Freedom Ride (Australia)
The Freedom Ride was a 15-day journey undertaken in February 1965 by a group of non-Indigenous and Indigenous Australians in a bus across New South Wales, led by Charles Perkins, an Aboriginal civil rights activist.
Inspired by the Freedom Riders of the American Civil Rights Movement, a group of SAFA students travelled into New South Wales country towns on what some of them considered a fact-finding mission.
The Freedom Riders were: Charles Perkins, fellow student and recipient of a recently-introduced Abschol scholarship,[2] Gumbaynggirr man Gary Williams (who joined the bus at Bowraville), Ann Curthoys (who kept diary entries that later became the basis of a memoir of the events), Jim Spigelman (later Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of New South Wales)[6] Aidan Foy, Alan Outhred, Alex Mills, Barry Corr, Beth Hansen, Bob Gallagher, Brian Aarons (who later held senior roles with Reconciliation Australia and the federal government[7]), Chris Page, Colin Bradford, Darce Cassidy, David Pepper, Derek Molloy, Hall Greenland, Helen Gray, John Butterworth, John Gowdie, John Powles, Judith Rich, Louise Higham, Machteld Hali, Norm Mackay, Paddy Dawson, Pat Healy, Ray Leppik, Rick Collins, Robyn Iredale, Sue Johnston, Sue Reeves, Warwick Richards, and Wendy Golding.
The Sydney Morning Herald and The Daily Mirror newspapers as well as TV and radio now began to report on the next stage of the Freedom Ride in Moree.
[12] After the RSL protest, the group was evicted from its accommodation in the Church of England hall, so the bus left Walgett around 10pm, escorted by police for some distance.
[16] At that time, Aboriginal people were not allowed in pubs or clubs or at the swimming pool, or to walk on the sidewalk, or play football in the local team.
[2] Lyall Munro Snr told NITV in 2017 that he and the Moree Aboriginal Advancement Committee had been fighting to change the town's segregationist by-laws for years before the Freedom Riders arrived, but not in a confrontational way.
The event was widely covered by the media at home and internationally, and it caught the attention of the Australian public, proving to be a "seminal moment" in the history of Australia.
They were greeted by a group of University of New South Wales students, who announced that they were planning to undertake a similar trip, to uncover segregation practices in other towns.
[16] Most of the students got on with their lives after the trip, with some developing careers that progressed Aboriginal affairs, including lawyers, teachers, health administrators, and political campaigners.
[10] Crux, the Australian Student Christian Movement journal, ran a special issue on "Aborigines", which included a guest editorial on the significance of the Freedom Ride.
[16] Later in 1965, Perkins related what happened to the 200 people attending the Federal Council for the Advancement of Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders (FCAATSI) conference in Canberra.
[16] The Australian Black Power movement emerged in Redfern in Sydney, Fitzroy, Melbourne, and South Brisbane, following the Freedom Ride, and there followed a period of Aboriginal activism across Australia.
[6] The Freedom Ride has been credited with paving the way for the passing of the 1967 referendum, which led to the removal of discriminatory sections from the Australian Constitution, and enabled the federal government to take direct action in Aboriginal affairs.
[3] The Freedom Ride opened the eyes of non-Indigenous Australians, especially those living in cities, to the racial segregation that was occurring in their country, as well as revealing it to a world audience.
[28] Participants included original Freedom Riders Robyn Iredale, Alan Outhred, and Pat Healy, who were warmly greeted by local inhabitants, and the occasion was marked by a free concert in Dubbo featuring Paul Kelly and Troy Cassar-Daley.
[7] A commemoration held in February 2025 was addressed by the Governor of New South Wales, Margaret Beazley, and the granddaughter of Freedom Rider Harry Hall, Amy Townsend.
Several people who remembered the bus visiting their towns were featured on the ABC Radio National program Speaking Out, presented by Larissa Behrendt.
[33] To mark the 60th anniversary, in February 2025 the Government of New South Wales announced a grant for the Walgett Aboriginal Medical Service to complete the Freedom Ride Pavilion in the park.
[34] A large-scale mural of the Freedom Riders was installed in the student locker area, outside the David Derham theatre in the Law Building at the University of Melbourne.
[2] New South Wales Government ministers unveiled a blue plaque commemorating the Freedom Ride in Walgett in February 2025, the first of several to be installed in key locations along the route.
