Transcript of MS4186 Freedom Ride Diary Curthoys A 1965
Sydney - Wellington, Saturday 12 February 1965
Saturday
12.30 Depart University
6.00 Arrive Orange
8.00 Breakfast – Orange Presbyterian Fellowship, TV interview
9.30 Leave Orange
12.30 Arrive Wellington
Diary Entry Wellington
Went to settlement outside reserve. Police warned us not to go into reserve. Interviewed about ten tin shacks of people. Most of us found the questionnaires unsuitable. Houses of tin, mud floors, very overcrowded, kids had eye diseases, had to cart water (very unhealthy) from river. People fairly easy to talk to, kids quite friendly. General picture of extreme poverty but not a great deal of social discrimination. Got seven interviews on the settlement just outside the reserve, and two in the town. General picture of scarcity of jobs. Mainly garden work, which is very seasonal. Average of three months for year out of work. Some working on a dam nearby. Some did shearing jobs. Did not encounter or hear of any women with jobs at all. Did not seem to know much about social services etc.
Lunch 1.30. Apparently Jim S and a few others came across some discrimination in a pub. An aboriginal was allowed in only because he was with us. The publican said he only prevented aborigines from coming in "if they were disorderly". Charlie went in and there was some discussion between the barmaid and the publican before they served him. Some aborigines told us they had been kicked out of this pub, the "Courthouse". Left Wellington and arrived in Dubbo about 6.30 pm. Had tea, went for a swim, then to the Dubbo hotel. We noticed a sign above the doorway of the halfway hotel - "Aborigines not allowed in the Lounge without the Licensee's permission". We didn't do anything. Slept in the Methodist Church. . .
Diary Entry Sunday. Gulargambone.
Up at 6.30. Left at 9.15. Heard some radio publicity about us.
Arrived in Gulargambone about 11.30. Very small. Told that only certain aborigines allowed in pub, and aborigines not served in the cafe (the only one). Got permission to go on the reserve (for 1 hour only), Everyone very pleased with the interviews. The people better off than at Wellington, but not much. Reserve closer in, seemed healthier.
Spoke to Mr and Mrs Baxter - very old and very interesting. Apparently town jobs for aborigines impossible to get, shearing jobs pay well but are uncertain and seasonal. Welfare board and police very much disliked. Housing very poor. In the afternoon we took a few surveys in the town. Left Gulargambone at about 4 pm and arrived in Walgett about 10 to 7. On the way Jerry (from S.A.) demonstrated boomerang throwing and some of us had a go. At Walgett we settled into the Church hall and then went for a swim. Later the boys had a few basketball matches with the local aborigines' basketball teams.
Diary entry Monday Walgett
Up at 7.00. Heard announcement over radio that we intended to picket RSL at 12.00. All surprised that news had got out. Had meeting and decided to acquiesce in police demands only to point where acquiescence would break up demo. Then would passively resist. Also decided that anyone acting violently would be suspended immediately, and later subjected to general meeting at which it would be decided to send the person home or not. Went to the Namoi River settlement in the morning and did some surveys for a few hours. Most of the people I spoke to very shy and diffident, and said they were quite happy. Conditions very bad - had to use filthy water, tin shacks with mud floors, overcrowded. Said Welfare board OK. The impression we got later from the town aborigines was much more critical and discontented. Obviously considerable discrimination in the town - especially the Oasis Hotel, the RSL, a frock shop. Aborigines not accepted socially by white community. About 12.00 we began to demonstrate outside the RSL. We just stood in a long line outside the RSL holding placards like "Acceptance, Not Segregation" "End Colour Bar" "Bullets did not Discriminate" "Walgett - Australia's Disgrace" "Why Whites Only" "Educate the Whites" and so on. People gathered round, many jeering, many just watching. The RSL characters offered us cold drinks, but we refused them. At lunchtime many heated discussions broke out. Charlie Perkins spoke terrifically and I think most people listened very attentively. As time went on, more and more aborigines joined in the discussions. Later on we picketed a dress shop which refuses to serve aborigines. The women closed the shop up after about half an hour. We went back to the RSL and continued picketing (RSL was picketed continuously from noon to about 10 to 7). After five a lot more people came to argue with us and it seemed as if half the town was there. The feeling in the town seemed very excited. We went back to the church hall, then for a swim in the Barwon River. About 9 o'clock the Anglican minister came round and told us we had to get out. He reckoned that he didn't know we were a mixed group (which he did he saw us when we first arrived), that we had left beer cans in the hall (which was true) and that we had antagonised people. Charlie had a real go at him because he obviously disliked us because we demonstrated (he had earlier in the day refused us permission to stay a second night and then changed his mind). Anyhow we packed up and got out.
