On this day, 200 Gurindji stockmen, house servants and their families, led by Vincent Lingiari, walked off a cattle station at Wave Hill in Australia’s Northern Territory and remained on strike for seven years. Though initially interpreted merely as a strike against working and living conditions, the primary demand was for return of some of the traditional lands of the Gurindji people, which had covered approximately 3,250 square kilometres of the Northern Territory before European settlement. On 16 August 1975, Prime Minister Gough Whitlam was finally able to give the rights to a piece of land back to the Gurindji people in a highly symbolic handover ceremony. It was a key moment in the movement for Aboriginal land rights in Australia, which was one of the main events leading to the passing of the Aboriginal Land Rights Act 1976.
The Wave Hill Walk-Off
23rd August 1966