jamaica) appeared on 27 April 1957. Many thanks to Barry Higman for drawing this episode to my attention. The Freedom Riders decision to converge on Jackson is in Jim Peck, Freedom Ride, New York: Grove Press Inc, 1962, p. 108 and Weisbrot, Freedom Bound, p. 56. Page 31 The change in regulations concerning segregated bus facilities is in Weisbrot, Freedom Bound, p. 62. The question of the Civil Rights Bill is in Peter B. Levy, The Civil Rights Movement, Greenwood Press, Westport, Connecticut, 1998, p. 18. Australian coverage of the Freedom Rides includes: Daily Telegraph, 16 May 1961 and following, and SMH, 16, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 29 and 30 May, 6 and 10 June 1963. A copy of the list of those present at the meeting on 20 July is in the Curthoys Collection, AIATSIS, donated by Jim Spigelman. Page 32 Information about Bob Singleton is from the interview with Bill Ford, and also Jim Peck, Freedom Ride, Grove Press Inc, New York, 1962, p. 108.
CHAPTER TWO Page 36 In 1960, females constituted 27.9 per cent of student enrolments at the University of Sydney; in 1970 it was 34 per cent. See W.F. Connell et al., Australia’s First: A History of the University of Sydney, vol. 2, 1940 – 1990, Sydney: University of Sydney and Hale and Iremonger, 1995, p. 454. The ‘Go Tell it on the Mountain’ singers’ send-off to the Freedom Ride is recorded on Darce Cassidy’s CD, Freedom Ride 1965, henceforth Cassidy CD. The CD records the program ‘Freedom Ride 1965’, first broadcast on the ABC on 20 February1978 (23 years to the day after the confrontation at the Moree pool). A taped copy of the program is also at Screensound Australia, cover title number 448280. The singers are also mentioned in Tribune, 24 February 1965, p. 1. Page 37 The influence on Aboriginal activists of the 1920s of African American seamen, and specifically of March Garvey’s Universal Negro Improvement Association, in was pointed out by John Maynard in his contribution to a conference on Assimilation at the University of Sydney in December 2000. For further detail see his forthcoming PhD thesis from the University of Newcastle, Australia. Paul Robeson’s visit to Australia is in Martin B. Duberman, Paul Robeson, New York: Knopf, 1988; the reception at Paddington Town Hall is reported in SMH, 13 November 1960. There is an ASIO report on the visit at NAA, A6122/44 (1450), dated 9 March 1961. See DD O’Connor in association with RJ Kerridge, Paul Robeson: Australian Tour 1960 (program), Sydney: Australian Elizabethan Theatre Trust, 1960, copy in Curthoys Collection, AIATSIS. The voting age was lowered from 21 to 18 in New South Wales in 1970 and in the Australian Commonwealth in 1973. Page 38 The minutes of the NUAUS Aboriginal Affairs Conference, August 1964, are at ‘National Union of Australian University Students, Report of the Aboriginal Affairs conference, held on the 17 – 18 – 19 August 1964, in the Melbourne University union, Jim Hagan Collection, NUAUS Folder, Noel Butlin Archives, P24, Series 5. There is a copy of the SAFA constitution in the Curthoys Collection, AIATSIS, courtesy of Warwick Richards. Page 39 The details of the office bearers in SAFA are in a typescript sheet headed ‘Student Action for Aborigines’, apparently late 1964, Healy Collection, AIATSIS. The Lane Cove camp organised by the Students’ Camp Association was reported in The Methodist, 1 August 1964, p. 4. Page 40 The story in the Sydney Sun appeared on 17 September 1964. Other coverage appeared in the Daily Mirror, 17 September 1964, p. 6, and the Sunday Telegraph, 22 September 1964. Page 41 The letters to Charles Perkins are in the Healy Collection, AIATSIS. They include Dorothy May to Charles Perkins, 17 September 1964, Mr T. Frawley to Sec, SAFA, 18 September 64, Maurice Carter to Charles Perkins, 18 September 64, Eleanor Brinton to Mr Perkins, 18 September 1964. The telegram Ian Spalding to Jack Horner, 18 September and letter Ian Spalding to Jack Horner, 30 September 1964, are in the ‘Student Action for Aborigines’ file, AAF Papers, ML MSS 4057/15. Jim Spigelman’s letter to the Australian was published on 6 October 1964, p. 10. Page 42 The letters to Jim Spigelman are in the Healy Collection, AIATSIS. They include Jean Culley to Jim Spigelman, 6 October 64; Miss Marion E. Hellier, to Jim Spigelman, 6 October 1964; Margaret Langford to Jim Spigelman, 13 October 1964. The SAFA publicity leaflet is in the Cassidy Collection. Jim Spigelman’s article appeared in Honi Soit on 23 September 1964. The leaflet printed just before the bus set off is in the Healy Collection, AIATSIS. Page 43-4 The ‘Freedom Summer’ in Mississippi in 1964 is in Peter B. Levy, The Civil Rights Movement, Greenwood Press, Westport, Connecticut, 1998, p. 24-5. The printing of ‘Our Struggle’ is mentioned in SAFA Talkabout, numbers 1 and 2, December 1965, Curthoys Collection, AIATSIS, courtesy of Jim Spigelman. Copies of ‘Our Struggle’ are in the Curthoys Collection, AIATSIS. Page 45 Spigelman wrote on 7 December and received the list of addresses from the US Consulate on 11 December 1964, copy of letter in Curthoys Collection, AIATSIS, courtesy of Jim Spigelman. The letters from Bobbie Knable (CORE) to Jim Spigelman, 25 January 1965 and Walter Tillow and Julian Bond (SNCC) to Jim Spigelman, 16 January 1965, are in the Healy Collection, AIATSIS. The Freedom rides were reported in Daily Telegraph, 16 May 1961, with a photo captioned ‘A mob attacking James A. Peck, a white man who travelled on a “Freedom Riders” bus, at a bus depot in Birmingham Alabama on Sunday’. See also Jim Peck, Freedom Ride, Grove Press, New York, 1962, chapters 8 and 9. The ANU Library copy was donated to it by Professor R.A. Gollan, to whom it was probably given by Sondra Silverman, his PhD student. Page 46-7 The talks by Bill Ford and Sondra Silverman were reported in SAFA Talkabout, no 2, December 1964, p. 1. Copy in Curthoys Collection, AIATSIS, courtesy of Jim Spigelman. For Silverman’s PhD thesis, see Sondra Silverman, Political Movements: three case studies in protest, PhD thesis, Australian National University, 1966, copy in ANU Library, with the words ‘refusal to sanction cooperation with what is regarded as evil’ at p. 14. Sam Lipski, ‘The Freedom Riders’, The Bulletin, 20 February 1965, p. 21, reported the meeting. Page 48 SAFA Talkabout, no 1, Dec 1965, is in the Curthoys Collection, AIATSIS, courtesy of Jim Spigelman. A copy of the letter to academic staff in Arts, Law and Economics is in SAFA Minutes, 21 December 64, Healy Collection, AIATSIS. See New South Wales Teachers’ Federation, A Survey of Aboriginal Children in NSW Secondary Schools, 21 December 1964. The survey was commented on in the New York Times, 3 January 1965, clipping in NAA, Department of External Affairs, A 1838, 557/2, part 4, ‘Publicity Abroad Relating to Australian Aborigines’. The meeting of 21 December 1964 is reported in SAFA Minutes, Healy Collection, AIATSIS. Page 49 The September decision to visit northern towns is reported in Jim Spigelman; interview ‘The Student Bus’, Outlook, April 1965, p. 4. That these towns had a ‘bad’ reputation is evident from many sources, including Geoff Mulholland’s report on a recent visit to the area, noting that in Walgett, Coonamble, Narrabri and Moree ‘a great social gap that is purposely maintained between Aborigines and white people’, Tribune, 7 October 1964, p. 9. Page 50-1 See Jim Spigelman to Jack Horner, 24 December 1964, ‘Student Action for Aborigines’ file, AAF Papers, ML MSS 4057/15. Lipski’s report on Perkins’s vacation work at the Foundation is at Lipski, ‘The Freedom Ride’, p. 23. The journey undertaken by Perkins, Graham Williams and Aubrey McCarthy is reported in The Australian, 4,6,7, 11 January 1965. The report on racial discrimination in pools, hotels and cinemas appeared on 5 January 1965. A copy of the Circular Letter, signed by Perkins, calling the meeting of 13 January is in the Curthoys Collection, AIATSIS, courtesy of Jim Spigelman. The meeting of 13 January 1965, including Charles Perkins’s report on his journey, was reported in SAFA Talkabout, no. 3, Curthoys Collection, AIATSIS, courtesy of Jim Spigelman. The suggestion that there be no demonstrations, and the decision to give equal emphasis to demonstrations and the survey, are reported in Jim Spigelman, ‘Student Action for Aborigines’, Vestes, June 1965, p. 117. The role of Ted Noffs on the survey is mentioned in John Powles, ‘The State of SAFA’, late 1965, Curthoys Collection, AIATSIS, courtesy of Jim Spigelman. Note that the Foundation for Aboriginal Affairs conducted around this time a survey of Sydney Aborigines to establish what their welfare needs and demands might be; clearly a survey was seen as a way of demonstrating bona fides and achieving legitimacy. Report of First Annual General Meeting of the Foundation for Aboriginal Affairs, 12 August 1965, AAF papers, ML MSS 4057/10. Sam Lipski’s comments on the value of the survey are in [1] Lipski, ‘The Freedom Ride’, p. 22. Page 52 There is a report on SAFA preparations in the Canberra Times, 13 February 1965, pp. 1 and 4. Dr A.G. Maclaine, Senior Lecturer in Education, Department of Education, University of Sydney, referred Jim Spigelman to Alan Duncan, Staff tutor in the Department of Adult Education, in a letter on 23 December 1964, Curthoys Collection, AIATSIS, courtesy of Jim Spigelman. The role of Tom Brennan is reported by Paddy Dawson, interview ‘The Student Bus’. Outlook, April 1965, p. 4. Page 53 The history of the Aborigines Welfare Board is drawn from H. Goodall, ‘New South Wales’ in A. McGrath (ed), Contested Ground: Australian Aborigines under the British Crown, Sydney: Allen and Unwin, 1995, pp. 86-7. Page 54The information on the stations and reserves in 1965 is drawn from Report of the Aborigines Welfare Board for the Year ended 30th June 1965, Parliament of NSW, Papers 1966, Sydney: Government Printer, 1966. p. 12. The letter from Perkins to Kingsmill, 18 January 1965, is in Aborigines Welfare Board, Correspondence file entitled ‘The Freedom Ride’, NSW State Records Office, Box 8/3002, file 22756, folio 270-1. (This correspondence file is hereafter referred to as ‘Freedom Ride File, NSWSRO’.) The letter is reproduced in Attwood and Markus, The Struggle for Aboriginal Rights, p. 216. Charles Perkins’s letter was written on Foundation letterhead, to the annoyance of Foundation chair, Russell Hausfeld, since this was not strictly Foundation business; see note by Superintendent Green on copy of letter A.G. Kingsmill to C.N. Perkins, 22 January 1965, acknowledging receipt of the letter of 18 January 1965, A.G. Kingsmill to C.N. Perkins, 22 January 1965, acknowledging receipt of the letter of 18 January 1965, Freedom Ride File, NSWSRO, folio unnumbered, near folio 267. Page 55-6 A.G. Kingsmill to C.N. Perkins, 22 January 1965, acknowledging receipt of the letter of 18 January 1965, Freedom Ride File, NSWSRO, folio unnumbered, near folio 267. See also Green, Superintendent AWB, to Reserve Managers, circular letter 5 February 1965, Freedom Ride File, NSWSRO, folio 264, and Secretary AWB, memo for the Superintendent, 11 February 1965, Freedom Ride File, NSWSRO, folio 261. Jack Horner’s first letter to SAFA was dated 14 September 1964, Curthoys Collection, AIATSIS, courtesy of Jim Spigelman. Another copy and Jim Spigelman’s letter to Jack Horner of 24 December 1964 are both in ‘Student Action for Aborigines’ file, AAF Papers, ML MSS 4057/15. Jack Horner wrote to Jim Spigelman on 19 January 1965, Healy Collection, AIATSIS, copy of letter and enclosure at ‘Student Action for Aborigines’ file, AAF Papers, ML MSS 4057/15. The correspondence continued: Jim Spigelman to Jack Horner, 24 January 1965, ‘Student Action for Aborigines’ file, AAF Papers, ML MSS 4057/15, and Jack Horner to Jim Spigelman, 26 January 1965, copy in Curthoys Collection, AIATSIS, courtesy of Jim Spigelman. Page 57 For the bus hiring process see Roger L. Graham, Forest Coach Lines, Belrose, to SAFA, 19 September 64, seeking the opportunity to tender, Curthoys Collection, AIATSIS, courtesy of Jim Spigelman; Pathfinder Travel in Lidcombe tendered for a total of $600 for 2000 miles in 21 days, Healy Collection, AIATSIS. For the financial arrangements, see John Powles, ‘The State of SAFA’, Curthoys Collection, AIATSIS, courtesy of Jim Spigelman. The sale of Christmas cards is mentioned in SAFA Talkabout, no 2, December 1964, Curthoys Collection, AIATSIS, courtesy of Jim Spigelman; the folk concerts were reported in Tribune, 3 February 1965, p. 6. Page 58 The correspondence concerning accommodation is in the Healy Collection, AIATSIS, and also in the Curthoys Collection, AIATSIS, courtesy of Jim Spigelman. Mrs J Cusack, for the North Coast National Agricultural and Industrial Society in Lismore, wrote saying accommodation could be arranged for $5 per night, Healy Collection, AIATSIS. H.D. Pittendrigh, Town Clerk, the Council of the Municipality of Kempsey, to Jim Spigelman, 4 February 1965, gave permission to stay at the Showground pavilion on 23 and 24 February, Curthoys Collection, AIATSIS, courtesy of Jim Spigelman. The Dubbo Pastoral, Agricultural and Horticultural Association said there were no facilities at its showground, Curthoys Collection, AIATSIS, courtesy of Jim Spigelman. The Warwick showground was unavailable, but the National Fitness Hut was offered in its place: F. K. Peters, Town Clerk, City of Warwick, to Jim Spigelman, 12 February 1965, Curthoys Collection, AIATSIS, courtesy of Jim Spigelman. See also George Heaton, Hon Sec, Property Board, Methodist Church of Australasia, Warwick Circuit, to Jim Spigelman, 8 February 1965, Healy Collection, AIATSIS. The letter from P.J. Dowe, Walgett, to Jim Spigelman, 11 February 1964, is in the Healy Collection, AIATSIS. A copy of the letter from Ted Ryan, Moree, to Jim Spigelman, 4 January 1965, is in the Curthoys Collection, AIATSIS, courtesy of Jim Spigelman. Page 59 Letters from Gloria Phelan, research officer, NSW Teachers’ Federation, to Jim Spigelman, 12 October 1964 and I.G. Lancaster, Gen Sec, NSW Teachers’ Federation, 28 October 1964, Healy Collection, AIATSIS. In an earlier letter, on 24 September 1964, C.T. Oliver, NSW Branch Sec, to Jim Spigelman, said: ‘Should you, during your travels, obtain evidence of underpayment of wages that concern the employment of Aborigines, I would be grateful if you would provide me with specific information in order that appropriate action can be taken’, Healy Collection, AIATSIS. The letter quoted in the text is C.T. Oliver, Branch Sec, AWU, NSW Branch, to Jim Spigelman, 2 February 1965, Healy Collection, AIATSIS. A letter from J. Roser, Sec, Federated Liquor and Allied Industries Employees’ Union of Australia, to Mr J. Spigelman, Maroubra, 8 September 1964, said: ‘before officially lending our support on making any statements in relation to the proposal outlined in your correspondence, it would be necessary for us to have detailed information as to the nature of the Organisation you name as the “freedom riders” and the sponsoring authorities for same.’ Healy Collection, AIATSIS. Page 60 W. J. Roser, Secretary, Federated Liquor and Allied Industries Employees’ Union of Australia, to Jim Spigelman, 9 February 1965, Healy Collection, AIATSIS. The demonstration at the Clifton Hill hotel in January 1964 was reported in Tribune, 15 January 1964, p.10, and later mentioned in Smoke Signals, June 1964, p. 25. Noel Flint, Church of Christ, Gilgandra, to Jim Spigelman, 1 February 1965, Curthoys Collection, AIATSIS, courtesy of Jim Spigelman. Jim Spigelman thought one of those on the pilot trip was Chris Page, and in early January Page did head up a preliminary tour committee SAFA Talkabout, no 3. See also Pat Healy’s notes for John Powles, Dec 1965, Healy Collection, AIATSIS. Captain MacRobb, of the Church Army in
Australia also replied, describing the role of the Church’s Mobile Mission
to Aborigines, which, with its two Aboriginal and one white evangelists,
had visited most of the stations and fringe communities in New South
Wales. The aim was both to provide an effective pastoral and evangelistic
ministry to the fringe dwellers, and at the same time to ‘conduct a
survey of experience from within to find both the real situation and
how best the Church as the Body of Christ may fulfil its ministry’.
