A 1966 decision by the Commonwealth Conciliation and Arbitration Commission removed discriminatory clauses from the Federal Pastoral Industry Award—an important industrial context for the Gurindji dispute over unequal pay (with changes flowing into the pastoral workforce over subsequent years).
About 200 Gurindji stockmen, domestic workers, and their families—led by Vincent Lingiari—walked off Vestey’s Wave Hill cattle station in the Northern Territory, protesting exploitative conditions and unequal pay; the action soon became a focused demand for the return of traditional Country.
After leaving Wave Hill (Old Wave Hill/Jinparrak), the strikers camped near the Victoria River, sustaining the protest through community organisation and outside support while pressing for wages and land rights.
The strikers moved from their initial camp to Wattie Creek/Daguragu—an area of deep cultural significance—shifting the dispute’s public framing from an industrial strike to an explicit land-rights campaign centered on return of Country.
Gurindji representatives drafted a petition to Governor-General Lord Casey seeking a lease of roughly 1,300 km² around Daguragu, proposing cooperative development; the petition crystallised the land-claim dimension of the movement within official channels.
Governor-General Lord Casey formally refused the Gurindji request for a Daguragu-area lease, underscoring the limits of existing policy and strengthening the strikers’ resolve and the campaign’s national significance.
Minister W.C. Wentworth visited Wattie Creek/Daguragu and returned with a proposal to excise a small area for a settlement—an approach criticised as inadequate, illustrating the gap between Gurindji demands and government willingness to act at the time.
In the first major Australian Aboriginal land-rights case, the Northern Territory Supreme Court rejected the Yolŋu claim—while also acknowledging the existence of a coherent Aboriginal legal system—adding urgency to political strategies for land rights that the Gurindji struggle exemplified.
The Aboriginal Tent Embassy was set up on the lawns opposite Parliament House in Canberra, protesting the federal government’s land-rights stance and amplifying national attention on Indigenous land demands—an environment shaped by actions including the Gurindji strike.
The Whitlam Government appointed Justice Edward Woodward to lead a royal commission (the Aboriginal Land Rights Commission) to recommend ways to recognise Aboriginal land rights in the Northern Territory—an important policy pathway influenced by mounting activism and legal setbacks.
An area at Wattie Creek/Daguragu was successfully excised from the Vestey pastoral lease, creating the immediate basis for a later formal handover and marking a concrete breakthrough after years of protest and negotiation.
Prime Minister Gough Whitlam presented title documents for the Daguragu (Wattie Creek) area to Vincent Lingiari in a landmark ceremony, symbolising federal recognition of the Gurindji claim and bringing the long Wave Hill walk-off/strike period toward its culmination.
The Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Act 1976 received Royal Assent, establishing a landmark statutory framework for land claims and inalienable freehold title in the Northern Territory—often linked to the political momentum created by struggles including Wave Hill.
Wave Hill walk-off and the Gurindji strike (1966–1975)