About 200 aborigines and some whites came to see us off. We went off quickly, leaving Alex Mills behind because it was obvious there was considerable hostility in the ranks of the pub leavers. About 3 miles out of town a truck tried to push us off the road. There was a stream of about 10 cars following us and we thought they were full of hostile people and so we were all pretty worried. On the third try he scraped the truck along the side of the bus and forced the bus driver to swerve off the road. It tipped slightly but not right over. Charlie yelled out very dramatically "All the girls up the back" and we were half waiting for an ambush or something. But as it turned out the cars contained all friendly people. One of them went back to get the police. When the police came they took statements and then we all went back to Walgett where statements were taken and we made a number of phone calls. Then we all got back on the bus (this time with Alex) and went on the road to Moree.
At Collarenabri we stopped and slept in the park (illegally). At 6.00 o'clock we all got up so we wouldn't be seen (later we found out we had been seen by the police - it was on the radio) and went to Moree. We arrived at Moree at about 8.30 a.m.
Diary Entry Tuesday Moree
Spent the morning cleaning up and writing letters, sending telegrams, etc. Had a very good general meeting when we discussed just what we were doing, and what to do about Derek Molloy and John Gowdie who weren't from Sydney Uni. who had joined the bus later on Alec's invitation and who didn't really agree with our principles. We decided 27:2 with 1 abstention that everyone on the bus would be bound by majority decisions. This means the two who opposed demonstrations would have to join in them, or leave. They still haven't decided what to do.
Heard Eric Baume - disgusting. Herald article very good, we liked it very much. In the afternoon we split up to do the survey. Sue Reeves and I met Mr Brown and he gave us contacts with the very few aborigines employed in the town. We had tea in a rush and then were really obliged to stay on for the Youth Fellowship MYF thing. The minister was very good, but then showed us a film - the most disgusting thing I've seen about how lovely life is in South Africa. A few of us walked out after about 5 mins in disgust and later learned that nearly all the SAFA group had walked out. Hall Greenland got up afterwards and made a statement about what apartheid meant. The minister agreed with us. Then we left seeing "The 13 Ghosts" and went to the pub. Came back about 10.30 and flaked out.
Diary entry Wednesday Moree
Woke up fairly early. Had breakfast, then Catering Committee meeting. Then we went out to the Mission and the Reserve for the survey. By this time there was plenty of press, TV, and radio in Moree. The mission had much better housing etc. than we'd seen anywhere, but there was a manager in control who was apparently very disliked and seemed rather unpleasant. The answers we got were very subdued and the fact that the manager and the press were wandering about didn't help. Then we stopped off at the Bingara Rd reserve where the conditions were terrible, same as Wellington, Gulargambone and Walgett. The people there were very friendly and spoke out for themselves. Many of them agreed to come to the big meeting we had planned for the night. Then we went back to the Church Hall and held a meeting to discuss our plans. It was a very heated meeting with a lot of dissensions and disagreements. But finally we worked it out to (1) Have I hr picket outside the Council Chambers protesting against the swimming baths discriminatory clause (2) Go to baths and take 6 aboriginal children in (3) Hold big meeting in the night.
We did the picket, but nobody much came around, and we all boiled, it was very hot. The we went to the swimming pool. The manager refused to let the six aboriginals in and so we held up our posters and signs. After about 25 mins they let the boys in. Then Charlie arrived with a bus load of 21 aboriginal boys and they had to be all let in. We had a good swim and Charlie really talked well to all the white kids whose attitude as rather ambivalent really. After this we took the kids back to the mission.
A little girl with a fantastic voice led the singing and we sang Beatle songs all the way back. The spirit was tremendous. We all got out of the bus and everyone was running around getting their photo taken, and swapping addresses.