MacRobb said their information would not be of direct use to the Freedom
Ride, as ‘all our reports are related to the specific task of the Church
in the area concerned’, Healy Collection, AIATSIS. CHAPTER THREE Page 62 The quotation from Sam Lipski is in ‘The Freedom Ride’, The Bulletin, 20 February 1965, p. 22. The reference to students joining from other universities is in SAFA Talkabout, no 1, December 1965, Curthoys Collection, AIATSIS. Page 64 A copy of Left Forum, no 1, March 1965, is in the Curthoys Collection, AIATSIS. The earlier story in The Bulletin appeared on 9 January 1965, p. 9. Page 65 The quote from Sam Lipski on the Communist Party’s interest in Aborigines is in Lipski, ‘The Freedom Ride’ p. 26. The public announcement by Charles Perkins and Jim Spigelman that they would not allow communist ‘stacking’ of the tour is mentioned in Lipski, ‘The Freedom Ride’ p. 22. Page 67 Wendy Golding’s article was ‘Freedom Riders in Australia’, The Bridge, May 1965, pp. 17 – 19. Page 68-9 There is information on the Wellington Mission in Charles Rowley, The Destruction of Aboriginal Society, Ringwood: Penguin, 1972; the words ‘The gospel of love was being preached while white men were flogging each other and shotting black men’ appear on p. 96. See also Peter Read, A Hundred Years War: The Wiradjuri People and the State, Canberra: ANU Press, 1988, pp. 12 – 24. The quote from Rick Collins appears in ATSIC News, June 2000, p. 14. Page 70 The letter giving details of the population at the Wellington shanty town is H.S. Kitching, Area Welfare officer, Dubbo, to the Superintendent of Aboriginal Welfare, Sydney, 6 November 1964, in C.D. Rowley Papers, AIATSIS. The ‘Aboriginal Attitudes’ survey forms are in the Healy Collection, AIATSIS. Page 71 The media coverage of Aboriginal people not being accepted for national military service included Daily Mirror, 27 January 1965, p.6, leader and article. Pat Healy’s comments made soon after the Freedom Ride are in ‘The Student Bus’, Outlook, April 1965, p. 6. The ‘European Attitudes’ forms are in the Curthoys Collection, AIATSIS, donated by Bob Gallagher. Page 74-5 The ‘Occupations and Incomes’ survey forms are in the Curthoys Collection, AIATSIS, donated by Jim Spigelman. The AWB Annual Report for 1961 notes that Wellington was one of the 13 towns that had an assimilation organisation, Report of the Aborigines Welfare Board for the Year ended 30th June 1961, Parliament of NSW, Papers 1961, Sydney: Government Printer, 1961, p. 11. The number of organisations had risen to 23 in the 1963 report, and 25 in the 1965 report. Jim Spigelman’s comment about the students becoming a unit are in ‘The Student Bus’, Outlook, April 1965, p. 5. Charles Rowley’s comment about Aborigines in the public bar are in his Outcasts in White Australia: Aboriginal Policy and Practice, Ringwood: Penguin, 1972, p. 199. Page 76 John Gowdie’s previous involvement with Aborigines and his memory of the quote from Charles Duguid are in an untitled document dated 5 April 1995, Curthoys Collection, AIATSIS. Dubbo’s significance in Aboriginal society is outlined in Rowley, Outcasts in White Australia, p. 198-9. The Aboriginal movement of the 1930s is discussed by Heather Goodall, Invasion to Embassy, 1996, pp. 240-1. Page 77 The APA conference in Dubbo in Easter 1939 is in Jack Horner, Bill Ferguson: A Fighter for Aboriginal Freedom, Canberra: Jack Horner, 1994 (first published as Vote Ferguson for Aboriginal Freedom, Brookvale: ANZ Book Company,1974), p. 87. The reference to local radio publicity in Dubbo is in my diary. Information about the Gulargambone reserve is in the Reports of the Aborigines Welfare Board, Parliament of NSW, Papers, 1956 – 68, Sydney: Government Printer. Mrs Baxter’s account of the making of shacks is in ‘The end of the bitumen’, transcript of Seven Days program, 31/5/65, Rowley Collection and Curthoys Collection, AIATSIS. Page 78 Charles’s comments on Gulargambone are in The Methodist, 20 March 1965, p. 2. Page 81 Darce’s interviews in Gulargambone are on Darce Cassidy’s CD.
CHAPTER FOUR Page 83 For early Walgett history, see John Ferry, Walgett Before the Motor Car, Walgett: Walgett Shire Council, 1981 (first published 1978). Page 84 The establishment of the Namoi Bend is in Ferry, Walgett Before the Motor Car, p. 164. The information re Gingie Station (also known as Gingie Mission) is in Goodall, Invasion to Embassy, p. 209. The quote from Frances Peters-Little is in Frances Peters-Little, The Community Game: Aboriginal Self-Definition at the Local Level, AIATSIS Research Discussion paper, No 10, Canberra: AIATSIS, 2000, p. 7. The public meeting on 20 February 1939 is in Jack Horner, Bill Ferguson: Fighter for Aboriginal Freedom, pp. 81-2. Page 85 The report on Walgett by Marie Reay is at Marie Reay, ‘A Half Caste Aboriginal Community in North Western New South Wales’, Oceania, vol. 15, no. 4, June 1945, pp. 296 – 323. This report is referred to in Rowley, Outcasts in White Australia 1971, pp. 224-5. The changes of the 1950s are in Goodall, Invasion to Embassy, pp. 282 –3. The comments by John Cooper are in the Daily Telegraph, 25 August 1957, p. 5. Page 86 Information on the AAF delegation to Walgett in September 1957 is in Irene McIlwraith to Mr J. D. Garland, Sec. AEU, 20 September 1957, Correspondence file “A”, AAF Papers, 4057/5. The Gingie Mission and Namoi camp conditions are described in Goodall, Invasion to Embassy, pp. 282-3. Irene’s McIlwraith’s second report is in her letter to Jack Tattersall, Port Kembla, 27 September 1957, ‘Correspondence File ‘T”, AAF Papers, Ml MSS 4057/15. George Hill’s comments are in Len Fox and Faith Bandler, The Time was Ripe, p. 65. The signing of the Fellowship petition requesting a change to the constitution is in Australian-Aboriginal Fellowship, ‘Special Report and conclusions on interviews with the people of Walgett, NSW, and Impressions gained during the visit 6th to 10th September, 1957, by Mrs W. Garland and Mrs I. McIlwraith’, Hannah Middleton Papers, ML MSS 5866/10. This report was the subject of much dispute within the AAF, mainly because it was feared that it contained defamatory material; Irene McIlwraith was expelled from the organisation for distributing the report without checking with the rest of the executive first. There does not appear to be a copy of the report in the AAF papers in the Mitchell Library. But see letter Irene McIlwraith to the Editor, Walgett Spectator, 18 September 1957, Walgett file, AAF Papers, ML MSS 4057/16. Page 87 There is also a copy of Irene McIlwraith’s letter to the SMH, dated 30 October 1957, in Walgett file, AAF Papers, ML MSS 4057/16. The letter was published on 2 November. Jeremy Beckett’s article is ‘Black and bitter’, The Observer, 26 July 1958, and the quotation is on p. 369. The SMH, report on Walgett is at SMH, 27 October 1960, p. 8. Page 88 The Walgett Town Clerks’ insistence that the town swimming pool be open to all is mentioned in the notes in Jack Horner’s handwriting headed ‘Notes from talk with Mr David Tribe, May 1964’, Walgett file, AAF Papers, Ml MSS 4057/16. See Barbara Gibbons to Jack Horner, 29 May 1964, ‘Walgett’ file, AAF Papers, ML MSS 4057/16. The details re Horner’s response to this letter and the situation in Walgett concerning the RSL younger Set and the picture theatre are in ‘Notes from talk with Mr David Tribe, May 1964’, ‘Walgett’ file, AAF Papers, Ml MSS 4057/16. See Jack Horner’s letters to Barbara Gibbons, 8 June 1964, to Mr A. Fernando, Mr S. Cubby, Mr L.A. Hunter, Mr Dudley Dennis, all at Aboriginal Station, Walgett, 22 June 1964, and to Manager, Oasis Hotel Motel, Walgett, 22 June 1964, all in ‘Walgett’ file, AAF Papers, ML MSS 4057/16. Page 89 For a discussion of the ‘exposure journalism’ of this period, see David McKnight, in Curthoys and Schultz, Journalism: Print, Politics and Popular Culture, Brisbane: University of Queensland Press, 1999, p. 155 – 67. See the Sydney Sun, 29 June, p.1. The letter from Reverend PJ Dowe’s, St Peters Church of England, Walgett, to Jack Horner, Sec AAF, 10 July 1964, is in the ‘Walgett’ file, AAF Papers, ML MSS 4057/16. Page 90 There is a copy of Charles Leon’s letter to The Sun in the ‘Walgett’ file, AAF Papers, ML MSS 4057/ 16. The details of the union delegation sent to Walgett to investigate are in Fellowship (the monthly bulletin of the AAF) vol. 4, no. 11, August 1965, p.1. See ‘Report of Delegation to Walgett, NSW’, July 1964, Communist Party of Australia Records, Mitchell Library, MSS 5021, Box 73 (159): 1952-1975: Aborigines’. Page 91 The delegation’s report is entitled ‘Report of Delegation to Walgett NSW, July 1964’, and there are copies in the Records of the Communist Party of Australia, ML MSS 5021 and ML MSS 691/70, Box 73 (159): 1952 – 1975, Aborigines Fellowship, vol. 4, no. 11, August 1964, p.1, item 39, p. 2. Copies of the report are also in ‘Walgett’ file, AAF Papers, ML MSS 4057/16. See also Bro. Prendergast, Secretary, Report to General meeting of the NSW Branch BLF, 7 July 64, in Minutes of General and Executive Meetings, NSW Branch BLF, 1963-1975, Noel Butlin Archives Z235/25. The NSW Labor Council resolution was reported in the Daily Telegraph, 10 July 1964. Page 92 The Children’s Court met on 18 August and its decision is reported in Tribune, 26 August 1964, p.1. The meeting of the delegates with the Minister for Child Welfare is reported in Tribune, 16 September 1964, p. 3. The Newcastle Trades Hall Council delegation is reported in Tribune, 28 October 1964, p. 3. The housing situation in Walgett in 1964, and the shire council position on the notion of ‘transitional housing’, is described in Minutes of the Aborigines Welfare Board, 20 October 1964, items 4 and 5, and 16 February 1965, p. 657, NSWSRO, 4/8546, AO Reel 2794; and reported in Fellowship, vol. 4, no. 10, July 1964, p.1. The Shire Council decision to improve conditions at Namoi Reserve was reported in The Spectator (Walgett), 10 February 1965, p. 5. The basketball game was recalled by Colin Bradford. The information on the decision structure is in Pat Healy’s ‘Notes for John Powles’, December 1965, Healy Collection, AIATSIS. Page 93 Charles Perkins’s comments come from his interview with my research assistant, Inara Walden, at the ATSIC NSW State Office, 4 November 1994. For a discussion of the importance of war memorials in Australian culture, see Ken Inglis, Sacred Places: War memorials in the Australian Landscape, Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1998. Information on the RSL approach to Aboriginal ex-servicemen being given the right to vote, see Robert Hall, The Black Diggers: Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders in the Second World War, Canberra: Aboriginal Studies Press, 1997), 191; see also Stephen Garton, The Cost of War: Australians Return, Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1996, 55. Note also that in response to a request from a parliamentary inquiry into Aboriginal Voting Rights in 1961, the RSL declined to express a view: Letter A.G.W. Keys, RSL National Secretary to A.R. Browning, 29 May 1961, RSL Collection, MS 6609, box 21, series 1, item 4797, NLA. That the was no RSL policy prohibiting local clubs from excluding Aboriginal ex-servicemen is evident from a letter from A.G.W. Keys, RSL National Secretary to Miss S.H. Mahomet, Auckland, New Zealand, 23 February 1965, responding to her letter of 17 February, RSL papers, MS 6609, Series 2, Box 314, NLA. Page 94 Reverend Dowe’s request that we leave the church hall if we demonstrated was reported by Darce Cassidy, Cassidy CD. The report on the plans to sleep in abandoned tram cars and Dowe’s decision to let the students stay in the hall is in The Australian, 16 February 1965. Page 96 Copies of Jack Horner’s letter to Jim Spigelman of 26 January 1965 are in the Curthoys Collection, AIATSIS. Copies of the survey forms are in Healy Collection, AIATSIS. Page 97 Information on the Aboriginal people living and working in town is in Jack Horner to Jim Spigelman, 26 January 1965, copy in Curthoys Collection, AIATSIS. Page 98 See SMH, 16 February 1965. Page 100 See Tribune, 17 February 1965, p. 1, for a report of the demonstration. For the police report on the student visit to the frock shop, see Chalker to Supt Dubbo, 17 February 1965, ‘Freedom Ride File’, NSWSRO, folio 208. For the manager’s response, see my diary and also the Courier Mail, 16 February 1965. Page 102 For information on the police presence, see Chalker to Supt of Police, Dubbo, 17 February 1965, loc. cit. For the police view that the students had behaved well, see SMH, 16 Feb 1965 and 17 February 1965. For the police report on basketball games, see Chalker to Supt of Police, Dubbo, 17 February 1965, loc. cit. For Reverend Dowe’s ordering the students to leave, see Darce Cassidy commentary, Cassidy CD. Page 103 See Dowe’s letter in the The Anglican, 11 March 1965, p. 4; reprinted in The Australian, 13 March 1965. For an account of the students getting ready to leave Walgett, see Chalker to Supt of Police, Dubbo, 17 February 196, loc. cit. For Bruce Maxwell’s joining the bus, see his ‘Following the Freedom Riders’, SMH, 16 June 1965. Page 105 The police report of the bus being driven off the road is at Chalker to Supt of Police, Dubbo, 17 February 1965, loc. cit. Page 106 For the police actions and report, see the Newcastle Morning Herald, 18 Feb 1965. For the report of the hearing in Walgett Court of Petty Sessions, see SMH, 28 May 1965, p. 10. Page 107 See Charles Perkins, A Bastard Like Me, Sydney: Ure smith, 1975, p. 80 – 1, and Ned Landers and Rachel Perkins, ‘Freedom Ride’, episode in series Blood Brothers, Australian Broadcasting Corporation and Australian Film Finance Corporation, 1993. Copy at Screensound Australia, Series number 250869, episode title number 250878. For Pat Walford’s speech, see Cassidy CD, the transcript in Peter Read, ‘Darce Cassidy’s Freedom Ride’, Australian Aboriginal Studies, no. 1, 1988, pp. 45 – 51; and Darce Cassidy, ‘Black Girls with Sunburnt Skin’, Comment, April 1966, p. 18, copy in Curthoys Collection, AIATSIS, courtesy of Darce Cassidy. Page 110 For the students reboarding the bus at 1 am, see Chalker to Supt of Police, Dubbo, 17 February 1965, loc. cit. For media coverage, see Jim Spigelman, ‘Reactions to the SAFA Tour’, Dissent, Winter 1965, pp. 44 – 9. See SMH, Daily Mirror, The Australian, and the Sun, all 16 and 17 February 1965. For the arrangements at the Sydney Morning Herald, see letters Bert Castellari to Ann Curthoys, 31 October 1994 and 13 February 1995, Curthoys Collection, AIATSIS. Page 111 For the ‘frank phone calls’ from Maxwell, see Bruce Maxwell, ‘The Freedom Ride: It was a Showdown near Walgett in ’67 (sic)’, The Australian, 13 February 1995. For information about Zell Rabin, see Robert Milliken, Lillian Roxon: Mother of Rock, Melbourne: Black Inc., 2002, esp. 105 – 16. See also R. Brasch, Australian Jews of Today, Cassell Australia, 1977, pp. 111 – 7. Page 113 Letters to the editor in various newspapers included: R. Jarman, Wahroonga, SMH, 20 February 1965; Bruce Dawe, The Australian, 19 February 1965; Joy Tyler, The Sun, 22 February 1965. Urban newspapers in other states covering the Walgett story included The Adelaide Advertiser, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20 February, Courier Mail, 17 February 1965, p. 7, West Australian, 16, 17, and 18 February 1965; Hobart Mercury 16 February 1965. New South Wales regional press coverage included Northern Daily Leader, 16 February 1965; The Spectator (Walgett), 17 February 1965, p. 1, and the Newcastle Sun, 16 February 1965.
