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Vincent Lingiari: The Wave Hill Head Stockman Who Led the Gurindji Walk-Off

A head stockman on a Vestey cattle station led workers out in 1966 and won back part of Gurindji land.

Who was Vincent Lingiari?

Vincent Lingiari was a Gurindji stockman who worked cattle for decades on one of Australia's biggest stations and then led his people off it. The Australian Dictionary of Biography entry, written by Ted Egan, gives his birth year as 1919 per government records, while other sources suggest 1908.

On 23 August 1966 he led about two hundred Aboriginal employees and their families off Wave Hill Station. The walk-off began as a demand for better pay and conditions and became the Gurindji campaign for the return of their land.

Growing up on Wave Hill Station

Lingiari was born at Victoria River Gorge to Gurindji parents. Both his mother and his father, also named Vincent Lingiari, worked at Wave Hill, a Vestey-owned station of about 3,500 square miles established in 1883 by Nathaniel Buchanan. His employers called him Tommy Vincent, and he had no formal education.

At about twelve he was absorbed into the station's stock camps, where cattle from a herd of about 80,000 were mustered, branded and drafted into mobs of 1,200 bullocks to be driven to the meatworks at Port Darwin. He rose to head stockman, but at first received no cash payment. The ADB says he first handled money around 1953, when he lined up with other stockmen at the Negri River races and was given pocket money.

The 1966 walk-off

Tired of Aboriginal people being treated like dogs on their own country, as the ADB puts it, Lingiari led the walk-off, encouraged by Brian Manning and Dexter Daniels of the North Australian Workers Union. The workers demanded better pay and rations and protection for Aboriginal women. They camped in the bed of the Victoria River and later moved to Daguragu, known to others as Wattie Creek.

The strike lasted nine years by the ADB's count, called the longest in Australian history. Wikipedia gives seven years, so sources differ on how to count it.

The Key to Lingiari's Success

The record shows a leader who held two kinds of authority: the practical standing of a head stockman and the cultural standing of a Gurindji law boss. He widened a workplace dispute into a land claim and found allies far from the station.

The cost was long. Families lived on the river and at Wattie Creek for years, and the 1975 handback covered only part of the lands they sought.

  • He used skills and respect earned in the stock camps to command the loyalty of other workers.
  • He accepted help from union organizers, writers and activists, including Manning, Daniels, Robert Tudawali and Frank Hardy.
  • He moved the demand from wages to land, and in April 1967 the Gurindji petitioned the governor-general for the return of tribal land.
  • He took the case to supporters in Sydney and Melbourne and addressed the Waterside Workers Federation and Abschol.
  • He co-recorded Gurindji Blues in 1971, with proceeds shared with the Gurindji and the Aboriginal tent embassy.
  • He kept the Gurindji planning for a cattle company of their own, forming the Muramulla Gurindji Co. in 1971.

From strike to land handback

In March 1973 the Whitlam government reached an agreement with Lord Vestey to lease 3,236 square kilometres of Wave Hill to the Gurindji for residential and cultural purposes and to run stock. On 16 August 1975 Prime Minister Gough Whitlam poured red soil into Lingiari's hand to symbolize the transfer. Lingiari's reply, as recorded by the Museum of Australian Democracy, was that now everyone could be mates. The land became freehold in 1986.

The Wave Hill strike is credited with helping lead to the Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Act 1976. The Museum of Australian Democracy page records the event on its timeline of equal rights.

Honors, death and legacy

Lingiari was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia in 1976. In later years he became frail and almost blind. He died on 21 January 1988 at Daguragu and was buried with traditional honors.

A federal electorate in the Northern Territory carries his name, the Lingiari Foundation was formed in 2001, and an annual memorial lecture honors him. The song From Little Things Big Things Grow by Paul Kelly and Kev Carmody tells his story, and Ted Egan wrote Old Vincent. A memorial in Reconciliation Place, Canberra, was unveiled in May 2004. For more on the cattle industry he worked in, see the ranching section of farm.FM or a farm.FM story about outback cattle stations.

Timeline

  1. 1919Born at Victoria River Gorge, according to government records
  2. c. 1931Joins the Wave Hill stock camps at about age twelve
  3. 1966Leads the Wave Hill walk-off, August 23
  4. 1967Gurindji petition the governor-general for their land
  5. 1971Records Gurindji Blues; Muramulla Gurindji Co. formed
  6. 1975Whitlam pours soil into his hand at Daguragu, August 16
  7. 1976Appointed Member of the Order of Australia
  8. 1988Dies at Daguragu, January 21

Frequently asked questions

Who was Vincent Lingiari?

Vincent Lingiari (1919?-1988) was a Gurindji stockman and law boss who led the 1966 Wave Hill walk-off, which grew into a landmark Aboriginal land rights campaign.

What was the Wave Hill walk-off?

On 23 August 1966 about two hundred Aboriginal workers and their families left Wave Hill Station in the Northern Territory over pay, rations and conditions, later demanding the return of Gurindji land.

What happened in 1975?

Prime Minister Gough Whitlam poured a handful of red soil into Lingiari's hand at Daguragu on 16 August 1975, symbolizing the lease of part of Wave Hill to the Gurindji.

What songs are about Vincent Lingiari?

From Little Things Big Things Grow by Paul Kelly and Kev Carmody, and Old Vincent by Ted Egan, honor him, according to the Australian Dictionary of Biography.

Sources and further reading

Profiles are compiled from public sources and reviewed against them. See our editorial policy to suggest a correction.

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