The Wave Hill Walk-Off
On 23 August 1966, Vincent Lingiari led 200 Gurindji stockmen, domestic workers, and their families off Wave Hill cattle station in the Northern Territory. What began as a protest against poor working conditions and poverty wages became one of the most significant land rights actions in Australian history.
The Gurindji people did not simply want better wages — they wanted their land back. For nine years they maintained their camp at Wattie Creek (Daguragu), refusing to return to the station until their rights were recognised.
We want to live on our land, our way.
The Aboriginal Land Rights Act
The Gurindji struggle, combined with growing national and international attention to Indigenous rights, led to the Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Act 1976 — the first legislation in Australia to recognise Aboriginal land rights.
This landmark act established a process by which Aboriginal people in the Northern Territory could claim rights to unalienated Crown land based on traditional association. Land councils were established to represent Aboriginal interests and manage land on behalf of traditional owners.
The iconic image of Prime Minister Gough Whitlam pouring soil into Vincent Lingiari's hands in 1975 became a symbol of the land rights movement and remains one of the most recognisable images in Australian history.
The Mabo Decision
In 1992, the High Court of Australia delivered the Mabo decision, which overturned the legal fiction of terra nullius — the idea that Australia was empty land before British colonisation. Eddie Mabo, a Meriam man from the Torres Strait, had fought for ten years to have his people's ownership of their traditional lands recognised.
The Mabo decision established the principle of native title in Australian law, recognising that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples had rights to land and waters based on their traditional laws and customs.
Native Title Today
The Native Title Act 1993, passed in response to the Mabo decision, created a framework for recognising and protecting native title rights. Since then, hundreds of native title determinations have been made across Australia, covering approximately 40 per cent of the continent.
However, the process remains challenging. Native title claims can take decades to resolve, and the rights recognised are often limited compared to the full scope of traditional ownership. The struggle for land justice continues.