CHAPTER FIVE Page 114 The list of place names here is drawn from that spoken by Allan Ashbolt at the beginning of his program ‘A Study in Attitudes’, first broadcast on the ABC on 18 June 1957, copy of transcript in Curthoys Collection, AIATSIS, donated by Darce Cassidy. The program details are in ABC Weekly, Sydney: ABC, June 1957. Page 115 Sir Thomas Mitchell’s exploration of the region is in Don Baker, The Civilised Surveyor: Thomas Mitchell and Australian Aborigines, Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1997, p. 55. For the Myall Creek massacre see RHW Reece, Aborigines and Colonists: Aborigines and Colonial society in New South Wales in the 1830s and 1840s, Sydney: Sydney University Press, 1974, and Roger Millis, Waterloo Creek: The Australia Day Massacre of 1838, George Gipps and the British Conquest of New South Wales, Melbourne: McPhee Gribble, 1992, pp. 94-5. The role of the native police and other early Moree history is in R.J. Webb, ed, The Rising Sun. A History of Moree and District 1862 – 1962, Moree: Moree Plains Shire Council, 1962. Page 116 The history of the artesian baths in Moree is in John Mulvaney, Encounters in Place: Outsiders and Aboriginal Australians, 1606 – 1985, St Lucia: University of Queensland Press, 1989, p. 215. The history of the camps, reserves, and stations near and in Moree is drawn from Heather Goodall, Invasion to Embassy, pp. 94, 134-5, and 177. Page 117 See Marie Reay and Grace Sitlington, ‘Class and Status in a Mixed-blood Community (Moree, NSW)’, Oceania, vol. XVII, no. 3, March 1948, pp. 179 – 207, quote at p. 179. The opening of the Mehi station in 1953 is mentioned in Roger Millis, Waterloo Creek, p. 731. Page 118 Information on Russell Watson is taken from Alan Ashbolt, A Study in Attitudes, transcript. The importance of the baths to Moree is stressed in Marie Reay and Grace Sitlington, ‘Class and Status in a Mixed-blood Community (Moree, NSW)’, Oceania, vol. XVII, no. 3, March 1948, pp. 179 – 207. The decision, and opposition to it, was reported in the North West Champion, 9, 13, and 20 June 1965, with an editorial on 30 June 1065. There were further stories on the issue in the North West Champion on 4 July 1955, p. 1, 7 July 1965, p. 4, a letter from Michael Sawtell to the editor on 7 July 1955, p. 9, a story on 29 July 1955, p. 1, editorial on 28 July 1955, p4, 4 August 1955, p. 1, a letter on 4 August 1955, p. 8, 18 August 1955, p. 1, and 1 September 1955, p. 10. The story was taken up by the Sydney-based Sun-Herald, 12 and 19 June 1955. The precise wording of the resolution is given in, among other places, Kylie Flack, Creative Tension or Creating Trouble? The Student Action for Aborigines (SAFA) ‘Freedom Ride’, 1965, Long Essay submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of master of Arts (by Coursework) at the University of Sydney, November 1993, page 37, quoting the Minutes of Council Meetings, 6 June 1955, Records of the Moree Plains Shire Council, Moree. Deputy Mayor Tait’s comments, and the church leaders’ protests, are reported in the Sun-Herald, 19 June 1955, p. 23. The letters in the North West Champion appeared on 20 June 1955, p. 1; there were more letters on 30 June 1965, p. 8. Letters also appeared in the SMH on 17 and 20 June 1955. Page 119 The Reverend Roy Bedford’s sermon is reported in the Sun-Herald, 19 June 1955, p. 23. The story was also covered in the Adelaide Advertiser, 13 June 1955. The quotation on the expertise of baths attendants in recognising colour is from Sun-Herald, 19 June 1955, p. 23. The support for Canon Ormerod’s stand in marrying Leo Cutmore and Irene Tighe at the All Saints’ Church of England is reported in The Sun-Herald, 26 June 1955, p. 7. The formation of a committee to discuss the racial segregation issue is reported in the Sun-Herald, 26 June 1955, p. 7. Its recommendation for recision is reported in the Minutes of the Aborigines Welfare Board, 16 August 1955, p. 202, NSWSRO, 4/8546-8, AO Reels 2794. The councils’ withdrawal on the Memorial Hall but standing firm on the pool is reported in the North West Champion, 29 July 1955, p. 1. Page 120 For Allan Ashbolt’s background, and the making of this program, see Sue Taffe, Attitudes to Aboriginal Australians: signs of change, 1957 – 1963, MA thesis, Monash University, 1995, p. 42. For information on Russell Watson, see letter Russell Watson to Ann Curthoys, 10 February 1995, Curthoys Collection, AIATSIS. For the Ashbolt program, see ‘A Study in Attitudes’, transcript in Curthoys Collection, AIATSIS. Page 122 For responses to Ashbolt’s program, including those by Barrie Pittock and Ian Spalding, see Taffe, Attitudes to Aboriginal Australians, p. 49. Jeremy Beckett’s comments are in his article, ‘Black and Bitter’, The Observer, 26 July 1958, pp. 368-9. Roland Robinson’s comment is in SMH, 29 October 1960. Page 123 The Little Rock conflicts are described in Robert Weisbrot, Freedom Bound, pp. 12 – 13. Alan Walker’s comments are reported in ‘Overseas Missions’, The Methodist, 26 July 1958. The role of Bob Brown is in Jim Spigelman, ‘Reactions to the SAFA Tour’, Dissent, Winter 1965, p. 49. Page 124 The building of a pool at the Mehi mission by the Apex Club is reported in SMH, 25 October 1960. Premier Heffron’s opening of the pool and nearby school had earlier been reported in SMH, 27 April 1960. The articles on the Mehi mission appeared in SMH, 25 October and 7 November 1960. The quotation concerning the gaily-painted cottages, and the comparison between Mehi mission and the shantytowns, appeared in SMH, 7 November 1960. Page 125 The amendment to the pool resolution, allowing Aboriginal children in during school hours, is recorded in the Minutes of the Aborigines Welfare Board, 21 March 1961, p. 129, NSWSRO, 4/8546, AO Reel 2794, and was later mentioned in SMH, 18 February 1965. The dispute over the separate Aboriginal ward at the hospital is in Charles Rowley, Outcasts in White Australia, p. 263. The Mayor’s opposition to the Minister’s ban on racial segregation in hospitals was reported in SMH, 12 May 1961, p. 8, and commented upon in the Sun-Herald editorial, 14 May 1961, p. 40. The Minister’s reply is in SMH, 15 May 1965, p. 4. G.L. Hobson’s letter appeared in SMH, 17 May 1961, p. 2. Faith Bandler’s view is reported in the Daily Mirror, 14 May 1961, p. 2. For the AAF correspondence, see Jack Horner to Secretary, Australian Trained Nurses’ Association, 21 June 1961, Correspondence file ‘A’, AAF Papers, 4057/5. Bert Groves’s letter appeared in Sun-Herald, 19 June 1963. Page 126 Bill Lloyd’s comments to Graham Williams concerning the pool resolution are in SMH, 5 January 1965. His views on the numbers of Aboriginal people who could be absorbed into one town are in SMH, 4 January 1965. Aboriginal population numbers at Mehi Station are in the Reports of the Aborigines Welfare Board, Parliament of NSW, Papers, 1956 – 68, Sydney: Government Printer. Page 127 The AWB Annual report for the year ending June 1965 noted the recent formation of the Association for the Advancement of Aborigines. There is also a report on the formation of the association in the North West Champion, 28 June 1965, p. 1. For Neville Kelly’s comments on the formation of the association, see his evidence to the Joint Committee of the Legislative Council and Legislative Assembly upon Aborigines Welfare, see ‘Report of the Legislative Council and Legislative Assembly upon Aborigines Welfare, Part II – Minutes of Evidence’, Papers of the Parliament of New South Wales, Sydney: Government Printer, 1967, p. 175. Isabel Flick’s comments are in Isabel Flick, transcript of interview with Heather Goodall, 6 June 1999, copy in possession of Heather Goodall. Jim Spigelman’s telegram to his parents is in the Healy Collection, AIATSIS. Comments by Ted Noffs and Bill Pakenham are in SMH, 22 February 1965. Page 128 Letter by John Gowdie, April 1995, Healy Collection, AIATSIS. Page 130 Charles Perkins’ comments about discrimination in Moree and the reactions of a housewife and a shopgirl, were reported in The Australian, 17 February 1965. Page 131 Ord’s granting of permission to the students to enter Mehi Mission was reported in the Courier Mail, 17 February 1965, p. 7. That permission was granted is also evident in the Minutes of the Aborigines Welfare Board, 16 February 1965, NSWSRO, 4/8546-8, AO Reels 2794. Only two months later, at its meeting on 25 April 1965, the Board agreed to delegate authority to grant permission to visit reserves to the Superintendent, Minutes of the Aborigines Welfare Board, 27 April 1965, NSWSRO, 4/8546, AO Reel 2794.Had it decided this earlier, the Freedom Riders could have been granted permission for the start of their journey. The survey forms are in the Healy Collection, AIATSIS. Page 133 The closure of the McMaster ward is noted in Rowley, Outcasts in White Australia, p. 356-9. The SMH report appeared on 18 February 1965. John Powles’s request to the five Moree doctors is in The Australian, 18 February 1965. The Town Clerk’s comments to the press were reported in the Sun, 17 February 1965. Page 134 A copy of the leaflet calling the public meeting in Moree is in the Healy Collection, AIATSIS. Lloyd’s withdrawal from the meeting is reported in SMH, 18 February 1965. His comment that inferences of racial discrimination were exaggerated is in the Northern Daily Leader, 18 February 1965. The wedding reception in the Memorial Hall was reported in the North West Champion, 2 February 1965, p. 5. Lloyd’s view that Aboriginal people frequently attended travelling shows in the Memorial Hall, and that the resolution concerning the pool was ‘harsh’, are in the Northern Daily Leader, 19 February 1965. The demonstration outside the Moree Council Chambers was reported in the Canberra Times, 18 February 1965, p. 3, and the Northern Daily Leader, 18 February 1965, and the North West Champion, 18 February 1965, p. 1. Page 136 The gathering of children to take to the baths is reported in The Australian, 18 February 1965. The history of Thompson’s Row is given in Marie Reay and Grace Sitlington, ‘Class and Status in a Mixed-blood Community (Moree, NSW)’, Oceania, vol. XVII, no. 3, March 1948, pp. 179 – 207, p. 181. Page 137 The argument between the manager and the students is in The Australian, 18 February 1965. Page 139 The arrival of Matt Munro is reported in SMH, 18 February 1965. Both that report and one on the same day in The Australian describe the children being allowed in. The photographs appear in The Australian, 19 February 1965. The comments of Bill Lloyd and Charles Perkins appear in SMH, 18 February 1965. There was also a report on the children being allowed into the pool in the Daily Telegraph, 18 February 1965. Page 140 The meeting at the Memorial Hall on Wednesday 17 February 1965 is recorded in my diary and also in the story by Gerald Stone in the Daily Mirror, 18 February 1965. Stone recorded the hecklers. The exchanges between the students and the locals are in the Canberra Times, 18 February 1965, p.3. Ken Swann’s speech is in Spigelman, ‘Reactions to the SAFA Tour’, Dissent, Winter 1965, p. 49. Bill Forrest’s speech can be heard on Darce Cassidy’s CD, see also Peter Read, ‘Darce Cassidy’s Freedom Ride’, page number. Page 141 Charles’s speech is on Darce Cassidy’s CD, see also Peter Read, ‘Darce Cassidy’s Freedom Ride’, page number. The rejection of the WWF offer of amplification equipment is in SMH, 18 February 1965. Neville Kelly’s motion is in the Northern Daily Leader, 19 Feb 1965, and the vote is recorded there and in the North West Champion, 18 February 1965, p1. Page 143 Charles Perkins’ interview appeared in The Methodist, 20 March 1965, p. 2. His comments to the press concerning the students’ preparedness to return to Moree are reported in the Newcastle Sun, 18 February 1965.
CHAPTER SIX Page 143 The editorial was in The Australian, 18 February 1965, p. 8. Page 144 For interstate press coverage, see The Age, 19 February 1965, p. 3; Adelaide Advertiser, 17, 18, 19 February 1965; Canberra Times, 18 February 1965, p. 3. For rural press coverage, see the Northern Daily Leader, 19 February 1965. Page 146-7 The road tax issue is noted in SMH, 19 February 1965. The earlier history of the Boggabilla Station is in Jack Horner, Bill Ferguson: fighter for Aboriginal Freedom, p. 89. The Boggabilla Station’s population in 1962 -5 is in the Report of the Aborigines Welfare Board for the Year ended 30th June 1965, Parliament of NSW, Papers 1966, Sydney: Government Printer, 1966. p. 12. The delay in undertaking repairs after a cyclone is in The Australian, 19 February 1965. Reports of the student visit to Boggabilla Station are in The Australian, 19 February 1965, the SMH, 19 February 1965, and the West Australian, 19 February 1965. Once Sawtell’s comments that repairs were urgent appeared in the SMH, the AWB sent him a ‘please explain’ letter, Freedom Ride File, NSWSRO, folio 239. He replied that he had said only that repairs had been approved but it was not yet known if the funds were available that year: Sawtell to AWB, 23 February 1965, Freedom Ride File, NSWSRO, folio 238. Page 148 Don Ford’s comments are in the Newcastle Sun, 18 February 1965. The heated argument between Don Ford and Bob Brown is reported in The Australian, 19 February 1965. Bob Brown’s comments to Peter Martin are in Seven Days, 8 March 1965, transcript in Curthoys Collection, AIATSIS. Page 149 The Mayor’s comment to the press on the enforcement of the discriminatory statute is reported in the Northern Daily Leader, 22 February 1965. The turning away of more Aboriginal children and the gathering of a large crowd is in SMH, 20 February 1965, p. 1. My diary records Charles’s flight to Sydney, the Freedom Rider’s contacts with Bob Brown, and the press contacts with Lloyd. The Freedom Riders’ phone call to Don Ford and Bill Lloyd is reported in the Northern Daily Leader, 22 February 1965. Lloyd’s comment that the students had set Moree back ten years is reported in The Australian, 20 February 1965. Page 150 Bill Pakenham’s contact with Mr Saint is reported in SMH, 22 February 1965. The attempt by 40 Aboriginal children to enter the pool on Friday 19 February is reported in SMH, 20 February 1965. Mrs Briggs’s comments about he four children were reported in the Northern Star, 22 February 1965, p. 1. Page 151 The role of Ted Noffs and Bill Ford in taking Charles Perkins to the Channel 2 TV station is recalled in the interview with Bill Ford, 23 December 1998. Reports of the students’ intention to return to Moree were in SMH, 20 February 1965, p. 1; The Australian 20 February 1965; Courier Mail, 20 February 1965. Page 153 The hot weather is mentioned in the report in the Sun-Herald, 21 February 1965, p. 3, and the Sunday Mirror, 21 February 1965, p. 3. The offer of swimming club tickets to the children at Thompson’s Row was reported in my diary and also the North West Champion, 22 February 1965, p. 1. Charles Perkins’s comment to Ord about the latter’s true nature is reported in GG Ord, Manager, Moree Aboriginal Station, to AWB, 21 February 1965, Freedom Ride File, NSWSRO, folio 235. The congregation of the students at the corner of Anne and Warialda Streets is reported in the North West Champion, 22 February. Page 154 The beginning of the student demonstration at the pool is described in the Northern Daily Leader, 22 February 1965. The attack on Bob Brown is in the Sunday Mail, 21 February 1965, p. 1. Gerald Stone estimated the crowd at 500, in the Daily Mirror, 20 February 1965 and Sunday Mirror, 21 February 1965. The name-calling is in the Northern Daily Leader, 22 February 1965. Page 155 The quotation from Charles Perkins, A Bastard Like Me, is at page 88. Page 157 The crowd comments are recorded on the Cassidy CD. Page 158 The arrest of four men is reported in the Sunday Mirror, 21 February 1965, p. 3; the Sun-Herald, 21 February 1965, p. 2, and The Australian, 22 February 1965. The fight between two women, one Aboriginal and the other white, was reported in the Sunday Truth, 21 February 1965 and the Sunday Mirror, 21 February 1965. Page 159 My diary reports the police warning to the students that the violence would worsen. The police instruction to the driver to keep the bus out of sight was reported in the Daily Mirror, 22 February 1965. The erection of the weldmesh fence is in the Northern Daily Leader, 22 February 1965. The SMH report on the fence and the cry of ‘let’s string them up’ is in its report of 22 February 1965. Ted Haddock’s film of the erection of the fence has been lodged by his daughter at Screensound Australia. The names of the aldermen negotiating with the students are given in the North West Champion, 22 February 1965. The results of the negotiations were reported in the Daily Mirror, 20 February 1965, and The Australian, 22 February 1965. Page 160 Bill Pakenham’s comments, and the jeering of the students, are reported in the Daily Mirror, 22 February 1965. Lloyd’s comment on students was made when I interviewed him on 5 April 1991, in Moree. Page 161 The students’ exit from Moree is in the Daily Mirror, 22 February 1965. Page 162 The reported massacre at Gravesend is mentioned in R.H.W. Reece, Aborigines and Colonists, p. 44. The North West Champion, 22 February 1965, p. 1, described the attack on Bob Brown’s shop. The continued exclusion of Aboriginal people from the baths on Sunday 21 February 1965 was reported by The Australian, 22 February 1965. The North West Champion story and editorial appeared on Monday, 22 February 1965; the Northern Daily Leader story appeared on 22 February 1965 and its editorial the following day. One of the most hostile editorial comments came from the Cootamundra Herald, which awarded the students the ‘Prize for the Biggest Ratbags of the year’. A Cootamundra resident, Bill Roy, sent a copy to Charles Perkins for his information, and suggesting he reply, and signed his letter ‘regards from another ratbag’. Bill Roy to Charles Perkins, 23 February 1965, Healy Collection, AIATSIS. A sympathetic editorial, ‘The Plight of Our Aborigines’, appeared in the Newcastle Sun, on 23 February 1965. Page 164 The Sun’s supportive editorial appeared on 22 February 1965. The SMH front page and story quoting Ted Noffs was also on 22 February 1965. Page 165 The SMH editorial laying blame on the Labor government appeared on 23 February 1965, p. 2. The Australian front-page story appeared on 20 February 1965 and its editorial on 24 February 1965. Page 166 The interstate press reports and comments included The Age, 22 February 1965 and The West Australian, 22 February 1965. The Hobart Mercury thought the whole issue of racial discrimination was very complex, and concluded that Tasmanians who thought their island had no Aborigines to worry about needed to ‘give a passing thought to the present lot of the descendants of our now extinct aboriginals’, 26 February 1965. The Adelaide Advertiser, 22 February 1965, p. 4, led with the story of the driver’s withdrawal on the grounds of danger, and carried a detailed account, The Canberra Times editorial appeared on 22 February 1965. Page 167 The Courier Mail editorial appeared on 24 February 1965. The vituperative letter to Ford is in the Healy Collection, AIATSIS. Page 168 The Seamen’s Union motion is in the Seamen’s Union Records, Noel Butlin Archives, Z91 box 15. The Chullora Boiler Shop motion of support is conveyed in a letter from L.S. Canfell, Hon Sec, Combined Union Stewards, Chullora Boiler Shop, to Charles Perkins, 23 February 1965, Healy Collection, AIATSIS. Other unions also passed motions of support: the FEDFA NSW State Executive on 23 February 1965 passed a motion of support: FEDFA records, Noel Butlin Archives, N81 box 31, Minutes of the FEDFA NSW State Executive, 23 February 65. The NSW branch of the BLF did likewise: BLF Records, Noel Butlin Archives, Minutes of General and Branch Executive Meetings 1963-1975, 23 February 65. Some individuals and groups wrote to the Freedom Riders directly. Pat Healy remembers receiving bundles of mail addressed simply ‘The Freedom riders’ or ‘the Student Bus’, and they would be delivered to the student bus in Grafton, Lismore and the other towns visited. Many letters included donations to assist the cause. John Mclaren, of Kyabram, Victoria, wrote a letter of congratulations and sent a cheque, describing their Moree demonstration as ‘a magnificent, intelligent and necessary preliminary action’. Carol Ann Bone wrote to Charles Perkins from Horsham, Victoria, saying Charles Perkins’s interview and the Freedom Riders’ actions were worthy of admiration. These letters are in the Healy Collection, AIATSIS. The Lord Mayor of Sydney’s support, and GR Crawford’s opposition were reported in SMH, 23 February 1965, p. 1. Page 169 The SMH comment on the government’s muted response was made on 20 February 1965. Chief Secretary Kelly’s statement of 22 February was reported in the SMH, 23 February 1965, p. 1. WF Sheahan’s stand had been reported in the Daily Mirror, 18 February 1965. Sheahans’ comment in parliament of 14 October 1964 was reported in NSWPD, Fortieth Parliament, 3rd Session, 25 August – 31st March 1965, Sydney: Government Printer, 1965, pp. 1245 – 8. At the Commonwealth level, the Minister for External Affairs was warned on the Monday after the clash in Moree about ‘possible distorted publicity which may be given to the activities of the NSW students who have been touring a certain portion of that state including Moree’, NAA, Department of External Affairs, A1838 I 557/2 Part 4, ‘Publications Abroad re Australian Aborigines, 1962-5’.