We went back to the hall, had tea, and then went off to the Memorial Hall for the public meeting we'd arranged. There were over 200 people there and at first the atmosphere was very hostile, with lots of jeering and interjection.
Jim Spigelman spoke first, about who we were and how we came to be there. Then John Powles, on the survey. Then Charlie. The questions were sometimes antagonistic but there were some very sympathetic ones too. Then a Mr Kelly got up and moved that the clause in the statute books about segregation in the swimming pool be removed. This was seconded by Bob Brown, and accepted 88 votes to 10. We were all thrilled to bits.
Then we invited the people to come to the church hall for tea and coffee, which lot of people did. That was pretty good. Then a lot of people got into all sorts of discussions. We took the aborigines back to the mission, but were only allowed to the gate. Finally after further discussions, we went to bed.
Diary Entry Boggabilla
Up and away by 9.30. A lot of travelling. Arrived in Boggabilla at 12.15 and had lunch in a beer garden which was shaded by grape vines. Then we went to the reserve and were greeted by the manager, whom we later found to be apparently a real so and so. We went around and spoke to a lot of people. Many of them told us that the manager had told them not to answer our questions, but they intended to do so anyway. The manager and press wandered round authoritatively, making this difficult. Even so the people were the most talkative, cooperative and straightforwardly critical of all the aborigines we've met.
The houses were weatherboard and very overcrowded. There was not water on, but the river water was taken to taps in the yard. There was no gas or anything, and no electricity (I think). Very often there weren't windows and doors. We heard some terrible stories such as the fact that the police came in the houses without knocking whenever they liked, to find out who had been drinking. Also they "did what they liked with the women". We found too that the children went to their own school, the only Education Dept controlled one in the state, and very few got beyond 6th grade. Those who went beyond did their schooling by correspondence, even though there is a high school 15 miles away.
Most of the girls become domestics, and according to the ones I spoke to the conditions are terrible. The men are usually shearers. Everyone we spoke to agreed that they would rather live in the town than on the reserve. At the end we got them all together and Charlie gave a bit of a speech saying we would try to do something about the houses, and that they should write to the Welfare Board. They were very enthusiastic.
Then we got on the bus and went straight to Warwick, arriving about 9.30. We had tea at an all night cafe and the came back to the Methodist Church hall to sleep.
Diary Entry Travelling after [Boggabilla.]
Up at 6.30. Went round to swimming pool to have a shower. Left at 8.30 leaving Charlie behind and got to Tenterfield at about 11.30. There we heard from Bob Brown that they day after we left Moree (yesterday) about 60 aboriginal children tried to get in the pool after school. Up to 5.30 about 30 were allowed in, some with Bob Brown, others not. At 5.30 pm the manager refused to allow any more aborigines in and at 6pm the baths were closed (usually they stay open till 8pm). The baths opened again at 7pm and soon after this the mayor stated that the segregationalist statute of June 6th 1955 would be enforced.
On hearing this we rang up the Rev. Ryan (Methodist minister whose church we stayed at) and he confirmed this news and told us not to come back because we weren't wanted. We also rang Mr Kelly (the man who moved the desegregation motion at the Moree meeting) and he also confirmed the statement. Jim made a press statement, and the press ascertained from the mayor himself that the report was true.
We held a general meeting, the first we'd had without Charlie . We decided, after much heated discussion, to go straight to Inverell, thus leaving out Tabulam. From Inverell where we would stay the night we would contact Charlie and he would arrive at Inverell at 9.30pm on Saturday. From there we would go straight to Moree and take strong action of some kind, such as a 24hr picket or something. The decision was unanimous.
We pretended to the press until the bus got going that we were still going to Tabulam, in case the news got out. Once the bus got going we announced that we were going to Moree. We stopped at Glen Innes for half an hour and got to Inverell at about 6.30 p.m. On the radio we heard that we were still going to Tabulam, so the news had not leaked out yet. Also we rang Charlie, and learned that he had been met at the airport by a flood of pressmen. We read in the news about the poor girls getting, abused, which was only faintly true really. We stayed in the park thing behind the "Twin Swans" motel just out of Inverell. Some of the boys went into town to ring up Charlie, who had apparently been flabbergasted by all the pressmen. He was very enthusiastic about our returning to Moree, and apparently Ted Noffs agreed with him.
