Pilbara strike

The Pilbara strike was a landmark strike by Indigenous Australian pastoral workers in the Pilbara region of Western Australia. The strike lasted between 1946 and 1949, and was the longest industrial action in Australian history.[1][2]

The strike has been noted for its significance for the human rights of Aboriginal Australians.[3] The strikers demanded social recognition, payment of fair wages,[4] and an improvement in working conditions.[1][5][6]

Participating in the strike was 800 Aboriginal pastoral workers[1] who walked off the large pastoral stations in the Pilbara on 1 May 1946, and also from employment in the two major towns of Port Hedland and Marble Bar.[2] The strike did not end until August 1949, and even after its conclusion many Aboriginal Australians refused to return to work for white station owners.[2][1][5]

Historians have noted it as the first industrial strike by Aboriginal people since colonisation[1][6] and the longest industrial strikes in Australian history.[1][2] It is regarded as a landmark historical moment in the history of the human rights, cultural rights, and Native title rights of Indigenous Australians.[5][2]

  1. ^ a b c d e f "1946 Pilbara strike – Australia's longest strike". Creative Spirits. 2012. Archived from the original on 18 July 2014. Retrieved 27 July 2014.
  2. ^ a b c d e Hess, Michael (1994). "Black and Red: The Pilbara Pastoral Workers' Strike, 1946". Aboriginal History. 18 (1/2): 65–83. ISSN 0314-8769. JSTOR 24046089. Archived from the original on 7 November 2020. Retrieved 29 June 2021.
  3. ^ Commons Librarian (22 December 2023). "Campaigns that Changed Western Australia". The Commons Social Change Library. Retrieved 19 April 2024.
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference :4 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ a b c Cite error: The named reference :3 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  6. ^ a b Graham, Duncan (2 May 1996). "Rebel of The Pilbara". The Age. Archived from the original on 15 March 2005. Retrieved 30 June 2021.