Canberra Times (ACT : 1926 - 1995), Saturday 27 July 1968, page 3


Aborigines walk

off jobs

DARWIN, Friday. -Up to 100 Gurindji tribesmen are reported to have walked off their cattle station jobs to re-turn to what they claim is tribal land at Wattie Creek, on 'Wave Hill'

station.

Sixty men who walked off 'Limbunya' station yesterday had planned their action for a long time, a Darwin Aborigi-nal leader, Mr Philip Roberts, said today.

Mr Roberts said the Aborigines were protesting against the rejec-tion by the Federal Government

of their claim to tribal land at 'Wave Hill'.

Mr Roberts, a medical assistant with the Department of Health, said the Federal Council for the Advancement of Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders was back-ing the Aborigines to the hilt.

Mr C. Watts, the pastoral man-ager in the north for Vesteys, the big pastoral and meat interests, said today he would not be sur-prised if more walked off their jobs. The Gurindjis had been told only this week that they had been refused land at Wattie Creek or any other land held by Vesteys.

They had petitioned for 500 square miles to establish their own cattle station and claimed that the Minister in Charge of Aboriginal Affairs, Mr Wentworth, had promised them at least eight square miles of country around

Wattie Creek.

The Northern Territory Admin-istration has not commented on the Gurindji's stand against the Government's decision.

A spokesman said the Adminis-trator, Mr Dean, was still waiting for official information from 'Wave Hill'.

The leaders of the Gurindjis elder Vincent Lingiari, said yester-day his people would remain at Wattie Creek now until the Minister's promise was kept. All members of the tribe would be told to return to Wattie Creek to protest against what had happened.

A national fund to sustain the Gurindjis, who are almost out of funds, has been announced in Darwin on behalf of the Federal Council for the Advancement of Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders and the Northern Terri-tory Council for Aboriginal Rights.