Diary Entry Saturday Back to Moree
Woke early. We were all full of burrs from sleeping on the ground. Gerry Mason had had a good night because we all put in to pay for a hotel room for him. On the radio we heard that aboriginal children had been demonstrating outside the Moree baths for the last two afternoons, which was terrific news. All of us are very determined that we are doing the right thing despite the mayor's warning over the radio that our return would cause harm.
We went to Inverell airport to meet Charlie, who told us about all the press conferences and the TV interview he had in Sydney, which was apparently very successfully. Then we went on to Moree, arriving at about 12.30 pm. We went straight to Thompson's Row, where the "town" aborigines live. We found that that morning the aboriginal children there had been given swimming club tickets which meant that they could enter the baths at any time. The children from Bingara Rd and the Mission had not got these tickets, and were refused entry.
The Thompson's Row people obviously felt little or no sympathy for the other aborigines and were not prepared to fight for them. A case of "divide and rule" as most of us soon realised. Then we went to the Mission. Bill refused to drive the bus onto the mission, so Charlie and Beth went onto the mission. The manager wouldn't let them stay and so they only had time to ask about 4 or 5 of the kids to come along. Sue and Chris went in Bob Brown's car to get some kids from the Bingara Rd shanty town. We all congregated at the shop opposite the baths, and the bus left us. Very quickly a huge and noisy crowd gathered.
We had to wait quite a while before Charlie could take the children to the baths. There were 9 of them and they were refused admission. Then we all went to the swimming pool and lined up behind the children, continually requesting permission to enter, Charlie started talking to the crowd, but there was a lot of hissing and booing. Then he went to the front of the line and when he refused to move was grabbed and taken away from the line. Then John Powell, Lou, Beth, Alex, myself and a couple of others were removed by the mayor first asking us if we would move, us saying no (individually) and then they put their hand on our back and took us away from the line. Chris Page sat down and was carried off. Those of us who had been walked off were prevented from rejoining the line as we had intended. Angry discussion broke out everywhere. I have never met such hostile, hate-filled people. The hostility seemed to be directed at us as university student intruders rather than to the aborigines. The aboriginal children told us that they had been called "scabby black ------ niggers" . One child had been knocked down. The poor kids were very frightened. In all the scuffling Darcy with his tape was knocked down by a man John B and I had been arguing with. Jim S was punched and knocked down in the course of an argument. He lay quite dazed on the ground for a few seconds. There were a number of arrests and several fights, especially the one between two women.
The women were particularly hostile and I had several remarks "Who did you sleep with last night" etc directed at me. The kids weren't nearly as hostile as they parents. All the hostilities continued. Tomatoes and eggs were thrown. The police cleared everyone away from the entrance except us, and during all the mess those of us who had been marched off managed to sneak back.
The police obviously didn't know what to do. Then they began to erect a fence, meaning that the area we were in would be defined council property. The crowd were all on the other side of the fence. The police came up and warned us that if we stayed the violence would get much worse. We decided to stay, continuing to insist on being allowed to enter the pool with the aboriginal children. Tomatoes and eggs continued to be thrown.
Then - breakthrough! The mayor came up to us and stated categorically that he would be prepared to sign a motion to rescind the 1955 statute we were protesting against, and would get two other aldermen to co-sign it. We started having a discussion then and there, but then the mayor and three other aldermen (Mills, Jones, and James) went into the baths and had a private discussion with our tour executive (Charlie, Jim, and Pat). While they had their discussion we sat outside singing freedom songs, e.g. "We shall Overcome", "If you Miss Me at the Back of the Bus", "I'm so Glad", "Sinner Man" and so on.
Then they came out and stated that if we agreed, the Mayor would put forward a motion, signed by himself and the other three, to have the motion rescinded and to consider an alternative motion which would have entry based on health criteria only. We took a vote on it and unanimously agreed that this meant that we had won. We decided to leave (it was now 5.30 pm). The police (who had been wonderful the whole time, obviously directed to be so from the powers that be ) escorted us through the crowd to the bus. That was possibly the worst part.
