It’s fifty years since Gough Whitlam poured red sand into Vincent Lingiari’s hand, symbolising the legal transfer of Wave Hill Station in the Northern Territory back to the Gurindji people.
This was the result of many years of quiet, unrelenting pressure from community leader and stockman Lingiari against seemingly insurmountable forces; government, empire and capital. It began as a dispute about wages, but became something much more – the beginnings of the land rights movement.
The station at Wave Hill had a troubled history, and was burned down in 1899. By 1912 it was carrying 75,000 cattle, and was acquired by a British pastoral conglomerate owned by the English Vestey Group, who were still in charge when Vincent Lingiari and 200 other Gurindji people walked off in 1966, in protest at appalling working and living conditions, and less than minimal wages for their labour.
Many were never paid at all, and had no access to education, health care or basic dignities.
Strike
The strikers sent a petition to the Governor-General, Lord Richard Casey, requesting a lease of 1,300 square kilometres, to be operated cooperatively, but Casey refused.
The station owner, cattle king Lord Samuel Vestey, worked with the government to deny the strikers food and communications, but Lingiari discovered ways to work around these obstacles, continuing his quiet diplomacy and finding support far beyond the Territory.
The striking Gurindji workers and their families found strength on their traditional country around Dagarau, known to the colonists as Wattie Creek, and unionists organised for food and financial support for the strikers.
Popular author Frank Hardy publicly backed the Gurindji, and the people managed to survive and hold strong long enough for the national political mood to change in their favour. As Paul Kelly and Kev Carmody put it,
‘Eight years went by, eight long years of waiting,
‘Til one day a tall stranger appeared in the land,
And he came with lawyers and he came with great ceremony,
And through Vincent’s fingers poured a handful of sand…’
For the first time in Australia’s history, the federal government legally recognised Traditional Owners rights to their traditional lands, acknowledging 60,000 years of lived connection.
On 16 August 1975 Prime Minister Gough Whitlam said, ‘Vincent Lingiari, I solemnly hand to you these deeds as proof, in Australian law, that these lands belong to the Gurindji people and I put into your hands part of the earth itself as a sign that this land will be the possession of you and your children forever.’
Lingiari responded by saying, ‘Let us not make it hard for each other… We want to live in a better way together, Aboriginals and white men, let us not fight over anything, let us be mates.’
Birth of land rights
The iconic sand photo was shot by Indigenous photographer Mervyn Bishop, whose life was transformed as a result, having captured the symbolic birth of land rights.
PM Gough Whitlam was dismissed in November 1975.
Vincent Lingiari was named a Member of the Order of Australia in 1976, and died in 1988. His work lives on via the Lingiari Foundation, which promotes reconciliation and develops Aboriginal leadership, as well as the annual Vincent Lingiari Memorial Lecture.
Vestey Group sold its Australian pastoral holdings in 1992. Lord Vestey went back to England, serving as Master of the Horse to Queen Elizabeth from 1999 to 2018, and being investigated for financial irregularities before he died.
In 2020, Native Title rights to the land in question were formally granted to the Gurindji people, allowing them to receive royalties as compensation from resource companies who explore the area. The original walk-off route, near Kalkarindji, is now heritage listed.
Fifty years since 1975, the Wave Hill story is a reminder of what political courage looks like, from above and below, and of how far Australia still has to go.
Originally from Canberra, David Lowe is an award-winning filmmaker, writer and photographer with particular interests in the environment and politics. He’s known for his campaigning work with Cloudcatcher Media.
You can find more of his writing at Patreon and Gumroad.
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