CHAPTER SEVEN Pages 172-3 The support organisation in Sydney is in Pat Healy’s notes for John Powles, December 1965; Barry Corr’s wait in Lismore is in his letter to Charles Perkins, 11 February 1965, both in Healy Collection, AIATSIS. The attempts to get another bus are recorded in my diary. Bill Pakenham’s to Gerald Stone, and the report on difficulties in getting another bus, are in the Daily Mirror, 22 February 1965: Pakenham’s quoted comments to the SMH, are also 22 February 1965. He spoke to other press as well: ‘I believe there would be a risk of damage to the bus", he told The Australian, 22 February 1965. The information concerning the move of Aboriginal people away from the AWB station at Grafton in the 1920s is in Heather Goodall, Invasion to Embassy, p. 145. Page 174 See the Daily Examiner, 22 and 23 February 1965. Phelan sent a telegram to Perkins, c/- Pastor Frank Roberts, Lismore, 22 February 1965. The telegram and the letter from Bruce Dawe, 22 February 1965, are in the Healy Collection, AIATSIS. Page 176 The absence of Pat Healy’s name from this list is intriguing. Was this my mistake? Page 177 At the beginning of the meeting, a journalist with the ABC, whose given name I did not record, referring to him simply as Mr Miles, met with us. He offered criticisms of the Freedom Ride, which we took very seriously. Diary: We heard a tape prepared by a Mr Miles, from the ABC. It described the conditions of aborigines on the far north coast, really exposed the complexities of the problem and suggested concrete solutions. There were many recordings of aborigines expressing their views. The tape was prepared two years ago but had never been used – it was too hard-hitting for the ABC. Then he criticised our actions and we tried to explain that we knew the problem was much deeper than the mere question of integration. He also told us we should dress formally – we weren't on a holiday. On the whole he was very interesting but not altogether sympathetic. The arrival of the new driver and his comments are reported in the Newcastle Morning Herald, 23 February 1965. Page 179 Pastor Frank Roberts’s call for offers of billets for the female students appeared in the Northern Star, 17 February 1965, p. 2. The early history of the Aboriginal reserves in the Lismore area appears in Goodall, Invasion to Embassy, pp. 143-4. The Courier Mail report on Cubawee appeared on 18 June 1961. Page 180 Much of the discussion of the dispute over Cubawee comes from Heather Goodall, Invasion to Embassy, pp. 286 – 307. The Welfare Board attempts to acquire town land for the Cubawee people, and the council’s blocking of the sale in 1958, is at p. 287, and the roles of Frank Roberts, both father and son at p. 299. The visit of Bert Groves to Lismore, and the statement by Frank Roberts to the Northern Star, are at p. 287. Other information comes from Tess Brill, in a conversation in April 1991. The Health issues at Cubawee, and the call by the Lismore Aborigines Advancement League to abolish the Cubawee reserve are in the Courier Mail, 1 September 1961, p. 7. Page 181 -2 Mr Doig’s question concerning Cubawee is in NSW Legislative Assembly, Parliamentary Debates, 9 September 62 – 3 June 64, 2nd Session, on 6 September 1962, p. 174. There was further discussion in the Assembly of Cubawee on 18 September 1962, p. 427, 430. A month later, Doig moved, unsuccessfully, ‘That a Select Committee be appointed to enquire into and report upon the housing, health, education, trade-training, employment and assimilation of Aborigines’, NSW Legislative Assembly, Parliamentary Debates, 9 September 62 – 3 June 64, 2nd Session, on 30 October 1962, p. 1299. The exclusionary views of the white residents of Lismore, and the solution of a reserve being created just outside the Lismore town boundary, are in Charles Rowley, Outcasts in White Australia, p. 258, quoting NSWPD, 1963, third Series, vol. 44, pp. 3183-200, vol. 45, pp. 3278 ff. The completion of the houses and the Board’s photograph and caption concerning them are in Report of the Aborigines Welfare Board for the Year ended 30th June 1964, Parliament of NSW, Papers 1965, Sydney: Government Printer, 1965, pp. 4-5. The discussion of the Reverend Alf Clint and his relationship with the Robertses is in Heather Goodall, Invasion to Embassy, pp. 300-1. The AWB’s adoption of Clint’s cooperative ideas is in Goodall, Invasion to Embassy, p. 300. The success of the Cabbage Tree Island reserve is in the Report of the Aborigines Welfare Board for the Year ended 30th June 1956, Parliament of NSW, Papers 1957, Sydney: Government Printer, 1957, p. 6; and Report of the Aborigines Welfare Board for the Year ended 30th June 1957, Parliament of NSW, Papers 1957, Sydney: Government Printer, 1957, p. 7. The launch of the cooperative in August 1960 is in the Daily Telegraph, 24 February 1965 and SMH, 24 February 1965. The success of the cooperative and the ABC Four Corners visit are in Goodall, Invasion to Embassy, op. 306-7. The date of the Four Corners visit was September 1963, not September 1964 as stated in the text. Page 183 Jim Spigelman’s comments on the cooperative, and Charles’s statement that the students did not expect any trouble in Lismore, are in the Northern Star, 23 February 1965, p. 1. The SMH quoting of Lou Higham’s comment on a nice clean bed appeared on 24 February 1965, p. 4. A copy of Louise Higham’s diary is in the Curthoys Collection, AIATSIS. This is the entry for 24 February 1965. The Cabbage Tree Island visit is described in my diary, entry for 23 February 1965. The welcome by Jeffery is in Report H.W. Jeffery to AWB, 25 February 1965, Freedom Ride File, NSWSRO, folio 227. Page 184 See Louise Higham diary, Curthoys Collection, AIATSIS, and the Report by H.W. Jeffery, manager, Cabbage Tree Island Aboriginal Station, to AWB, 25 February 1965, Freedom Ride File, NSWSRO, folio 227. The SMH and Daily Telegraph reports both appeared on 24 February 1965; a report also appeared the same day in The Australian. The Mayor’s reception and the lunch at the Workers’ Club were reported in SMH, 24 February 1965. Page 185 Paddy Dawson was quoted in The Northern Star, 24 February 1965, p. 1. Page 186 Kingsmill’s statement on the Freedom Ride was sent to a number of papers and Australian United Press, Freedom Ride File, NSWSRO, folios 232-4. The quote in the Bathurst Advocate appeared on 24 February 1965; the statement appeared in the SMH on 24 February 1965. Kingsmill’s appeal to both townspeople and students to avoid further disturbances was reported in the Wagga Wagga Advertiser, 24 February 1965. Knowledge of the presence of communist students is evident from ASIO records, though ASIO thought their role was greater than it was. ASIO reported that ‘the CPA and the Eureka Youth League were actively engaged in organising the “Freedom Ride” undertaken in NSW’; see ASIO Report entitled ‘Developments, since 1964, in the Communist Party of Australia’s Policy concerning the Australian Aborigines’, NAA, A 6122/44 (1529). The Tribune report appeared on 24 February 1965. Page 187 Patricia Giffney’s comments in the Sun appeared on 24 February 1965. Charles Rowley’s comments appeared in Outcasts in White Australia, p. 238. Page 188 The Daily Mirror story and photograph appeared on 24 February 1965, p. 19. The North West Champion story ‘Aboriginal Mother Slates Students’ appeared on 1 March 1965, p. 1. For Kath Walker (Oodgeroo)’s comments see transcript of Seven Days program, broadcast 8 March 1965, Rowley Collection and Curthoys Collection, AIATSIS. The Australian Council of Churches Telegraph is in the Healy Collection, AIATSIS. Page 189 Professor Baxter’s letter is in the Healy Collection, AIATSIS. The Bowraville population is in Reports of the Aborigines Welfare Board, Parliament of NSW, Papers, 1956 – 68, Sydney: Government Printer. Page 190 The SMH description of Mrs Henderson appeared on 4 March 1965. Pat Healy’s comment about Bowraville is in ‘The Student Bus’, Outlook, April 1965, p. 7. Charles Perkins’s comment is in SMH, 25 February 1965, p. 4. Gerald Stone’s comment is in the Daily Mirror, 1 March 1965, p. 6. Page 191 The Bowraville reserve population is given in the Report of the Aborigines Welfare Board for the Year ended 30th June 1957, Parliament of NSW, Papers 1957, Sydney: Government Printer, 1957, and each year thereafter up to Report of the Aborigines Welfare Board for the Year ended 30th June 1966, Parliament of NSW, Papers 1967, Sydney: Government Printer, 1967. Cecil Brown’s comment is reported in the SMH, 25 February 1965, p. 4. The Seven Days reporter’s comment is in the transcript, Seven Days program broadcast 8 March 1965, Rowley collection. Tom Harris’s comment is in the Daily Telegraph, 25 February 1965. Page 192 Mrs Eakin’s comment is from the Daily Telegraph, 25 February 1965. The photograph of Gary Williams and Brian Aarons appeared in the SMH, 25 February 1965, p. 4. The quotations concerning the partition in the picture theatre is from my diary, Curthoys Collection, AIATSIS. The Newcastle Morning Herald noted on 26 February 1965: ‘At present aborigines must enter the theatre by a special door and must sit in a section reserved for them and divided from the sections occupied by white patrons’. Page 193 The earlier attempt to have the partition removed, and the response of the Chief Secretary to these requests, is reported in SMH, 4 March 1965. Samuel Raymond is quoted by the SMH, 25 February 1965, p. 4., the Daily Mirror, 25 February 1965, and the Daily Telegraph, 25 February 1965. Charles’s comment that ‘we could not leave without protesting’ appeared in the SMH, 25 February 1965, p. 4. Page 194 Chief Secretary Kelly’s comment on his lack of powers was quoted in SMH, 25 February 1965, p. 4. His statement that he would not recommend legislation to give him the relevant powers was reported in SMH, 26 February 1965, p. 4; Daily Mirror, 25 February 1965; Daily Telegraph, 26 February 1965. WM Rigby’s interest in Aboriginal issues is evident from a letter from Jack Horner to Rigby, 30 October 1963, ‘Correspondence ‘Q-R’, AAF, ML MSS 4057/14. His comment that the Act should be amended, and the backbencher’s silent support, were quoted in the Daily Mirror, 25 February 1965; see also Daily Telegraph, 26 February 1965. The picket of the picture theatre is also reported in ‘Cinema Door Shuts in Mr Perkins’ Face’, The Australian, 25 February 1965, which quotes Samuel Raymond saying of Charles Perkins: ‘If he’s got Aboriginal blood, he has got only one place – and that’s with the other darkies…. Aborigines smell, drink too much, and are ignorant. They must stick with their own kind. The white people wouldn’t stand for having Aborigines in their part of the theatre’. Page 195 Charles’s announcement ‘Well, folks we have finished’ is in SMH, 25 February 1965, p. 4. Page 196 Beth Hansen’s comments about Ann Holten are in Beth Hauser (Hansen), ‘Our Freedom Ride’, Overland, August 1965. The hostile comments of the local paper appeared in the Guardian-Gazette, 25 February 1965, p. 1, and were quoted in SMH, 4 March 1965. The quote from Paul Grant appears in Macleay Argus, 25 February 1965, p. 1. Page 197-8 Samuel Raymond and Ann Holten’s comments the next day were reported in the Newcastle Morning Herald, 26 February 1965. Her interview with Seven Days appears in the transcript, 8 March 1965, copies in Rowley Collection and Curthoys Collection, AIATSIS. The visit of the BBC television team to Kempsey was reported in the Macleay Argus, 4 March 1965, p. 9. The population of the Burnt Bridge station and the Greenhill and Bellbrook reserves is given in the Report of the Aborigines Welfare Board for the Year ended 30th June 1965, Parliament of NSW, Papers 1966, Sydney: Government Printer, 1966. p. 12. The passing of the Kempsey ordinance in January 1949 is reported in the Sunday Telegraph, 14 August 1949. The opposition of the United Associations of Women is in Marilyn Lake, Getting Equal: The History of Australian Feminism, Sydney: Allen & Unwin , 1999, p. 208. The opening of the Wauchope pool is in The News (Adelaide), 21 January 1958, quoted in Charles Duguid, No Dying Race, Adelaide: Rigby Ltd, 1963, p. 182. Charles Perkins’s statement that the students expected problems in Kempsey is in the Northern Star, 22 February 1965, p. 1. The SMH comment on the possibility of trouble in Kempsey appeared on 22 February 1965, page 1. The letter in the Macleay Argus appeared on 25 February 1965, p. 3, and was quoted in SMH, 26 February 1965, p. 4. The comments by supporters of Aboriginal advancement and of JH Brown, the MLA for Raleigh, were reported in the Northern Star, 23 February 1965, p. 1. Page 199 Brown’s speech on Aboriginal child deaths is reported in NSWLA Parliamentary Debates, 25 August 1964 – 31 March 1965, 40th Parliament, 3rd Session, 14 October 1964, p. 1241. The actions of the Save the Children Fund and the Aborigines Welfare Board were reported in a letter from Miss Everingham to Alex Mills, Healy Collection, AIATSIS. LB Cowley’s complaints to the Board are contained in a letter to the Board, 2 March 1965, Freedom Ride File, NSWSRO, folio 214. Page 200 Charles Perkins’s comments that conditions at Burnt Bridge were deplorable are reported in the Northern Star, 25 February 1965, p. 1. The expectation that the students were arriving in Kempsey a day earlier is in Macleay Argus, 25 February 1965, p. 1; Northern Star, 25 February 1965, p. 1; Daily Examiner, 24 February 1965. Mayor Melville’s hostility to the students before he met them is reported in the Daily Mirror, 25 February 1965. His refusal to sign a motion rescinding the by-law, and his hour-long debate with the students, is reported in The Australian, 26 February 1965. Page 201 Peter Martin’s narration is in the transcript, Seven Days program broadcast 8 March 1965, Rowley collection. Jack Lee’s comment that he would not segregate Aboriginal children in the picture theatre is in the Newcastle Morning Herald, 26 February 1965. Charles Perkins’s comment on the Kempsey pool situation being harsher than that in Moree is reported in the Northern Star, 26 February 1965, p. 1. The Kempsey pool demonstration is reported in the SMH, 26 February 1965, p. 4. Page 203 The Macleay Argus reports on the students’ demonstration in Kempsey appeared on 27 February 1965, p.2. Page 205 The Macleay Argus article headed ‘The “Ride” was Red-inspired’, and the hostile editorial entitled ‘They Came, They Saw, They Sickened’ appeared on 27 February 1965. The local radio station’s comment that the students were ‘just a mob of idiots out for a good time’ was reported in the Daily Mirror, 25 February 1976. The local AWB officer’s report on Kempsey Aboriginal people’s hostility to the Freedom Ride appears in a letter L. B. Cowley to AWB, 2 March 1965, Freedom Ride File, NSWSRO, folio 214. The urban press coverage of the Kempsey demonstration included SMH, 26 February 1965, p. 4 and The Australian, 26 February 1965, p. 1. Page 207 The photo of the students liming up for breakfast in Taree appeared in the Manning River Times, 2 March 1965. The students’ visit to Taree was also noted briefly in the Macleay Argus, 27 February 1965, p.2. The report of the manager of Purfleet station appears in Robertson to AWB, 2 March 1965, Freedom Ride File, NSWSRO, folio 218. Note that Bill Onus, one of the Victorian Aboriginal leaders to visit Purfleet a few years earlier, was a member of the Communist Party. He ran one of the first Aboriginal artefacts shops and was father of the great artist, Lin Onus. Page 208 Information on the Gillawarra Gift Shop appears in The Manning River Times, 2 March 1965, p. 9. Information on the students getting ready for their return, and the report of the return itself, is in SMH, 27 February 1965, page one. Page 209 Christopher Day’s report is in the Sun, 27 February 1965. Charles Perkins’s speech is in SMH, 27 February 1965, p. 1, and in the Sunday Mail, 28 February 1965, p. 5. Parts of my diary were reprinted in Our Women, June-August 1965.