We walked single file though the crowd who threw eggs, tomatoes, stones, and spat at us. We bundled into the bus and closed all the windows. Eggs and tomatoes were still thrown. Then we all moved off. About 30 cars tried to follow us but the police stopped them. About ten miles out of Moree we stopped, to wait for the press, Sue J, Charlie and Jerry Mason. Charlie came back, and made a radio statement while we waited for the others. Finally they all came and we set off again.
We stopped at Gravesend for tea. In the pub we met some very sympathetic people - hope that's an indication. Got to Inverell "Twin Swans" Motel at about 10.30 pm. I was absolutely exhausted. Took 2 aspirin and flaked out but apparently quite a few stayed up late drinking coffee. We got first place in the 11 o'clock news.
Diary Entry Sunday Travelling to Grafton
Up early and away by 9.30. Traveled to Grafton, going through beautiful country. We stopped at Grafton for lunch. There Charlie and Jim carried out some investigations about getting another bus, as Bill still refused to take us any further. They managed to get another bus, at the cost of 240 pounds. We decided to get the bus, and to call on Noffs to raise an appeal for us to cover costs. Then Charlie rang Mr Seint who said don't get another bus, we would get another driver. Bill still refused to take us any further, and was extremely angry because Mr Seint had reversed his, Bill's, decision. So we took our stuff off the second bus which we had begun to pack and put it all back on the first bus.
On hearing we could keep the old bus, we all decided to call off the public appeal, as we wanted to maintain our independence as far as possible.
After much waiting, and mucking around we went round to the Methodist Church Hall, which we'd just lined up. We had a terrific meal for a change, sang songs etc. until we went to bed.
One thing wonderful about this trip is the wonderful group spirit we've developed after the the first few days. Everything is done very democratically and in fact our meetings are rather funny, with little points being debated at length until we realise how stupid it is. After the first few days we made our meetings much more formal, so as to get everything decided.
Another thing, the singing has developed as we go along. At first no one was interested in singing but as we've gone along the singing has grown. Today on the bus we made up two songs - one to the tune of "Green Grow the Rushes - Oh" which goes like this:
I'll sing you one oh
Go where the buses go
What is your one oh?
One for the bus that carried us through
And ever more shall be so.
Two for the aboriginals on the bus
Upon the freedom ride
-
oh
Three three the aldermen of Moree
Four for the cops who guarded us
Five for the knuckles on his chin
Six for the kids we tried to take in
Seven for the pressmen who came with us
Eight for the eggs upon his head
Nine for the nine lives we all have
Ten for those dumped in the crowd.
We also made up another song which went something like this, to the tune of "Waltzing Matilda":
Once a jolly freedom rider
Stood outside a swimming pool
Under the shade of a ten foot cop
And he sang as he combed the egg shell from his hairy mop
Who'll come a desegregating with me
Desegregating........ etc
Up came a coloured kid to swim at the swimming pool
Up jumped the students and grabbed him with glee
And so it goes on, I forget the rest.
Diary Entry Monday Grafton
Up early - had to be out before 9.00 o'clock because a kindergarten uses the hall. We spent the morning relaxing, writing up things. Today became rather a farce - everything we did was photographed, whether it was eating, walking along the street, having a meeting, etc. 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.
We had a general meeting, and discussed SAFA's future policy. It was a pretty heated discussion, revolving around the question of whether SAFA would aim to raise scholarships or not. We rejected the motion which Hall moved, which opposed SAFA scholarships, but all realised that no definitive policy decisions can be made yet.
Then we all went for a swim, getting photographed all the way. It was extremely relaxing. Then lunch, and a rest. We a organised a watermelon eating competition, each of about nine of us with a quarter of a watermelon. Charlie had more or less challenged the rest of us to it, but he ended up coming second last. We continued to have a rest, send letters, etc.
At 6 o'clock the new driver arrived. He seemed pretty hard to get on with. The first thing he said was "Take the sign off the bus", the second "I'm not going into a hornet's nest".
Anyhow we got going, and arrived in Lismore at about 8.30pm. The boys slept at the Lismore showground and the girls were billeted out. Lou, Pat, and I stayed at Vic and Tess Brill's. They were extremely interesting and Mrs Brill particularly knew a lot about the Lismore racial problem. It was a terrific coincidence, because I happened to have met Mr Brill before.
