SUNDAY 13TH FEBRUARY, 1965
We arrived to the Home of the Wiradjuri people, Wellington. The bus trip was about one hour and the scenery was AMAZING! During the ride as a group we discussed about what we wanted to achieve and it was clear that the majority of us aimed to bring attention to the poor state and lack of Aboriginal health, their houses and the children’s education. I had a chat with Bob Gallagher and David Pepper (two of my good friends right now) and we felt that we strongly wanted to minimize the socially discriminated barriers which existed between the Aboriginals and the whites. Personally for me, this whole ‘Freedoms Riders’ hasn’t fully sunk into my head yet. Who knew at the age of nineteen, I would be given the chance to help make a change, so I guess this is a massive step for me, if not all of us.
The first thing I noticed was that the town was overcrowded and congested. A large amount of the kids had eye diseases and the ground was three-quarters mud. The houses were made out of tin and the river was dirty and contaminated. I know I am a man but a few tears had slipped into my eyes seeing all this. It isn’t fair for these people to be here, especially these children. I thought the conditions in Orange were bad, but this was way worse. More people really need to get out here and see this for themselves.
We conducted surveys with the Indigenous and non-indigenous people to find out what they thought about these living conditions. I could see that the racial discrimination was quite evident. A large amount of the white residents said the living conditions were fair and that the Aborigines had it good. I didn’t expect it but all lot of them were actually quite rude (No offence to the whites who read this). However, ironically the Indigenous locals said that they were treated badly, had no proper food and water and were living lives of terror.
During the short time we were here, a few of us took a walk to the local pub where we stumbled upon some racism. No aborigines were allowed inside. How bad is that?! Afterwards we had a protest hoping to change things around here. The Aboriginal community were quiet confused at first to what we were doing, but soon they joined in. Seeing the hope in their faces when everyone come together just made my day.

Tuesday 15th February, 1965

Today was the second day we spent at Walgett, I think we got one more day to go here? Anyway, Walgett’s conditions were no way better than Orange, Wellington and Gulargambone. The locals have to use filthy water and they live in tin shacks with floors full of mud.
We began the day pretty early. I went with Ann Curthoy and a few others to the Namoi river settlement where we held some more surveys. Most of the aboriginals were quite reluctant talking to us so it took me a few attempts to have a full conversation with them. I learnt that they don’t really like surveys. The people mostly nodded and were quite shy, but by the end of it they said they were quite happy living like this. I reckon when this experience is over, my fear of public speaking will be gone and my social skills will be improved quite a lot.

At about mid day, we took our banners and posters and stood in front of the Walgett RSL. Charlie Perkins told us this was a good place to make a stand because the Aboriginal community were banned here and whenever they wanted beer they were sold it at three times the price the whites got it for. Anyway the heat was DREADFUL! It wasn’t long before large amounts of people began crowding us. Many didn’t say much but they just stared. It was a bit awkward for me, but oh well. At about lunchtime (we didn’t get to eat though), Charlie gave an amazing speech where nearly everyone stopped to listen. From what I’ve heard, he was the first aboriginal to graduate from an Australia University. What an excellent achievement! He is doing so much for the indigenous right now, everyone needs to get behind him and give him all the support possible. Without him, the “Freedom Riders” would be nothing.

It was a whole new experience for these Walgett people. No one ever took a stand and protested for them. As time passed by more Aboriginals joined in but at one point the members of the RSL came past us and read our banners. One middle-aged man came up to me and my banner which read “Why Whites Only?” He snatched my artwork, spat on it and then tore it in half. HOW RUDE!
We stayed there for almost SIX hours, which felt like forever. Everyone was exhausted with sweat dripping all over but the heat was that extreme that Helen, Wendy and Beth fainted. It was actually pretty funny because no one was there to catch them so they just fell to the ground with a big THUD!

* Jimmy

TUESDAY 16TH FEBRUARY, 1965
I just realised in a few of my last blogs I had written the days wrong. Whoops! Sorry Guys.
Anyway so right now we are in the home of the Gamilaraay people, Moree and today has been one hell of a day for sure. So much has happened so I don’t know where to start but here I go.
So the Moree people had way better housing, they had clean water and most of their conditions in general were overall better. We were first greeted by a man who by the looks of it was the manager of the place. He seemed like a nice guy to me at first, but others thought he was rather unpleasant.
Not too long we began protesting, but because of the heat not many people decided to join us. What a BUMMER!
Since we were all boiling due to the unwanted heat, we all decided to go swimming. So you know the manager who I said seemed nice? WELL, he refused to let SIX aboriginals who were with us in. RACIST MUCH?! So guess what we did? We held posters and protested really loud for at least 25 minutes until they let us all in. I felt like a massive adrenaline rush pass through my body, and it felt good.
After a while of swimming in the cold water we went back the Memorial Hall, where Charlie arranged an open meeting for the public. And guess who was chosen to speak first? ME… Charlie knows how much I’m scared of public speaking but he did it anyway. I spoke in front of more than 200 people an all-time record for me. I began quite nervous, but by a few minutes in, I got told that I was speaking like a professional. Who knew Jimmy could speak?
After I spoke there were surveys, and more people talking. And after all that talking a man named Mr Kelly got up and moved that the clause about segregation in swimming pools be removed. The votes were 88 to 10. WOOOHOO! We were actually successful and this was biggest thing we’ve done so far. Going into this trip I knew we were going to make a change. But by the looks of it we are going to make a way bigger and longer lasting change that I expected.

* Jim Spigelmen

Here’s a picture I took of Charlie and a few of the locals.