CHAPTER EIGHT Page 210 Ted Noffs’s comments on the students’ courage were made at a meeting on 3 March, reported in The Australian, 4 March 1965. Page 211 The Teachers’ Federation resolution is contained in a letter from I. G. Lancaster, the General Secretary of the Federation to Spigelman, 10 March 1965, in AAF Papers, ‘Student Action for Aborigines’ file, ML MSS 4057/15. In addition individual teachers sent contributions through one of their number, Gloria Phelan, amounting to £7.10.0. The quote that the tour had ‘brought hope to the Aborigines and shame to many white occupants of their country’ is in a letter from E. Dobson, Secretary, Queensland Plasterers’ Union, Brisbane, to Charles Perkins, 3 march 1965, Healy Collection, AIATSIS. The view that ‘world attention will be directed against State and Federal governments’ is expressed in a letter from the Canterbury-Bankstown District of the BWIU to Charles Perkins, 4 March 1965, Healy Collection, AIATSIS. CM Dawson, State Secretary of the Queensland branch of the same union conveyed ‘warm admiration’ in a letter to Perkins, 9 March, 1965, Healy Collection, AIATSIS. The South Coast Labour Council congratulations, dated 9 March 1965, are in the Healy Collection, AIATSIS. The writer, EJ Harvey, Secretary, said he was also writing to the mayors of the towns visited, and sought information from Charles Perkins as to the names of civic leaders who assisted or hindered him on the trip so that appropriate letters could be forwarded. Groups who wrote to congratulate the students included the Illawong Branch of the Aboriginal Children’s Advancement Society (a society formed in February 1963 with the aim of building a hostel at Sutherland for Aboriginal students). On its behalf, Joan Wakeham wrote to Beth on 15 March 1965 conveying congratulations for ‘the initiative shown in undertaking the recent bus tour through so many NSW country towns’. The Port Adelaide and Newcastle branches of the Union of Australian Women sent congratulations. All in Letters to SAFA, Healy Collection, AIATSIS. Individuals who wrote included Jane Adler and N. Gundry-White of Kew; D.G. Tichborne, of Brisbane (who enclosed 15/-); G.F. Small of Como West, who sent £1; and J.M Gelbart of Elizabeth Bay, sending £5. . One letter came from Andre Scales, at St Mary’s, an outer suburb of Sydney, who had adopted an Aboriginal boy, now aged three, and had stories to tell of racial attitudes in Nowra. Prudence Myer of Toorak sent £10. See letter Bill Hartley to Charles Perkins, 23 March 1965, and the letter from the Asquith Branch of the ALP in Letters to SAFA, Healy Collection, AIATSIS. The letters from labour clubs at other universities included Dan Coward, Students’ Representative Council at the University of Tasmania, to Charles Perkins, 15 March 1965, and Alfred Van der Poorten, President of the UNSW Students’ Union, to Jim Spigelman, 31 March 1965, copies in Curthoys Collection, AIATSIS, courtesy of Jim Spigelman. John Ashe, Monash University Labour Club, 15 March 1965, Letters to SAFA, Healy Collection, AIATSIS. Page 212 Information about the SAFA branch at the University of New South Wales is in the Notes by Pat Healy for John Powles, December 1965, Healy Collection, AIATSIS. The UWA announcement of its intention to organise a Freedom Ride in Western Australia is in SAFA Talkabout, no 6, copy in Curthoys Collection, AIATSIS, courtesy Warwick Richards. Helen Moore’s commission of an article for Purge, in a letter dated 26 February 1965, in Letters to SAFA, Healy Collection, AIATSIS. The formation of Student Aboriginal Survey in Queensland on 24 March is in the Notes by Pat Healy for John Powles, December 1965, Healy Collection, AIATSIS. Brian Toohey’s undated letter to Jim Spigelman is in Letters to SAFA, Healy Collection, AIATSIS. Charles’s speech at the Wayside Chapel on 28 February is reported in The Methodist, 20 March 1965. The NY Herald Tribune comparison of Perkins and Martin Luther King is in Zell Rabin, ‘Australia Also has its Freedom Riders’, as reprinted in the Cape Times (South Africa), 9 April 1965, copy in NAA, Department of External Affairs, A1838, 557/2 Part 4. One of the many people to make the point that the ‘hygiene defence’ highlighted Aboriginal poverty was R. Lawrence who wrote ‘it is not a colour bar but a question of hygiene’, The Methodist, 27 March 1965, p. 4. Page 213 The Sun-Herald editorial on the need to sweep away shanty camps, and the responsibility of the whole state appeared on 28 February 1965. The Anglican’s comment on the role of the Commonwealth Government appeared on 25 February 1965, p. 4. B. McCann’s letter appeared in SMH, 3 March 1965 p. 2. Page 214 R.V. Bateman’s letter appeared in the SMH, on 3 March 1965. Letters decrying the racism exposed by the tour included Robert White, The Australian, 16 March 1965, and A.T. Tottenham, Daily Mirror, 11 March 1965. Page 215 The letter from ‘Realist’ appeared on SMH, 3 March 1965, p. 8. The news item and editorial appeared in The Anglican, 25 February 1965, p. 4. The letters missing the irony and the letter by Bishop Moyes appeared in The Anglican, 4 March 1965, p.5. Moyes was quoted in Jim Spigelman, ‘Reactions to the SAFA Tour’, Dissent, Winter 1965, p. 47. Page 217 The four further letters appeared in The Anglican, 11 March 1965, pp. 4 and 5. Page 218 Sheahans’ warning to hospitals on 5 March was reported in SMH, 6 March 1965. Alf Thomas’s inspection tour of Walgett is mentioned in the Courier Mail, 17 February 1965, p. 7. Mr R. Snook took up duties as Area Welfare Officer for Walgett and Collarenebri on 10 March 1965. See Notes on interview with Mr H.J. Green, 15 March 1965, Rowley Collection, AIATSIS. The upgrading of the houses at Boggabilla was reported in SMH, 16 June 1965, p. 2. Page 219 The transcript of the Seven Days program of 8 March 1965 is in the Rowley Collection, AIATSIS. Premier Renshaw’s briefing is evident in the correspondence in Freedom Ride File, NSWSRO, folio nos. 221-4. Prudence Myer of Toorak (who enclosed £10) sent Charles Perkins a copy of an article in the New Yorker. My search of the New Yorker files failed to locate the exact date of the appearance of the story. The Zell Rabin story, entitled ‘Australia Also has its Freedom Riders’, first appeared in the NY Herald Tribune, and was reprinted in the Cape Times (South Africa) on 9 April 1965. A copy of the Cape Times version is in NAA, Department of External Affairs, A1838, 557/2 Part 4. The New York Times story appeared on 26 February 1965, p. 4. Page 220 In Britain, The Times, 25 and 27 February 1965, both on p.9. Information on coverage in the European papers comes from Fred Rose, who told Tribune on 1 September 1965, p. 9, that the Freedom Ride had made headlines in Germany and other parts of Europe. The coverage in a international youth and student magazine and subsequently student organisations around the world was reported to SAFA by Peter Manning and Denis Strangman. In a cyclostyled sheet headed ‘An Open Letter to SAFA Supporters’, undated by apparently April 1965, they wrote: ‘it was a prominent official of the Young Democrats who contributed the material for that sympathetic account of the SAFA demonstrations which appeared in an international youth and student magazine and which was subsequently translated into Spanish and distributed to hundreds of youth and student organisations throughout the world (including those in Latin America and Africa).’ Copy in Curthoys Collection, AIATSIS, courtesy of Warwick Richards. Press cuttings of the Cape Argus report, along with another report, ‘Most Aborigines Live in Old Shacks’, in the Johannesburg Star, 22 May, 1965, are in Press Cuttings: sent by DEA to various other Department Heads, NAA, Department of External Affairs, A1838 I 557/2 Part 4 The cuttings of the story in the Working People’s Daily, Rangoon, 10 May 1965 (sent to the Department of External Affairs with compliments of the Australian Embassy in Rangoon), and the Morning News, Karachi, 14 March 1965 (sent to DEA by M.K.Casson, Second Secretary, Australian High Commission, Karachi) are in ‘Press Cuttings: sent by DEA to various other Department Heads’, NAA, Department of External Affairs, A1838 I 557/2 Part 4. Page 221 The External Affairs internal memo of 22 February is in Publications Abroad re Australian Aborigines, 1962-5, NAA, Department of External Affairs, A1838 I 557/2 Part 4. The NY Herald Tribune story, as reproduced in the Cape Times, is in Press Cuttings: sent by DEA to various other Department Heads, NAA, Department of External Affairs, A1838, 557/2 Part 4. The Daily Telegraph story appeared on 28 February 1965. When the article appeared, John Gowdie wrote anxiously to Jim Spigelman on 1 March 1965 that he had nothing to do with it, Letters to SAFA, Healy Collection, AIATSIS. Page 222 See Peter Manning and Denis Strangman to SAFA, April 1965, Curthoys Collection, AIATSIS. Bert Groves’s letter appeared in The Dawn, March 1965, p. 2, and the North West Champion, 18 March 1965, p. 9. There is also a cyclostyled copy, addressed to Professor E.P. Elkins (sic) in the Elkin Papers, Series 1/12/275, University of Sydney Archives. The AAF decision to congratulate the students and to visit the towns is in AAF Executive Meeting Minutes, ML MSS 4057/1, minutes for 3 March 1965. Page 223 The report by Peggy and Charles Leon saying most local Aboriginal people in Moree and Walgett supported the Freedom Ride is in the AAF Bulletin, vol. 5, no. 6, April 1965. Faith Bandler’s motion to welcome the discussion generated by the tour is in the minutes for meeting 17 March 1965, Minutes of Monthly General Meetings, 1963-69, AAF papers, ML MSS 4057/1. The NUAUS debate at its February Council meeting is discussed in Tom Roper, National Abschol Director, ‘A Brief History of Abschol’, 1967, yellow cyclostyled paper, copy in Hannah Middleton Papers, Mitchell Library, MSS 5866, Box 10, Item 27.2 (Abschol Folder). A copy of Keith Crook’s typescript, dated 16 April 1965, is in the Curthoys Collection, AIATSIS, courtesy of Tom Roper. Copies of Warwick Mosman’s letter to the Freedom Riders, dated 25 February, are in the Curthoys Collection, AIATSIS, courtesy of Barry Corr and Bob Gallagher. Mosman’s cyclostyled report, ‘NUAUS report on Student Action for Aborigines’, is in the Healy Collection, AIATSIS. Roper’s comment on the Abschol conference, and a copy of the conference resolution, is in Tom Roper, ‘A Brief History of Abschol’, loc. cit. Page 224 The attacks on bob Brown’s shop and threats to his sister-in-law were reported at the end of the major story on the confrontation at Moree in the North West Champion, 22 February 1965, p. 1. The story of the formation of the society for Advancement of Aborigines at Moree was told by Bill Forrest in a letter to Stan Davey, ‘File of Stan Davey, Fed Sec, FCAATSI, 1965’, Gordon Bryant Papers, Box 172, NLA MS 8256. The meeting of the Moree council on 1 March was reported in the Canberra Times on 2 March 1965 and SMH, 3 March 1965, p. 6. The Moree Town Clerk had confirmed to Tribune that Council had decided to delay the motion. Tribune, 10 March 1965, p. 1. Bill Lloyd’s announcement that ‘we will do it in our own good time’ was reported in the North West Champion, 4 March 1965, p. 1. Page 225 John Butterworth’s letter to Lloyd was reported in the Northern Daily Leader, 11 March 1965. Bob Brown’s letter to Jim Spigelman was dated 18 March 1965, copy in Curthoys Collection, AIATSIS, courtesy of Jim Spigelman. The second deferral, at the Moree Council meeting of 22 March, was reported in the SMH, 23 March 1965. Page 226 The meeting on 3 March for Orientation Week at the University of Sydney was described by Bill Ford in ‘The Student Bus’, Outlook, 1965, p. 10. It was also reported in The Australian, 4 March 1965, including the comments of Charles Perkins and Ted Noffs. Grace Bardsley, assistant secretary of the Aboriginal-Australian Fellowship, attended the meeting, reporting back to the AAF executive very strong student interest and support, Minutes for 3 March 1965, AAF Executive Meeting Minutes, AAF Papers, ML MSS 4057/1. Charles Perkins’s reference to 78 per cent of Aboriginal people supporting SAFA was in ‘The Student Bus’, Outlook, April 1965 p. 5. His interview in The Methodist appeared on 20 March 1965, p. 2. Warwick Richards and four others’ letter to The Anglican appeared on 1 April 1965, p. 5. Page 227 Jim Spigelman’s article in Honi Soit appeared on 1 March 1965. Hall Greenland’s article appeared in Honi Soit on16 March 1965, p. 4. Alex Mills’s ‘SAFA Trip’ was published in Honi Soit on 31 March 1965. Jim Spigelman’s comment that the students now ‘had an insight into the sheer complexity of the problem’ appeared in ‘The Student Bus’, Outlook, April 1965, p. 10. Louise Higham’s lecture notes are in the Curthoys Collection, AIATSIS, courtesy of Louise Higham. Jim Spigelman’s invitation to speak at an AIPS seminar on ‘The Student Point of View’ was made in a letter from OE Phillips, Deputy Chairman AIPS, 23 April 1965, AAF Box 5, ML MSS 4057/5. There were other talks too. Ian Murray, who had been coopted to the SAFA executive just a few days previously, spoke on SAFA at the Second Methodist Student conference at Otford, 2-4 April 1965, reported in the Methodist, 17 April 1965, p. 10. The Kings Cross Labor Youth Club asked Jim Spigelman to talk at the Wayside chapel, Letters to SAFA, Healy Collection, AIATSIS. Hall Greenland spoke on 8 April to the NSW Branch of the Sheetmetal workers, leading to questions, acclamation, and donations of $25, see letter from Sheetmetal Workers’ Union, NSW branch, Noel Butlin Archives, E196/2/3-5 8/4/65. Tom Wright wrote to Jim Spigelman on 12 April 1965 in appreciation of the talk, Letters to SAFA, Healy Collection, AIATSIS. Jack Horner, of the Australian Aboriginal Fellowship, wrote on 29 March congratulating SAFA on its tour, and requesting a speaker at an AAF meeting on 21 April, Horner to SAFA, 29 March 1965, Letters to SAFA, Healy Collection, AIATSIS and a copy in Folder ‘Student Action for Aborigines’, AAF Papers, ML MSS 4057/15. Page 228 Many of the students saw Jim Spigelman’s film at a party at Chris Page’s on 20 March, and all members were invited to a party on 31 March. A dance at Ling Nam’s on 16 May was however, not a financial success, Notes by Pat Healy for John Powles, December 1965, Healy Collection, AIATSIS. The Annual General Meeting on 23 March 1965, and the Committee meeting of 30 March, were reported in John Powles, ‘The state of SAFA’, SAFA Talkabout, no 5, March 1965, Curthoys Collection, AIATSIS. courtesy of Jim Spigelman. Transcript of Mavis Bramston skit, Curthoys Collection, AIATSIS. Page 229 The SMH comment that discrimination was not easy to track down appeared in the SMH, 7 April 1965, p. 2. Page 230 The Herald political correspondent’s comments appeared in SMH, 7 April 1965. The Prime Minister’s agreement to hold a referendum on Section 127 was made clear on 1 April 1965, CPD, 16 March – 29 April 1965, 1st session, p. 533. Kim Beazley’s argument that the referendum should cover section 51 also was made the same day, CPD, 16 March – 29 April 1965, 1st session, p. 543. See report in SMH, 2 April 1965. The Age in an editorial on 12 April 1965, and The Australian on 20 April 1965, supported the referendum proposal. The Abschol petition for a Referendum on clause 51 was reported in The Australian, 12 and 20 May 1965, both p. 5. Wentworth’s speech of 18 May in support of a Referendum on Clause 51, and Gordon Bryant’s expression of support, are in CPD, 16 March – 29 April 1965, 1st session, pp. 1594 – 6, 1613-4. There is a copy of the petition, with accompanying statement headed ‘Is