Diary Entry Tuesday Lismore and Cabbage Tree Island
We had an absolutely heavenly sleep, a hot bath and a wonderful breakfast. We arrived at Lismore Post Office at 9.30 am., and went to Cabbage Tree Island. A lot of press men and sympathisers like Mrs Brill came too. Cabbage Tree Island was very interesting but the reserve was really very much like any other reserve.
The coop. shop was OK and so were some of the houses, but others did not have water or electricity. The manager seemed to be a real bastard.
We got some interesting surveys and talked to a lot of the aborigines there. Then we went to the Workers' Club for lunch (free) and then to Gunderimbah settlement. The houses there were by far better than any others, but still too small and overcrowded. Pastor Frank Roberts lived there. The worst thing about it was that it was built just outside the Lismore shire boundaries. When the houses were first built there had been a terrific outcry against having them built in Lismore proper. Being just outside the boundary they had no garbage service.
We left Gunderimbah and went straight on to Coff's Harbour, and stayed in the Scouts' Hall there.
On the whole a lot of us felt the day had been far too loosely organised and we could have done a lot more if we had organised ourselves better. Also the discipline was getting a bit lax, and Charlie got up in the bus and said we ought to tighten up on discipline.
Diary Entry Bowraville
Up early as usual. Had breakfast, which included a horrible rice and salmon mess. The hall was very nice, and had showers for a change. Jerry Mason sold many of us small carved boomerangs. Channel 7 was hanging round a bit - I'm sure they were all kicking themselves that they hadn't got on to us until now. We read in the Moree "Champion" that Bob Brown had had his shop pelted with eggs and that his sister in law had been threatened. Things looked pretty grim for poor old Bob Brown.
Left about 10 o'clock - the press had kept us waiting considerably. The new driver panders to the press a lot more than Bill did. Went to Bowraville, arriving about 11.30 am. Had an early lunch. We'd hardly arrived when this woman, the president or secretary or something of a local Aborigines Welfare Committee, assured us there was no discrimination in Bowraville, and told us all about how wonderful her committee was.
Then we split up to do our surveys. Some scouted round the town to find out the situation. A group of us went out to the reserve which was about one and a half miles out of town. It was controlled by the Welfare Board but didn't have a manager. The police looked after it in general, and a welfare board officer apparently came round sometimes. The conditions were very bad. The houses were weatherboard, very run down, and hadn't been looked after for 15 years (the houses were 26 years old). They were extremely overcrowded.
The first house I went to there were 5 women and I don't know how many children. Two of the women were deserted wives, and the other three didn't have husbands. Later I spoke to a girl who worked down in Sydney who was very outspoken. She said the aboriginal people should stand up for themselves - "they make me mad sometimes". The press wandered around like flies as usual.
The general picture we got from talking to the people on the reserve was one of extreme lack of job opportunity. Apparently there aren't many jobs available in Bowraville anyway, and the white population gets all there are. The discrimination in the town was absolutely shocking - by far the worst we'd encountered. We learnt there was a partition in the picture theatre separating the aborigines from the whites. The aborigines had to buy their tickets separately and could only enter the theatre after the picture had started.
We learnt of a number of segregated pubs and cafes, and of instances of segregation in the school about 6 years earlier. The two populations were almost completely separate. At first we weren't sure where to start - the town was just so bad. We thought the press could blow up a big story about it, but they refused, obviously instigating us to put on a demonstration.
We decided to first go up to the manager of the picture theatre, who had previously told Hall that he would let no aborigines in the back of the picture had, including Charlie Perkins. We went up to see him but he refused to answer the door. The press got a photo of him opening the door slightly and shut it. Then we went to the pub, but they blatantly denied discrimination, which was clearly, by all reports, an out and out lie. All this was a bit of a fiasco, so we then decided to stage a stand in demonstration in the picture theatre that night. This was the first occasion that Charlie had voted with the minority group.
We had a barbecue tea just near the Flanders houses (after having interviewed the Flanders who were aboriginal), with stake which was given to us by one of the ATN 7 pressmen. Then we went back into the town.
