According to Billy Bunter Jampijinpa, a veteran of the Gurindji Walk-off who lived on Wave Hill Station, "We were treated just like dogs. We were lucky to get paid the 50 quid a month we were due, and we lived in tin humpies you had to crawl in and out on your knees. There was no running water. The food was bad - just flour, tea, sugar and bits of beef like the head or feet of a bullock. The Vesteys mob were hard men. They didn't care about blackfellas.”

Even a Territory government inquiry held in the mid-1930s said of the Vesteys, “It was obvious that they had been … quite ruthless in denying their Aboriginal labour proper access to basic human rights.” Yet until 1968 it was still illegal to pay an Aboriginal worker more than a certain amount in goods and money. For many people, even their minimal government benefits were paid into pastoral companies’ accounts, over which they had no control.

The Strike That Became a Land Claim

Gurindji were working for nothing but rations
Where once they had gathered the wealth of the land
Daily the pressure got tighter and tighter
Gurindji decided they must make a stand

On 23 August 1966 Vincent Lingiari led members of the Gurindji people, along with members of the Ngarinman, Bilinara, Warlpiri and Mudbara peoples off Wave Hill Station. Billy Bunter Jampijinpa was only 16 when the walk-off happened:

“Old Vincent came back from hospital in Darwin one day and he had decided that he would pull us out. He pulled everyone out Tuesday and we walked with the kids and our swags to the Victoria River where we camped till after Christmas. After we had been there a couple of days, the Vesteys mob came and said they would get two killers (slaughtered beasts) and raise our wages if we came back. But old Vincent said, 'No, we're stopping here'. Then in early 1967 we walked to our new promised land, we call it Daguragu (Wattie Creek), back to our sacred places and our country, our new home land."

They picked up their swags and started off walking
At Wattie Creek they sat themselves down
Now it don't sound like much but it sure got tongues talking
Back at the homestead and then in the town

Novelist Frank Hardy was one of the many non-Indigenous Australians who supported the Gurindji struggle over the following years. In his book, ‘The Unlucky Australians’, Hardy recalls Vincent Lingiari saying, “This bin Gurindji country long time before them Vestey mob”. Also in Hardy’s book is Vincent Lingiari’s recollection of talking with Aboriginal labour activist Dexter Daniels: “And Dexter said: `Well, what you Wave Hill mob going to do if you don't get proper money?' `Well, I don't know.' I said, `We sick and tired of [Wave Hill Station manager] Tom Pisher and that Bestey mob living in Gurindji country.”

Vestey man said I'll double your wages
Seven quid a week you'll have in your hand
Vincent said uh-uh, we're not talking about wages
We're sitting right here till we get our land
Vestey man roared and Vestey man thundered
You don't stand the chance of a cinder in snow
Vince said if we fall, others are rising

The Gurindji walk-off was not the first time that Indigenous peoples had demanded their lands back from the white colonisers in Australia, but it was the struggle to attract broad public support for land rights around Australia and overseas.

There were demonstrations and arrests in southern Australia in support of the walk-off, and many church, student, trade unionists and members of the Communist Party of Australia gave practical and fundraising support to the Gurindji struggle. Vincent Lingiari, Billy Bunter Jampijinpa and others travelled around Australia to drum up support for the strikers. Frank Hardy recalled one fundraising meeting at which a donor gave $500 after hearing Vincent Lingiari speak. The donor – who said he had never before met an Aboriginal person – turned out to be Dr Fred Hollows.

Then Vincent Lingiari returned in an aeroplane
Back to his country once more to sit down
And he told his people let the stars keep on turning
We have friends in the south, in the cities and towns

Victory at Last

The Gurindji’s claim fell on deaf ears until Gough Whitlam won government in 1972. Three years earlier, the Coalition government had been given a proposal to give just eight square kilometres back to the Gurindji. Cabinet would not discuss the issue.

And Vincent sat down with big politicians
This affair they told him is a matter of state
Let us sort it out, your people are hungry
Vincent said no thanks, we know how to wait

When the Australian Labor Party took power, they finally moved to support the Gurindji claim. They put a stop on development leases granted by the Northern Territory Land Board that could damage Indigenous rights, suspended mining exploration licenses, and gave a small grant of land at Daguragu/Wattie Creek, as an initial step towards the final land hand-over.

Eight years went by, eight long years of waiting
Till 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