Our Constitution Fair to Aborigines’, in the Curthoys Collection, AIATSIS, Courtesy of Warwick Richards. Page 231 The SAFA leaflet is in Leaflet Folder, Curthoys Collection, AIATSIS. The SAFA protest outside a Liberal party rally on 5 April was reported in the Daily Telegraph, 6 April 1965, p. 1. The SAFA protests at Orange were reported in the Central Western Daily, 6 April 1965. The leader of the Country Party was Charles Cutler, not Roden Cutler as stated in the text. Page 232 Renshaw’s election campaign launch speech was reported in SMH, 9 April 1965. His election advertisement appeared in the Spectator (Walgett), 28 April 1965. The meeting at the University of Sydney to discuss tactics is recorded in the SAFA Minutes, 13 April 1965, Healy Collection, AIATSIS. SAFA’s protest at the Liberal Party election launch speech was reported in ‘Students Stage Walk-out’, SMH, 14 April 1965. Askin’s promise to establish a parliamentary Select Committee was referred to by Willis in debate, NSW Legislative Assembly, 7 Dec 1967, NSWPD, 3rd Series, Fourth Session of the Forty-first Parliament, Vol. LXXII, Sydney: Government Printer, 1968, p. 4426. SAFA’s public meeting of 13 April was advertised in AAF Bulletin, April 1965. Posters were produced announcing that the speakers would include Charles Perkins, Ted Noffs, Faith Bandler, and Bert Groves, with Pastor Doug Nichols as chairman, Rowley Collection, AIATSIS. The SRC donated $50 to SAFA, spent on printing posters for the public meeting; John Powles, ‘The State of SAFA’, Healy Collection, AIATSIS. The AWB’s refusal to be represented on the platform is in a letter H. J. Green to Sue Johnston, 9 April 1965, Freedom Ride File, NSWSRO, folio 177. The speeches were reported in The Australian, 14 April 1965. Page 233 Letter Stan Davey to Charles Perkins, 28 February 1965, Gordon Bryant papers, File of Stan Davey, NLA, MS 8256. Charles Perkins’s speech at FCAATSI, 18 April 1965, was reported in The Australian, 19 April 1965. There is also a cyclostyled copy, along with a copy of Bill Forrest’s speech, in the Union of Australian Women Records, Noel Butlin Archives, Z 236 Box 10. Page 234 The comments of Ralph B (illegible), the president of the Armidale Aboriginal Advancement Association, are in File of Stan Davey, Federal Secretary, ‘FCAATSI, 1965: Annual Report of Association for the Assimilation of Aborigines, Armidale, NSW’, Gordon Bryant Papers, Box 172 Folder, NLA MS 8256. On 22 April SAFA sent an open letter to both the Premier (Renshaw) and the Leader of the Opposition (Askin), urging them to implement reforms by doubling AWB funds, increasing Aboriginal representation on the Board, and including an anti-discrimination clause in the Local Government Act and the Theatres and Public Halls Act. Handwritten draft by Patricia Healy in Healy Collection, AIATSIS. Askin’s private secretary replied saying Askin was on his election campaign tour in the country, but the letter would be brought to his notice on his return; copy in Curthoys Collection, AIATSIS, courtesy of Jim Spigelman. Healy’s draft notes that copies were sent to the media, including the Australian, the Sydney Morning Herald, and the Daily Telegraph; in fact, none of them published it. Page 235 The 100 hour vigil was reported in the SMH, 27 April 1965, p. 5 and SMH, 28 April 1965, p. 8. Carrick’s admiration for the SAFA students is in Carrick to Willis, 9 July 1965, Freedom Ride File, NSWSRO, folios 128-9. The council meeting of 4 May was reported in the Macleay Argus, 6 May 1965, p. 1, the Newcastle Morning Herald, 5 May 1965, and SMH, 5 May 1965, p. 4. A copy of the letter from the Town Clerk of Kempsey to Jim Spigelman on 11 May 1965 is in the Curthoys Collection, AIATSIS, courtesy of Jim Spigelman. The Sun’s reports on the lifting of the ban on Aboriginal people using the council pool in Kempsey appeared on 5 and 13 May 1965. Ted Noffs’s advice to the press that the students had sought legal advice was reported in the Newcastle Morning Herald, 24 March 1965. The legal advice given to the Moree Council that the resolution was illegal was reported in the North West Champion, 27 May 1965, p. 1. Note also that at its meeting on 11 May, SAFA heard a report from Mr St John on legal aspects of Moree Pool, SAFA Minutes, Healy Collection, AIATSIS. The agreement of the council meeting of 3 may to rescind the resolution was reported in the North West Champion, 6 May 1965, p. 1, and the final removing of the resolution was reported in the North West Champion, 27 May 1965, p. 1; SMH, 26 May 1965, p. 2, and Northern Daily Leader, 26 May 1965. Charles Perkins’s comments that the results were ‘spectacular’ was reported in Tribune on 9 June 1965, p. 3. Page 236 Those present at the joint SU and UNSW SAFA meeting of 12 May included Pat, Brian, Aidan, Paddy, Darce, Jim, Charles Perkins, John Butterworth, and Tom Roper from the University of Sydney, plus five students from UNSW, SAFA Minutes, Healy Collection, AIATSIS. The Sydney activities are discussed in SAFA Talkabout, no. 6, Curthoys Collection, AIATSIS, courtesy of Jim Spigelman. The protest in the Burlington hotel was reported in Tribune, 24 March 1965, p. 2, and the Sun-Herald, 21 March 1965. Sue Johnston was acting as assistant Secretary while Pat Healy was ill. Copy of letter, undated, in Healy Collection, AIATSIS. Page 237 Pat Healy’s comment on a Sydney-based action appears in Pat Healy’s notes for John Powles, December 1965, Healy Collection, AIATSIS. See also minutes for meeting 19 May 1965 and 16 June 1965, Minutes of AAF Monthly general meetings, 1963-9, AAF papers, ML MSS 4057/1, The joint SU-UNSW meeting of 12 May agreed that SAFA would produce a magazine, with John Butterworth, Paddy Dawson, Darce Cassidy, Aidan Foy, Tom Roper, Pauline Stewart and Patricia Healy on the editorial board. A meeting of this committee on Sunday 16 May chose a name for the magazine – Sundown – and planned the first issue; it would contain interviews and photos of Charles Perkins, Ann Holten, Gary Williams, Jimmy Little, Candy Williams, and Doug Nicholls. Despite all the planning, and another meeting of the group, the magazine never eventuated, largely because of SAFA’s poor financial situation, in recognition of which SAFA held a number of concerts to raise money in second term. Pat Healy notes for John Powles, December 1965, Healy Collection, AIATSIS. Bruce Maxwell’s follow up story appeared in SMH, 16 June 1965. Page 238 Ian Spalding’s article on the Freedom Ride appeared in Crux, June-July, 1965, v. 68 (3), p. 2.
Page 240 Charles Perkins’s promise to the FCAATSI conference was reported in the SMH, 17 April 1965, p. 14. The SAFA meeting was held on 4 May 1965, Minutes 4 May 1965, SAFA minutes, Healy Collection, AIATSIS. Page 241 Charles Perkins and Paddy Dawson moved a motion at a committee meeting on 30 March 1965, SAFA Minutes, Healy Collection, AIATSIS. The follow-up visits were conducted with permission of the Board. Jim Spigelman received a letter from the Board approving SAFA requests to enter stations and reserves over the May vacation period: Spigelman to AWB, 26 April 1965, and reply, 4 May 1965, Freedom Ride File, NSWSRO, folios 166-7. The SAFA meeting on 4 May 1965 is recorded in Minutes 4 May 1965, SAFA minutes, Healy Collection, AIATSIS. The SAFA meeting on 11 May 1965 is recorded in Minutes 11 May 1965, SAFA minutes, Healy Collection, AIATSIS. Howard Foley’s handwritten report on Bega is in the Healy Collection, AIATSIS. Page 242 The arrival of six students in Walgett on 19 May was reported in Honi Soit, 30 June 1965, p. 10, and The Australian, 26 May 1965. Page 244 The students’ visit to Snooks, the Walgett Aborigines Welfare officer since March 1965, is recorded in Mr R Snooks to AWB, 22 May 1965, Freedom Ride File, NSWSRO, folios 132-3. Page 245 The Board’s decision to build 40 cheap transitional houses was recorded in the Minutes of the Aborigines Welfare Board, 16 February 1965, p. 657, NSWSRO, 4/8546, AO Reel 2794 Snooks’s suspicion that Trevallion wanted to get the students on the Council’s side, against the Board, is clear in Snooks to Board, 22 May 1965, Freedom Ride File, NSWSRO, folios 132-3. The APA meeting of 20 May was reported in The Australian, 26 May 1965, and in Bruce Maxwell, ‘Following the Freedom Riders’, SMH, 16 June 1965, p. 2. See also Snooks to Board, 22 May 1965, Freedom Ride File, NSWSRO, folios 132-3. The students giving out voter registration forms was reported by Bruce Maxwell, loc. cit. The registration drive is reported in Honi Soit, 30 June 1965. Page 246 The conversation Charles Perkins and Harry Hall had with the Conomos brothers, who owned several shops and a property in the area and had owned the Luxury theatre since 1937, was referred to in Tribune, 18 August 1965. See also Ken Buckley, Offensive and Obscene: A Civil Liberties Casebook, Sydney: Ure Smith, 1970, p. 92. Charles’s comment that Conomos had said he would lose money if he lifted the ban was reported in Tribune, 9 June 1965, p. 3. Page 247 Harry’s visit to Sydney in July is reported in Herbert Groves, ‘Walgett Aborigines Break the Colour Bar’, Churinga (the Journal of the Aborigines Progressive Association), December 1965, p. 5. The meeting of Commonwealth and State ministers was reported in the Adelaide Advertiser, 23 July 1965. Chief Secretary, Eric Willis, expressed the views on Aboriginal policy of the new Liberal-Country party coalition government in New South Wales in a formal statement on 30 May. Willis had defended Australia’s treatment of Aborigines, SMH, 31 May 1965. Don Dunstan’s announcement that he was drafting anti-racial-discrimination laws was reported in the AAF Bulletin, vol. 5, no. 10, August 1965, p. 2. The legislation finally became law in December 1966; see Jack Horner, ‘Insurance against Hatred’, The Bulletin, 17 December 1966. The government’s increased allocation for Aboriginal Housing is evident from the Debate on Loan Estimates, 1965-6, NSWPD, Forty-first Parliament, 1st Session, Sydney: Government Printer, 1965, p. 588. In August, the government announced the plan to rehouse Aborigines living at Bingara Road in Moree with 27 new modern homes at a cost of $3000 each, SMH, 24 August 1965, p. 1. The Herald’s editorial comment was to welcome the plans for new houses, but not their location one and a half miles from town, SMH, 25 August 1965, p. 2. Willis’s speaking of ‘a new deal for ’the aborigines’ is in the Newcastle Morning Herald, 8 September 1965, p. 13. The AAF pressure on the new government to conduct a committee of inquiry came from Jack Horner. In response to a letter from Horner for the Fellowship on 26 May, reminding him of his promise and suggesting the committee have Aboriginal members, Premier Askin replied that he would consider the composition of the committee when its terms of reference were being decided. Robin Askin, Premier, to Jack Horner, Sec AAF, 21 June 1965, folder entitled ‘Premier of NSW 1957 – 1965’, AAF papers, ML MSS 4057/14. Page 248 Carrick to Willis, 9 July 1965, Freedom Ride File, NSWSRO, folios 128-9. A copy of the SAFA document presented to Carrick on 7 July 1965 is in Freedom Ride File, NSWSRO, folios 116 - 25. There is also a copy in ‘Student Action for Aborigines’ file, AAF Papers, ML MSS 4057/15. The student delegation to Willis on 5 August is described in ‘Summary of Notes of Deputation Received by the Hon. E.A. Willis, MLA, Chief Secretary, From the Student Action for Aborigines, at 10 am, on Thursday 5 August’, Freedom Ride File, NSWSRO, folios 99 – 102. Page 249 The distribution of a leaflet criticising the Commonwealth government documentary, The Aborigines of Australia, on 5 June 1965 was reported in the AAF Bulletin, vol 5, no. 8, June 1965, p. 2. Charles Perkins’s resignation as chair of meetings is in Minutes, 29 June, SAFA Minutes, Healy Collection, AIATSIS. His address to the Central Methodist Mission on 11 July 1965 is SMH, 12 July 1965, p. 4. Tribune, 11 August 1965, p. 2, reported the dropping of the White Australia Policy by Labor and its abandonment by Opperman. Charles Perkins’s ‘kidnapping’ of Nancy Prasad was reported in SMH, 7 August 1965, p.1; it is also recounted in Peter Read, Charles Perkins: A Biography, Ringwood: Viking, 1990, pp. 117 – 19. The arrival of four SAFA students in Walgett on 6 August 1965 was reported in a letter Snooks to AWB, 9 August 1965 (incorrectly dated 9 July 1965), Freedom Ride File, NSWSRO, folios 69-70. Page 250 Snooks reported to the Board the students’ visit and his attempts to find the adult daughter of the Peters family, 9 August 1965, Freedom Ride File, NSWSRO, folio 69. Page 251 - 2 After the quoted part of the interview, Owen Westcott continued: ‘The house was made out of whatever they'd been able to scavenge from the tip, you know, just discarded pieces of timber, kerosene tins that had been flattened out and joined together to make walls. I have a very vivid recollection of the bed and it was an earth floor. The bed was just two branches set into the wall in some way with Hessian bags between them to make the base of the bed. And obviously they didn't have electricity … they didn't have a tap in the house certainly; there may have been a tap somewhere on the camp’. Marie Peters was, incidentally, the younger sister of Marjorie Peters, who had married Australia’s best-known Aboriginal singer, Jimmy Little. See ‘The Story of Jimmy Little’, The Spectator, 18 August 1965. The details of the demonstration at the theatre on Saturday 7 August 1965 are given in Aidan Foy, Notes on the demonstration at the Walgett Picture Theatre, Curthoys Collection, AIATSIS, courtesy of Aidan Foy. The notice of the movie screening on 7 August is in the Spectator (Walgett), 4 August 1965. The information on police presence is in Snooks to AWB, 9 August 1965, Freedom Ride File, NSWSRO, folio 70. Page 253 Details of the demonstration at the theatre on Saturday 7 August 1965 are given in Aidan Foy, Notes on the demonstration at the Walgett Picture Theatre, Curthoys Collection, AIATSIS. See also ‘Students, Aborigines charged at Walgett’, SMH, 9 August 1965, p. 1, and Tribune, 11 August 1965, p. 11. The arrests and charges are recorded in Ken Buckley, Offensive and Obscene, p. 95. Page 254 Charles Perkins’s comment that this was the first Aboriginal arrest in a civil rights action was made in his article ‘Aboriginal Militancy’, cyclostyled sheet dated 25 February 1966, copy in Curthoys Collection, AIATSIS, courtesy of Jim Spigelman. The same point, and many details of the demonstration and arrests, are in Judith Rich, ‘To the Oasis’, The Bulletin, 11 September 1965. See ‘Aborigines arrested at civil rights sit-in’, The Australian, 9 August 1965; “Walgett Arrests Again Expose Segregation’, Tribune, 11 August 1965, p. 11; 'Students, Natives Arrested', The West Australian, 9 August 1965, p. 1. See also Publications Abroad Re Australian Aborigines (1962 –5), NAA, Department of External Affairs, A1838/I 557/2 Part 4. The Anti-Slavery committee in London was pleased to hear, according to its journal in January 1966, that ‘there had been a great deal of publicity during the past few years in favour of improving the conditions of Aborigines’. In particular, ‘in 1965 in NSW a group of Australian students and undergraduates, calling themselves the Freedom Fighters (sic), having been working with and for Aborigines in several vacations, gained world-wide press publicity for their campaign to secure for Aborigines equal rights and improved living conditions’. See ‘International Attention towards Aborigines 1963 – 1965’, July 1965, Prepared for the Department of Territories as a document to be submitted in the current Arbitration hearings