[8] The first public meeting was held in Sydney Town Hall on 29 April 1957, where the AAF launched a petition drafted by Jessie Street,[1] an Australian suffragette and committee member of the Anti-Slavery and Aborigines' Protection Society in London,[9] calling on the federal government to change the Constitution to alter certain clauses in it which discriminated against Aboriginal people.
[1] Delegates from the Aboriginal-Australian Fellowship attended the conference in Adelaide and joined the Federal Council for Aboriginal Advancement (FCAA) when it was founded in February 1958.
[11] The AAF held its first New South Wales conference in October 1961, at which a resolution was passed calling for the repeal of the Aborigines Protection Act 1909 (NSW) and a campaign launched straight afterwards.
The campaign included demonstrating at meetings of the major parties during the March 1962 New South Wales state election, and kept up the pressure afterwards, targeting the Labor premier Bob Heffron.
The NSW Housing Commission eventually bowed to pressure and built suitable accommodation and an historical and cultural centre for the residents.