Details

Latitude

-29.464006

Longitude

149.847247

Start Date

1965-02-19

End Date

1965-02-20

Layer Warning:

Please be aware that readers may find some of the language and content distressing. 

When we got down to the pool I said, "I want a ticket for myself and these ten Aboriginal kids behind me. Here’s the money." "Sorry, darkies not allowed in," replied the baths manager. The manager was a real tough looking bloke too. He frightened me. We decided to block up the gate: "Nobody gets through unless we get through with all the Aboriginal kids!" And the crowd came, hundreds of them. They were pressing about twenty deep around the gate...The mayor ordered the police to have us removed from the gate entrance. They took hold of my arm and the struggle started. There was a lot of pushing and shoving and spitting. Rotten tomatoes, fruit and eggs began to fly, then the stones were coming over and bottles too. The mob from the hotel across the road decided that they were going to show these university students and niggers and black so-and-so’s whose town this was. They came over and did most of the kicking, throwing and punching, and the spitting.'– Charles Perkins. 'The police came up and warned us that if we stayed the violence would get much worse. We decided to stay, continuing to insist on being allowed to enter the pool with the aboriginal children. Tomatoes and eggs continued to be thrown...Then - breakthrough! The mayor came up to us and stated categorically that he would be prepared to sign a motion to rescind the 1955 statute we were protesting against, and would get two other aldermen to co-sign it.' – Ann Curthoys. ' 'They let the kids in for a swim and we went in with them. We had broken the ban! Everybody came in! We saw the kids into the pool first and we had a swim with them. The Aboriginal kids had broken the ban for the first time in the history of Moree. The police then asked us to leave because the crowd was becoming uglier and there were fights breaking out. It was getting dark too. A lot of the blokes were really set on giving us a going-over. The police called in more reinforcements and formed a solid line of police to the bus. It was not very wide and we had to go through it…I was literally covered in spit.' – Charles Perkins. 'We walked single file though the crowd who threw eggs, tomatoes, stones, and spat at us. We bundled into the bus and closed all the windows. Eggs and tomatoes were still thrown. Then we all moved off. About 30 cars tried to follow us but the police stopped them. We got first place in the 11 o'clock news.' – Ann Curthoys

Sources