in the NT’, NAA, Department of External Affairs, A1838 I 557/2 Part 5 (1965-1967). The involvement of FCAATSI arose when Ray Peckham, Honorary Secretary of its State Council, consulted the NSW affiliates of FCAATSI, including the State Secretary, Faith Bandler, and it was agreed that a meeting of NSW members of FCAATSI should be held to discuss action. The meeting at Charles Perkins’s home in Sydney on 9 August 1965 is reported in Report of Delegation to Walgett, 13th – 15th August 1965’, cyclostyled sheet in Healy Collection, AIATSIS. The telegrams of protest against racial discrimination in Walgett are in the Freedom Ride File, NSWSRO, Folio 78. Several unions contributed funds for the combined delegation to Walgett. See ‘Report of Delegation to Walgett, 13th – 15th August 1965’, cyclostyled sheet in Healy Collection, AIATSIS, also in Union of Australian Women Records, Noel Butlin Archives, Z236 Box 10. The reinforcement of a police presence in Walgett was reported in by Snooks, in a typed sheet enclosed with his letter to AWB, 16 August 1965, Freedom Ride File, NSWSRO, folio 66-7. Harry Hall’s being turned away from the cinema on 11 August 1965 was reported in SMH, 12 August 1965. Page 255 The APA meeting on Thursday 12 August 1965 was reported in Snooks to AWB, 16 August 1965, Freedom Ride File, NSWSRO, folios 62 – 6.. The role of Helen Hambly is in the transcript of interview by Heather Goodall with Helen Hambly, 15 August and 10 October 1989, copy in possession of Heather Goodall. The arrival of the delegation, and many other details, are reported in ‘Report of Delegation to Walgett, 13th – 15th August 1965’, cyclostyled sheet, in Healy Collection, AIATSIS. Paddy Dawson’s presence is mentioned in SMH, 14 August 1965. Darce Cassidy’s presence is mentioned in his letter to the Federated Liquor and Allied Trades Employees Union, 23 August 1965, copy in Curthoys Collection, AIATSIS, courtesy of Darce Cassidy. The demonstration on Saturday 14 August 1965 is reported in Tribune, 18 August 1965, p. 12. Page 256 Harry Hall and Ted Fields taking their seats in the ‘whites only’ section of the theatre is in Tribune, 18 August 1965, p. 21. The admission of some and refusal of others is described in ‘Report of Delegation to Walgett, 13th – 15th August 1965’. The discussions in the street are described in Snooks to AWB, 16 August 1965, Freedom Ride File, NSWSRO, folio 62. Harry Hall’s speech is in Tribune, 18 August 1965, p. 12, and the theatre patrons joining the crowd is in ‘Report of Delegation to Walgett, 13th – 15th August 1965’. The Walgett Spectator, 14 August 1965, lists the movie that evening as The Vikings. The APA meeting of 15 August is in ‘Report of Delegation to Walgett, 13th – 15th August 1965’. Darce Cassidy’s observation of refusal of service to Harry Hall and Arthur Murray is in a letter Darcy Cassidy, Treasurer, Sydney University ALP Club, to Secretary, Federated Liquor and Allied Trades Employees Union, 23 August 1965, Cassidy Collection, AIATSIS. Page 257 White’s policy of requiring Aboriginal people to sign a statement before being allowed in the hotel is in letter Cassidy to Federated Liquor and Allied Trades Union, 23 August, 1965. White told the Sydney Morning Herald that local Aborigines were objecting to interference from the students, comments that were taken up in reports in interstate newspapers: SMH, 23 August 1965, p. 4; WA Daily News, 23 August 1965, p. 10. Alex Mills’s letter in reply pointed out that the students worked closely with local Aborigines, SMH, 26 August 1965, p. 2. Darce’s speech at the AAF on 18 August 1965 is in AAF Monthly Meeting Minutes, 18 August 1965, AAF papers, ML MSS 4057/1. Harry Hall’s request for a second visit from Sydney, and the composition of the delegation, is in ‘Report of Second Delegation to Walgett, 27th – 29th August 1965’, Healy Collection, AIATSIS. The SMH, reported their decision to go to Walgett under the heading ‘Native Party Visiting Walgett’, and reported that no white people were allowed to join the group, SMH, 28 August 1965, p. 1. Page 258 The delegation’s meeting with Harry Hall and Ted Fields, and then with Athol White and others is reported in ‘Report of Second Delegation to Walgett, 27th – 29th August 1965’, Healy Collection, AIATSIS. The refusals at the Imperial and the Oasis are in SMH, 30 August 1965. The Walgett APA meeting on 28 August is in letter Snooks to AWB, 28 August 1965, Freedom Ride File, NSWSRO, folios 51-2. Ray Peckham’s speech is recorded in ‘Report of Second Delegation to Walgett, 27th – 29th August 1965’, Healy Collection, AIATSIS. George Bracken was mentioned as an Aboriginal man opposing the activities of the students at Walgett in Aborigines Welfare Board Minute Books, Minutes of the Meeting of the Aborigines Welfare Board, 21 September 1965, NSWSRO, 4/8546, AO Reel 2794. Charles Perkins’s statement that he intended to sue Athol White was reported in SMH, 30 August 1965, the West Australian, 30 August 1965, and Tribune, 1 September 1965, p. 11. Page 259 The advice to Charles Perkins to put his complaint in writing is in a Note dated 3 September 1965, Freedom Ride File, NSWSRO, folio 55. Note also that on the way back the Aboriginal wharfies in the delegation visited Aboriginal camps and reserves at Coonamble, Dubbo, Gulargambone, and Wellington, Tribune 8 September 1965, p. 8. The report on Joey Marshall was reported immediately to the Police Traffic Superintendent, Chalker to Superintendent of Police, Dubbo, 17 February 1965, ‘Freedom Ride File’, NSWSRO, folio 208; The Australian, 17 Feb 1965; SMH, 17 February 1965. Ted Noffs protested at the delay before the Commissioner of Police agreed anyone should be charged for running the bus off the road, saying the man should have been arrested, and a full police inquiry should be held, Canberra Times, 17 February 1965, p. 1. The Commissioner of Police’s agreement that Marshall be charged is in letter Commissioner of Police (Heean) to Under Secretary, Chief Secretary’s Department, 8 April 1965, Freedom Ride File, NSWSRO, folio 176. The SMH reported the trial on 28 May 1965, p. 109. The finding of guilty and sentence is in Memo Commissioner of Police to Chief Secretary’s Department, 19 October 1965, Freedom Ride File, folio 20, NSWSRO. The reaction to Marshall’s sentence in Walgett is recorded in Jack Waterford, ‘A radical greater than his critics’, Canberra Times, 21 October 2000, p. 20. An account of the hearing of those arrested in the cinema demonstration of 7 August 1965 is given by Ken Buckley, the Secretary of the Council for Civil Liberties, in his book, Offensive and Obscene: A Civil Liberties Casebook, Sydney: Ure Smith, 1970, pp. 92 - 115; see also SMH, 19 October 1965. The argument of the students’ counsel is in Buckley, Offensive and Obscene, p. 102, and the resumption of the case against Westcott is at page 106. Page 260 The SAFA visit to Walgett for the December council elections is reported by Darce Cassidy, personal communication, based on article ‘Freedom Ride – Twelve Months later’, written by Darce but never published, copy in Curthoys Collection, AIATSIS. For the election result, see The Spectator (Walgett), 8 December 1965, p. 1. The government moves on the Committee of Inquiry is indicated in letters from Premier Askin to SAFA, the APA, and others; see Premier Askin to the New Settlers Federation, 30 August 1965, Freedom Ride File, NSWSRO, folio 73. In this letter, Asking reaffirmed the government’s view that ‘Aborigines are entitled to all the human rights and privileges enjoyed by other Australians’. The AWB discussion of SAFA is recorded in Aborigines Welfare Board Minute Books, Minutes of the Meeting of the Aborigines Welfare Board, 21 September 1965, NSWSRO, 4/8546, AO Reel 2794. The responses to the AWB instructions to area officers to bring instances of discrimination to its notice varied: the welfare officer at Moree, A.L. Thomas, provided a ‘nil’ return, Thomas to Board, 19 October 1965, Freedom Ride File, NSWSRO, folio 17. For the instructions and the replies see ‘Report “Discrimination against Aborigines”’, 7 March 1966, Freedom Ride File, NSWSRO, folios 5 – 16. Page 261 Jim Morgan’s comments were reported in The Australian, 28 September 1965. The Board’s response to his comments is recorded in Aborigines Welfare Board Minute Books, Minutes of the Meeting of the Aborigines Welfare Board, 19 October 1965, NSWSRO, 4/8546, AO Reel 2794, p. 63. A letter from Max Praed, senior lecturer at Richmond Tweed Regional office, UNE, to The Australian, 3 November 1965, drew the matter to public attention. There is considerable material on the AAF Conference of 16-17 October 1965 in the October 1965 Conference file, AAF papers, ML MSS 4057/14. Its resolutions are given in E.G. Docker, ‘Keeping Aborigines Quiet?’ Abolish the Board’, The Bulletin, 13 October 1962. The conference call on the government to honour its promise of a Select Committee is in AAF Bulletin, vol. 6, no. 1, November 1965, p. 2.; The Australian, 18 October 1965; Daily Mirror, 17 October 1965; SMH, 10 October 1965. See also the List of Resolutions, October 1965 Conference Folder, AAF papers, ML MSS 4057/14. The government’s announcement on 8 December 1965 of a Joint Parliamentary Committee is in . The members of the Committee were to be five from the Assembly and four from the Council. The Assembly members were Cahill, Doyle, Earl, Healy, and Crawford, and the Council members were Evelyn Barron, A.A.F. de Bryon-Faes, E.L. Sommerlad, and E.G. Wright. The Joint Committee was to begin meeting on 9 December, the very next day. Letters were sent to a range of Aboriginal organisations seeking their submissions. Page 262 For the SAFA meeting on 25 January 1966, see leaflet
calling the meeting in Healy Collection, AIATSIS. The leaflet read,
in part, ‘General Meeting of SAFA. 7 pm, For the Coonamble Council’s refusal to allow the AWB to purchase houses in town, see Cecil Homes, ‘A Town finds its Conscience’, People, 26 October 1960, pp. 36 – 8; Heather Goodall, Invasion to Embassy, pp. 283 – 6. The Coonamble demonstration was reported in the SMH, 13 September 1965, p. 5. Page 263 The SAFA General Meeting of 12 October is in SAFA Minutes, Healy Collection, AIATSIS. The APA constitution is in the Curthoys Collection, AIATSIS, courtesy of Barry Corr. Prior to the general SAFA meeting was a Committee meeting on 16 September, attended by Darcy, Aidan, Charles Perkins, John Powles, Jim, Chris Page, and Pat Healy, which prepared the motion for the general meeting on this issue, SAFA Minutes, Healy Collection, AIATSIS. The SAFA Newsletter, headed ‘SAFA – Jan. – Feb. 1966’, is in the Curthoys Collection, courtesy of Barry Corr. Tom Roper wrote a letter to all SAFA members reporting on the summer trips and calling the AGM for 29 March. The Christmas vacation activity, he reported, ‘did not make the headlines’, but it did lead to two in-depth surveys. Copy in Curthoys Collection, AIATSIS, courtesy of Darce Cassidy. Page 264 The trip undertaken by Barry, Darce and Wendy, and perhaps Sue-Ann, is reported in Darce Cassidy, personal communication, based on article ‘Freedom Ride – Twelve Months later’, written by Darce but never published. Darce Cassidy’s description of Bowraville in February 1966 appeared in Comment, April 1966, p. 19, copy in Curthoys Collection, AIATSIS. Page 265 The account of the Royal and Bowra hotels is in Darce Cassidy’s article in Wednesday Commentary, vol. 2, no. 2, 9 March 1966, also quoted in Honi Soit, 20 July 1966. Curthoys Collection, AIATSIS. courtesy of Darce Cassidy. Page 266 A detailed account of the visit to Bowraville is in the Guardian News (Macksville), 16 March 1966, p. 6. It was also reported in the SMH, The Australian, the West Australian, the Courier-Mail, and the Daily Examiner, all 14 March 1966. Page 267 The AWB rejection of the report by the local area welfare officer that there was no discrimination at Bowraville is in the Minutes of the Aborigines Welfare Board, 17 May 1966, item 4, NSWSRO, 4/8546, AO Reel 2794 The charging of two SAFA students for entering the Bowraville reserve without permission is in SMH, 10 May1966, and the dismissal of charges on technical grounds is in Honi Soit, 20 July 1966. In its report on the case, Honi Soit commented: ‘Bowraville will continue to be a “Police town”, as least as far as Aborigines are concerned. Vagrancy will continue to consist of ‘doing something the police don’t like when you haven’t got a job’, and ‘offensive Behaviour’ will continue to mean ‘doing something the police don’t like when you have got a job’. See also the report in Tribune, 20 July 1966, p. 4. Page 268 The work of the Joint Parliamentary Committee during 1966 is recorded in its Interim Report, September 1966, and final report September 1967: ‘Report from the Joint Committee of the Legislative Council and Legislative Assembly upon Aborigines Welfare, Part I – Report and Minutes of the Proceedings’, Papers of the Parliament of New South Wales, Sydney: Government Printer, 1967. A copy of the SAFA submission to the Inquiry is in the Curthoys Collection, AIATSIS, courtesy of Wendy Watson-Ekstein. The transcript of Charles Perkins’s interview on 2 June 1966 is in the ‘Report from the Joint Committee of the Legislative Council and Legislative Assembly upon Aborigines Welfare, Part II – Minutes of Evidence, Papers of the Parliament of New South Wales, Sydney: Government Printer, 1967, pp. 280-1. The deputation to the Chief Secretary, led by Charles Perkins, is recorded in a handwritten note headed ‘News item on ABC national network, Friday 6 May 1966 at 7 pm’, AAF papers, ML MSS 4057/10. The plans to conduct a SAFA survey of conditions in North Queensland was reported in the SMH, 6 September 1966, and the Courier Mail, 6 September 1966. Page 269 For information on Palm Island see Darce Cassidy, ‘Devil’s Island’, Honi Soit, 1966, copy in Curthoys Collection, courtesy of Darce Cassidy. Sue Johnston and Chris page’s attendance at a FCAATSI meeting in Glebe on 15-16 October, and the responses of the executive, are in Minutes FCAATSI meeting, Glebe, 15/16 October 1966, Gordon Bryant papers, folder FCAA 1966 (2), NLA MS 8256. The appointment of Faith Bandler and Joe McGinness as liaison officers is in Rights and Advancement (FCAATSI newsletter), October 1966, no. 3. The comments of the president of OPAL are in the Courier Mail, 7 September 1966. The letter from Elena Bardsley to Chris page is in the Curthoys Collection, AIATSIS, courtesy of Aidan Foy. The letter makes clear that even Kath Walker began to go cold on the idea of participating herself; she was likely to conduct a lecture tour of the US soon and understandably did not want to jeopardise her chances of going. The second investigative trip to Queensland, in February 1967, is mentioned in the leaflet headed ‘Student Action for Aborigines’ Activities since first founded in May 1964’, Curthoys Collection, AIATSIS, courtesy of Wendy Watson-Ekstein. Page 270 The details concerning the holding of the referendum are in Bain Attwood and Andrew Markus, The 1967 Referendum, or When Aborigines Didn’t Get the Vote, Canberra: AIATSIS, 1997. For the establishment of the Council for Aboriginal Affairs see Tim Rowse, Obliged to be Difficult: Nugget Coombs' Legacy in Indigenous Affairs, Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 2000. R.G. Hausfeld, at the School of Pacific Administration and an early chair of the Foundation, gave two detailed papers to the Abschol Conference of 5 June 1965. In them he argued for ‘integration’ rather than ‘assimilation’ as the basis of government policy, since it recognised group loyalties and identities in a way the