Charles Perkins at the time of the Freedom Rides

Freedom Rides

By Kezia Dawkins

The Freedom Ride set off on the night of the 12 February 1965. Its aim was to campaign, in the country towns of New South Wales, against racial discrimination that was rife in these insular communities.

In 1965 Aboriginal people were not citizens. They were dispossessed from the land, which they lived on before colonisation. They were forced to all live together on small pockets of land on the edge of towns. These places were called reserves and missions. The living conditions of these places were atrocious. There was sub-standard housing, with people living in shanties. There was no plumbing, no electricity and no amenities. Things were hard for Aboriginals on these reserves, and even harder in the towns. In town there was unbearable racism. Aboriginals did not have access to amenities, such as cafes, cinemas, theatres, hotels and swimming pools; things taken for granted today. Not only that, but there was a lot of verbal, and sometimes physical, abuse, just because they were Aboriginal.

In the 1960’s, through television and the press, Australia was also becoming aware of what was happening in Southern States of America with the civil rights movement. In Canberra on May 1964, 2000 university students protested in front of the US consulate supporting the Civil Rights Bill which was before Congress.

Within all this social awareness and revolution came Charles Perkins. Charles had enrolled at Sydney University in 1963, and along with Gary Williams, made up the first Aboriginal students to attend Sydney University. Charles had travelled abroad to play soccer, and in doing so had been exposed to different societal behaviour. He believed that his people deserved more, and that racial discrimination was holding them back. Thus Charles decided to confront white Australians about their treatment of Aboriginal people.

To do this he decided to duplicate the US Freedom rides, get a bus and travel rural NSW to protest against the segregation that was prevalent. 29 other students set off with Charles on the night of the 12 February.

The first two towns they went to were Wellington and Gulargumbone. Here they conducted surveys with Indigenous and non-Indigenous people to find out about the living conditions and their points of view. This reaffirmed what they thought the situation was - extremely bad. Though, because of the deficiency of contact and support from the Indigenous community, they did not protest in these towns, instead moving onto the next ones.

On the 15 February the students pulled up in Walgett. They had decided that to confront the racism they would picket the Walgett RSL. The RSL was symbolic. It was in the memory of the past wars, and the ANZAC, that Australia found the deepest sense of ‘mateship’ and nationhood. It was high in the Australian culture and psyche. Unfortunately this comradeship did not extend to Aboriginal ex-servicemen. They were only allowed to use the RSL facilities on ANZAC day, if at all.

The Walgett RSL protest went extremely well. A cadet reporter for the Herald was in Walgett at the time and took some photos of the protest; finally they had the media coverage that gave them the greater audience the students were hoping for. That night the students were asked to leave the church hall that they were spending the night in. The bus left Walgett in the middle of the night, but as they were leaving the town a grazier’s son rammed the bus off the road. Luckily no one was injured, and coincidently there was a journalist on board, making the incident headlines in the Sydney Morning Herald.

Onto Moree for the Freedom Riders, where they were met by more members of the press. In Moree they decided to address the segregation of the local swimming pool. The protester had a three point plan here, firstly to protest out the front of the council chambers, then to take Aboriginal children to the pool and lastly to hold a public meeting in the evening. It was a great success with the students feeling that they had desegregated the public pool.

By this stage the Freedom Ride had national and international press coverage. The bus stopped along the east coast at Lismore, Bowraville and Kempsey before returning home to Sydney.

With their return there was greater awareness of Indigenous issues rurally. They had successfully stirred up debate on the state of Aboriginal affairs around Australia. With the press coverage they had obtained, came pressure from outside and within Australia for reform. This debate was maintained up the 1967 Referendum. The Freedom Rides have also been credited with helping end the ‘White Australia’ policy.