Commemorating 40 Years of the Freedom Ride
Freedom Riders
A group of about 30 Sydney University students (including two Aboriginal people) who, in February 1965, undertook a 2,300 km bus tour of northern NSW towns investigating and protesting discrimination against Aborigines. Considered by some to be the most significant act in Aboriginal-European relations in the twentieth century, this tour marked the beginning of substantial European awareness of the problems of Aboriginal people. It was led by Charles Perkins and Jim Spigelman, with help from Ted Noffs and Bill Ford.
Ian Howie-Willis - Encyclopaedia of Aboriginal Australia
Shellmap of route |
Map from 'Freedom Ride: a freedom rider remembers' (361k) |
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Why the Freedom Ride?
Darce Cassidy's website - The US freedom rides
Darce Cassidy's website - Civil rights demonstration Sydney
Charles Perkins on The Freedom Ride
The Freedom ride was organised by Students Action for Aborigines
Planning for the trip
Letter from Australian Aboriginal Fellowship 
The Freedom Ride 12 – 26 February 1965
Sydney
Diary Entry 12 February (transcript)
Original diary entry for 12 February 
Country tour in bid to aid aboriginals, Herald, 12 February 1965
Wellington 13 February 1965
Diary Entry Wellington (transcript)
Gulargambone 14 February 1965
Diary Entry Sunday Gulargambone (transcript)
Original diary entry for Gulargambone
Copy of ‘Authority to enter and be upon an Aborigines Reserve’ issued by the Aborigines Welfare Board to B. Corr, D. Cassidy, W. Golding and S. Loftus for the Gulargambone Aborigines Reserve, 14 January 1966
Walgett
Diary Entry Monday Walgett (transcript)
Original diary entry for Walgett
Darce Cassidy’s website – Walgett RSL Club
RSL men rap the color-bar ‘riders’, Herald, 16 February 1965
Background Information on Walgett
Moree 16-17 February, 1965
Diary entry Tuesday Moree (transcript)
Original diary entry for Tuesday Moree
Diary entry Wednesday Moree (transcript)
Original diary entry for Wednesday Moree
SAFA notice to the citizens of Moree
Darce Cassidy’s website – Pool ban
Back to Moree, 20 February, 1965
Diary entry Saturday Back to Moree (transcript)
Darce Cassidy’s website – Return to Moree
Boggabilla, 18 February 1965
Diary Entry Boggabilla (transcript)
Original diary entry for Boggabilla
Diary Entry Travelling after Boggabilla (transcript)
Original diary entry for Travelling after Boggabilla
Students get new bus driver, Herald, 22 February 1965
Original diary entry Saturday Back to Moree
Grafton, 21 February, 1965
Diary entry Sunday Travelling to Grafton (transcript)
Original diary entry for Sunday Travelling to Grafton
Diary entry Monday Grafton (transcript)
Original Diary Entry Monday Grafton p. 25 - 27
Lismore, Cabbage Tree Island and Gunderimbah, 22-23 February 1965
Diary entry Tuesday Lismore and Cabbage Tree Island (transcript)
Original Diary entry Tuesday Lismore and Cabbage Tree Island p. 27-28
Bowraville, 24 February, 1965
Diary entry Bowraville (transcript)
Original diary entry for Bowraville p. 29 - 33
Kempsey, Burnt Bridge Reserve, Greenhill Reserve, 24-25 February, 1965
Diary Entry Thursday Kempsey (transcript)
Original diary entry for Thursday Kempsey
Taree, Purfleet, Newcastle, 26 February, 1965
Diary entry Taree Friday (transcript)
Original diary entry for Taree Friday
Back in Sydney, 26 February, 1965
Original Diary entry 26 February
After the Freedom Ride
What the Freedom Riders Said:
The student bus: SAFA interviewed, in Outlook, Vol. 9, No. 2, April 1965, p. 4-10 (interviews with Charles Perkins, Jim Spigelman, Patricia Healy, Patrick Dawson and John Butterworth)
SAFA interviewed [manuscript version] Part 1, Part 2, MS 4185, Freedom Ride Papers of Pat Healy, AIATSIS Library, Canberra.
Student Action for Aborigines Report, p. 47-48. Perkins, Charles: [FCAATSI] Conference on Aboriginal Affairs 1965
Beth Hansen: Our Freedom Ride, in Overland, No. 32, Spring 1965, p. 38-40
Jim Spigelman: Reactions to the SAFA Tour, in Dissent, No. 14, Winter 1965, p. 44-49
Jim Spigelman: Student Action for Aborigines, in Vestes, The Australian University Review, Vol. III, No. 2, June 1965, p. 116-118
Follow up meeting, Freedom Ride and You: Public Meeting [SAFA, April 1965?]
Submission to the Joint Committee of the Legislative Council and Legislative Assembly upon Aborigines Welfare’, June 1966
Today
Ann Curthoys: The Freedom Ride – Its Significance Today
Reconciliaction is retracing the Freedom Ride from 12 - 26 February 2005
