14/2/1965

Gulargambone

We arrived in Gulargambone at 11:30am this morning.  It is a very small town with a nearby aboriginal reserve (plot of land given back to the indigenous people after being pushed off their land by the European settlers).  We discovered in Gulargambone that segregation exists, we were told that only certain aborigines allowed in pub, and aborigines not served in the cafe (the only one).  We got permission to go to the aboriginal reserve but for only one hour, to conduct some interviews, learning more about the racism the aboriginal people faced.  During one of the interviews with an old couple, I was told that is impossible for aboriginal people to get jobs in the town.  Most of the time they got jobs like shearing, which do pay well but are only seasonal.  Whilst we were on the aboriginal reserve I noticed how poor the housing was, most of them looked like old corrugated iron sheds.  That afternoon we did some surveys learning more about the racism towards the aboriginal people, then left for Walgett at 4pm.  We arrived at Walgett at about 7pm.  We went for a swim and then some of us went and played basketball against the local aboriginal teams, making me feel like our project had support.

Housing on the Reserve

Posted by Aidan Foy at 22:30