We learnt that as soon as the manager of the picture theatre saw the bus approaching he put a small sign - "No Pictures Tonight" - up at the doorway. He had already started the projectionists working. There was confusion for about 40 minutes and then we started picketing. A crowd gathered round, the aborigines keeping a bit distant and quite separate. The white people weren't on the whole particularly hostile, nothing like Walgett and Moree. They seemed to me interested and even sympathetic, but on the whole a fairly apathetic lot.
One 16 year old aboriginal girl called Ann was wonderful - in the discussions which broke out she stood up to the more aggressive whites very well. The picket ended at 9 pm, and discussions continued for another half hour.
Then we left for Kempsey, and arrived there about 11.30 pm. We stayed in the Showground.
Diary Entry Thursday Kempsey
Up and ready by 10 o'clock. Some went in and saw the Mayor, others did European attitudes etc. and the rest of us went to the Burnt Bridge Reserve. We all had to wear heavy shoes because of the hook worm. The reserve was a few miles out of town, and was in a gully. It was pouring rain (the first rain we'd had all trip) and the gully was terribly wet - that is apparently why there is so much hookworm. We all spread out and did our survey as usual. I went to two houses.
The first was a woman whose husband was white, with a job on the railways, and who had three children (small for an aboriginal family). The youngest child had a bursary at school which was the first instance of this I had come across. The people at the reserve lived in very sub standard houses as usual - wooden ones, which were generally overcrowded. They had no electricity or gas, I'm not sure whether they had water or not. There was apparently some job discrimination but I got rather conflicting answers on this.
The general picture in Kempsey re discrimination was that everything was fair (a cafe here and a pub there excepted), but the segregation of the swimming pool was the most outstanding thing. On the whole a pretty middling sort of set up comparatively.
We had lunch back at the show ground and then a general meeting. After some discussion we decided to go to Green Hill reserve and get some aboriginal children and then to go to the swimming pool.
Green Hill had four houses built by the Welfare Board and a lot of tin shanties near by. The houses weren't too bad, although still substandard of course, but the tin shanties were absolutely terrible. I only had time to interview one person who was rather uncooperative. We took about 10-15 kids with us to the swimming pool. They weren't allowed in and neither were Charlie or Gary. Absolutely blatant.
We blocked up the entrances as we had done in Moree but there was no one much to block the entrance to. Then we held up signs, and the press madly took photographs etc. There were very few people around and very little discussion provoked. At 5 o'clock (we had got there at 2 o'clock) we packed up and left.
Charlie was very emphatic about the success of it because of the publicity, but most of the rest of us thought it an absolute flop because we had failed to force the issue within Kempsey itself. We all realised Kempsey had ignored us, which was precisely what we didn't want. We came back, some of us dejected, others jubilant that the trip was nearly over.
Everyone is by now absolutely exhausted and I don't think we put much into our efforts at Kempsey. Charlie particularly seems to have lost a lot of his fire.
While tea was being cooked there was another round of publicity, photograph taking etc. - us throwing boomerangs, us posing in front of the bus and so on and so on and so on.
We left for Taree at about 8.00 p.m., arriving there fairly late. As it was the last night quite a few of us were celebrating and getting merry. When we arrived at the Taree showground, which smelt awful, there were 2 huts. The drinkers went in one hut and the sleepers in the other. I was a sleeper, being absolutely exhausted.
Diary Entry Taree Friday
Woke early. Had breakfast, which was horrible curried baked beans. At about 8.30 am we got going. We stopped at the Purfleet reserve for half an hour, talking to the people there. But we had to be off, and so we pushed on to Newcastle, getting there in time for lunch. Rang Dad up and he came out and we had a bit of a talk. Apparently we could have got a big welcome at the Workers Club if they could have found out about us. After lunch and a swim we went on to Sydney. We had a rule about no drinking, so that we wouldn't turn up to the press conference drunk and smelly. We got all tense etc near the end, because of the press conference. Had tea at Hornsby and then drove on to Uni. When we arrived there was Ted Noffs, a few pressmen, some parents etc. and that's about all. No aborigines or other supporters. We found out later that Noffs had deliberately not told anyone where and when we were arriving. After that some of us went to John Powell's place for a wind up party. About 10.30 pm I left and went home, thoroughly exhausted.
End
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