policy of ‘assimilation’ could not. R.G. Hausfeld, ‘The future of Australian Aboriginal Groups’, Address to National Abschol Conference, Sydney University, 5 June 1965, NUAUS, Sydney, 1965, cyclostyled paper. Page 271 The support for Charles Perkins and SAFA expressed at the Abschol conference of March 1966 is in ‘Abschol’, undated cyclostyled sheet, being a summary of decisions taken on Abschol at NUAUS Annual Meeting, March 1966, Vivienne Abraham Papers, ML MSS 6222/13. In 1968, Tom Roper was asked to take on the job of NUAUS Education Vice President and national Abschol director, which was, he recalls, ‘a terrible bloody time’. Abschol started up a newspaper, Aboriginal Quarterly, in 1968, at the Australian National University. SAFA’s practice of visiting Aboriginal communities in country towns was carried on by Abschol, a group undertaking a fact-finding tour of Queensland Aboriginal reserves and country towns in the summer 1969-1970, which covered 6000 miles in six weeks. See ‘Abschol report on Queensland Trip 1969-1970’, roneoed sheet, Vivienne Abraham Papers, ML MSS 6222/13. SAFA’s call for volunteers for the Dareton trip on 14 July 1967 is in Healy Collection, AIATSIS. The move of Aboriginal people from Menindee to Dareton is in Heather Goodall, Invasion to Embassy, p. 280. In 1961, Joe McGinness, President of FCAA had drawn attention to the fact that the Health Department and the Board were trying to force about 100 people to move from the shanty town, by pulling down vacant shacks and threatening to make everyone move. The FCAA then sent a circular letter to all Aboriginal organisations and trade union movements seeking support ‘for these disinherited people’. The solution, said the circular, was to grant them the land they had been living on for 16 years, give them legal rights to it, connect them to a water supply, and allow them to conduct their own affairs. Though some people had left by then, the shantytown remained. Joe McGinness, President of FCAA, ‘Intolerance by NSW Government to Dareton Aborigines’ Noel Butlin Archives, undated, apparently 1961, ACTU Records, Noel Butlin Archives, N68/1. The actions of the AWB concerning Dareton are in Report of the Aborigines Welfare Board for the Year ended 30th June 1967, Joint Volumes of Papers Presented to the Legislative Council and legislative Assembly, Parliament of NSW, Papers 1967-8, Sydney: Government Printer, 1968, p. 13. Pastor Doug Nicholls’s comments are in Churinga, April-May 1967, p. 23. Page 272 For the students’ petition concerning Dareton, see Petition entitled ‘Health of Aboriginals at Dareton’, NSW Legislative Assembly, 9 August 1967, Joint volumes of Papers presented to the LA and the LC, vol III, 1967, p. 1063. For the AWB approach to the Water Conservation and Irrigation Commission, see AWB Minutes, 17 December 1967, and for the erection of 12 new cottages at the new reserve, see AWB Minutes, 16 July 1968. See the ‘Report from the Joint Committee of the Legislative Council and Legislative Assembly upon Aborigines Welfare, Part I – Report and Minutes of the Proceedings’, Papers of the Parliament of New South Wales, Sydney: Government Printer, 1967. Momentum for an anti-discrimination act was gaining. During the Freedom Ride only Rigby had supported the idea of outlawing racial discrimination. On 4 May 1965 the Sydney Sun had reported that the UK government had just passed a bill outlawing racial discrimination and incitements to racial hatred. Page 273 Aboriginal rights organisations in New South Wales had mixed feelings about the Joint Committee report, and were restive about the delay in legislation. Bev Henwood, for Abschol, complained in ‘It Lies on the Table … How Long?’ Churinga, June-August 1968, pp. 17 – 18. Like many other commentators, she welcomed many aspects of the report, but was disappointed in its adherence to the policy of assimilation. Stan Davey expressed similar reservations in Smoke Signals, December 1967, pp. 23-5. The ‘Aborigines Bill’ underwent its second reading in the Assembly on 18 and 19 February 1969, and in the Council on 26 -7 February and 12 March 1969, NSW Legislative Council and Legislative Assembly, Parliamentary Debates, 42nd Parliament, 2nd Session, 18 February 1969 to 13 March 1969 pp. 3721 – 44, 3763 – 3810, 3962 – 3975, 4044 – 58, 4435-6.
CHAPTER TEN Page 274 For one of the profiles of Charles Perkins, see ‘Charles Perkins’, episode in Five Australians Series, ABC, 1967, AIATSIS, accession no. LV2505. Page 275 For the comments, of Albert Thomas, Neville Kelly and Bill Lloyd, see ‘Report from the Joint Committee of the Legislative Council and Legislative Assembly upon Aborigines Welfare, Part II – Minutes of Evidence, Papers of the Parliament of New South Wales, Sydney: Government Printer, 1967, pp. 170 – 82, 186 – 9. The attempts by Tom Lake, Sye Morgan and Eric Thorne to join the RSL Club in Walgett are evident from a letter from A.J. Russell, Acting National Secretary, RSL, to Mr R. Saunders, Liaison Officer, Council for Aboriginal Affairs, 21 May 1969, RSL papers, Outward Correspondence, Box 7, NLA, MS 6609. A group of law students from the University of Sydney reported in May 1969 that no Aboriginal people had yet been admitted as members of Walgett RSL. P. Tobin, ‘Fringe Dwelling Rural Aborigines and the Law in NSW’, Smoke Signals (March 1970), 43. Reginald Saunders, an Aboriginal ex-serviceman who had become the first Aboriginal commissioned officer in the army, and who was now acting as the Liaison Officer for the newly formed government advisory body, the Council for Aboriginal Affairs, put pressure on the RSL on the men’s behalf. Letter A.J. Russell, Acting National Secretary to Mr R. Saunders, Liaison Officer, Council for Aboriginal Affairs, 21 May 1969, RSL papers, MS 6609, Outward Correspondence, Box 7, NLA. The FCAATSI stand is in Rights and Advancement (FCAATSI Newsletter), no. 19 (May 1969), p. 15. Reg Saunders later participated in the campaign for Aboriginal land rights, and tried to change the RSL’s hard line stance against such rights, The Age (Melbourne), 2 August 1984. Information on the forthcoming ceremony by Aboriginal ex-servicemen at the Cenotaph on 11 July 1969 is in Reveille, 1 June, 1 July, and 1 August 1969. A report entitled ‘Walgett - Then and Now’ in New Dawn, August 1971, pp. 1 – 7, mentioned that there were now Aboriginal members in the Walgett RSL. A copy of the Four Corners program on the admission of Tom Lake to the RSL Club is held at the Australian Institute for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies, Canberra. When I visited Walgett in 1991, Mrs Gladys Lake (now deceased) told me about the admission of Tom Lake and herself to the RSL. The story of the Walgett Foundation is told in Peter Read, Charles Perkins: A Biography, Melbourne: Viking, p. 128. The idea went back at least as far as September 1966, when the local MLAs, Crawford and Renshaw, on behalf of the Walgett Shire Council, had sought funding from the Board for a cultural centre in Walgett, Minutes of the Aborigines Welfare Board, 20 September 1966 NSWSRO, 4/8546, AO Reel 2794. Page 276 Information on the appeal, and the visit of Coombs, is in an article ‘Aborigines in Walgett’ written by ‘Publicity Officer, Aboriginal Foundation, Walgett’ (who was in fact Rod Jepsen) in the Spectator, 25 June 1969, p. 2. The opening of the foundation building is in ‘Walgett – then and now’, New Dawn, August 1971, and Identity, January 1972, p. 17. When I visited in 1991, the local map provided by the Information office still showed the building as the Foundation. Details re This Day Tonight, 12 June 1975, in ‘Moree – Racism Now and Ten years Ago’, ABC Archives, TTC (C) 12. Page 277 The quote from Lyall Munro Senior is in Paul Rea, 'In the Steps of the Freedom Riders', part 2, Newcastle Morning Herald, 4 January 1979, p. 2. Page 278 - 9 Lenore Nicklin’s article, ‘Black and Blue in Boggabilla and Walgett’, appeared in SMH, 30 June 1978, p. 7. Paul Rea’s article on Walgett appeared in the Newcastle Morning Herald, 3 January 1979, p. 1, and on Bowraville on 5 January 1979. Malcolm Brown’s report on a history of conflict in Moree, with incidents in 1976 and 1978, appeared in SMH, 14 February 1983, p. 7. Ben Sandilands’ report on Moree was in the Sun-Herald, 7 December 1980. Page 280 The information about Lyall Munro being charged is in Sandilands, SMH, 5 December 1980. The National Times, 18-24 January 1985, p. 5, reported that in 1980 he had been banned from the town for five years. Sandilands’ Moree report quoted here appeared in the Sun-Herald, 7 December 1980. Malcolm Brown’s report appeared in SMH, 5 December 1982. See also The Bulletin, 30 November 1982, p. 49. The mention of hundreds of Aboriginal people storming around Moree appears in the story in the National Times, 18-24 January 1983, p. 3. Page 281 The incident is described in great detail in Roger Millis, Waterloo Creek, pp. 738-56. The oration by Father Dick Buchhorn is at p. 756. Frank Walker’s story, and the quote from Wal Murray, appeared in the National Times, 18-24 January 1985, p. 5. Information about the history of Darce Cassidy’s tape comes from the Darce Cassidy interview. Page 282 See John Mulvaney, Encounters in Place: Outsiders and Aboriginal Australians, 1606 - 1985, University of Queensland Press, St. Lucia, 1989, 215 – 19. For the wording of the Heritage Commission’s Statement of Significance, see: http://www.ahc.gov.au/cgi-bin/heritage/register/site.pl?016831 Page 284 Information on the cotton-growing industry in Moree can be found in Siobhan McHugh, Cottoning On: Stories of Australian Cotton-Growing, Sydney, Hale and Iremonger, 1996. Page 285 The advertisement for the ‘Building the Bridges’ concert was in the Guardian News, 10 April 1991. The thirtieth anniversary of the Freedom Ride was also marked in the print media. See Hall Greenland, ‘On the Road to Prejudice’, The Australian Magazine, 4 – 5 February 1995, pp. 22 – 7; Stephanie Johnstone, ‘Freedom Ride’[, Insights, May 1995, pp. 12 – 14. Page 286 - 7 The details of the ABC radio programs are: Lorena Allam, ‘Freedom Ride Part II’, Awaye Program, ABC Radio National, 7 August 1995; Ginny Stein, ‘Freedom Riders’ The World Today Program, ABC Regional Radio, Monday to Friday, July 1 – 7, 1995. The letters from Grade 6 pupils, Lyneham Primary School, 1998, to me are in Letters Folder, Curthoys Collection, AIATSIS. Malcolm Brown’s report on Moree appeared in SMH, 17 January 1998, p. 1. Page 288 The commemoration of the Freedom Ride in Moree is reported in the ATSIC News, June 2000, p. 14. Charles Perkins’s comments to the Joint Committee in June 1966 are in the ‘Report from the Joint Committee of the Legislative Council and Legislative Assembly upon Aborigines Welfare, Part II – Minutes of Evidence, Papers of the Parliament of New South Wales, Sydney: Government Printer, 1967, pp. 280-1. His comments to Stuart Rintoul are in Stuart Rintoul, The Wailing: A National Black Oral History, Melbourne: William Heinemann Australia, 1993, p. 287. Page 290 Charles Perkins’s comments to Stuart Rintoul are in Stuart Rintoul, The Wailing, p. 288. Page 291 See Sean Scalmer, ‘Translating Contention: Culture, History, and the Circulation of Collective Action’, Alternatives 25 (2000), 491-514, quotation on p. 507. The leaflet headed ‘Freedom Ride’ concerning protests at the Woomera Detention Centre was sponsored by Fair Go for Asylum Seekers, National Union of Students, Socialist Alliance, The Greens, and Resistance; copy in Curthoys Collection, AIATSIS, courtesy of Carol Johnston. EPILOGUE: WHATEVER HAPPENED TO … ? Page 294 For Charles Perkins’s life history, see Peter Read, Charles Perkins: a biography, 1990, rev. ed. 2001, Allen and Unwin. For his warning of the dangers of violence, see Sam Lipski, ‘Alien Son: The Dark World of Charles Perkins’, The Bulletin, 24 September 1966, p. 31. Page 295 For Charles Perkins’s growing opposition to communist influence in the Aboriginal movement, see his article, ‘Aboriginal Militancy’, 25 February 1966. Here he advocated ‘physical and moral militancy’, which he saw as bringing Aboriginal people together as ‘a social entity’. From a sense of group identity they would gain pride and self respect ‘in themselves, as aborigines, and in the traditions and history of their predecessors’. He noted that the Communist party was working hard to gain a foothold in the aboriginal community, and that the number of aboriginal members of the Communist Party had tripled in recent years. ‘The simple fact is’, he said, ‘that Communists will stand by aborigines under any circumstances and genuinely (it seems) take an interest in the aboriginal people. This represents short-term benefits for long-term slavery and yet who can blame any depressed group for accepting any hand of help even if it eventually has undesirable consequences’. See Charles Perkins, ‘Aboriginal Militancy’, 25 February 1966, cyclostyled paper, copy in Curthoys Collection, AIATSIS, courtesy Jim Spigelman. In August 1967 Perkins said of FCAATSI that he ‘could no longer agree with some of the methods and individuals of the Federal council’ where Aboriginal opinion did ‘not exist in any significant manner’: The Australian, 23, 24 August 1967, quoted in Peter Read, ‘Cheeky, Insolent and Anti-white: The Split in the Federal Council for the Advancement of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders – Easter 1970’. Australian Journal of Politics and History, vol 326, no 1, 1990, pp. 75-6. Charles Perkins’s comment that the Council for Reconciliation was a ‘sell out’ and a product of the ‘lunatic left’ appeared in The Australian, 18 December 1991. For commentary on Charles Perkins’s abrasive style, see Alan Ramsey, ‘Survival of the stubborn’, Sydney Morning Herald, 3 June 2000 p. 43. The Australian editorial on Charles Perkins’s passing appeared on 19 October 2000. Page 296 For details of the state funeral, see SMH, 26 October 2000, pp. 1 and 5. For Jim Spigelman’s speech, see p. 5, with a full transcript at http://www.lawlink.nsw.gov.au See ‘A Freedom Rider’s Journey Ends’, SMH, 19 October 2000, p. 1. For Evelyn Scott’s comment, see SMH, 19 October 2000, p. 1; for Isabelle Coe’s comment, see The Australian, 19 October 2000. For John Pilger, see The Guardian, 20 October 2000, p. 26. Page 297 The public walk to the wake at Bennelong Point is in SMH, 26 October 2000, p. 5. My obituary is in Aboriginal History, vol. 24, 2000, pp. 256-7. The first Charles Perkins Memorial Oration is reported in SMH, 26 October 2001, p. 6. A fuller account of Pearson’s argument can be found in his book, Our Right to Take Responsibility, Cairns, Qld.: Noel Pearson and Associates, 2000. Page 298 Bernard Lagan’s profile appeared in the SMH on 17 June 2000. One of the profiles that appeared when Jim Spigelman was sworn in as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of New South Wales was David Marr, ‘The Freedom Rider’s Supreme Court’, Sydney Morning Herald, 16 May 1998, p. 36. Spigelman’s address to Sydney Grammar on 5 December 1998 is recorded in full at http://www.lawlink.nsw.gov.au Page 299 See Hall Greenland, Red Hot: The Life and Times of Nick Origlass, 1908 – 1996, Sydney: Wellington Lane Press, 1998. Page 304 Information on Machteld Hali comes from her website, http://www.shoal.net.au/~machteld/ also see http://www.artsrush.com.au/hali/hali1.htm Page 306 Information on Sue Johnston from her letter to me, 15 April 2002, Letters Folder, Curthoys Collection, AIATSIS. See also Susan Johnston, We Came to Australia, Sydney: Methuen, 1980, and Aboriginal Civilisation, Methuen, Sydney: Methuen, 1981.
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