The Strike

According to Snowy Jittermarra (Maruntu), marrngu had been looking for a long time for a way to acquire greater control over their own lives. Discussions between a Nyiyaparli man called Kitchener and McLeod, who had already come to the attention of authorities for political activities on behalf of Aboriginal people, offered a way forward.

Ideas discussed included a scheme to obtain land of their own and set up economic enterprises so they would no longer be dependent on station employment. In 1945 marrngu from across the region held meetings to discuss these ideas when they converged on Port Hedland for the annual horse races. Constable Les Fletcher of the Port Hedland police was invited to attend. This is his report of the meeting.

The Aboriginal organisers travelled around the area spreading the word about the strike. The Department of Native Affairs was troubled by this and tried to counter it. Nyamal man, Clancy McKenna, was one of the principal organisers. Dooley Binbin, a Nyangumarta man, took up an organising role late in 1945.

Small communities of marrngu on widely dispersed stations found it difficult to conduct a strike of this nature. Kujupurra (Cranky) was a cattleman on Warrawagine station on 1 May 1946. He recalls the tactics used by the police to suppress the initial strike action.

In the wake of this failed action, strike leaders began arranging for representatives from each station to come together for a meeting on 25 May. But, before this meeting could take place, McKenna, Dooley and McLeod were arrested. This letter was written by McLeod from the Port Hedland lock-up.

Viewing the strike as a disturbance orchestrated by McLeod, pastoralists hoped he would receive a long jail sentence. They were disappointed when he only received a heavy fine. Following his trial, public pressure led to the early release of Clancy McKenna and Dooley Bin Bin.

Before setting up strike camps, the strikers staged a number of non-violent demonstrations in Port Hedland in a show of strength.

During the second half of 1946, groups and individuals walked off stations and other workplaces to join the strike camps. Caroline Jula, who had worked as a domestic servant at Warrawagine station, joined the strike camp at Moolyella in late 1946.

The Western Australian Department of Native Affairs tried repeatedly and persistently to end the strike and return workers to stations. The strikers held out, however, using successful non-violent strategies to maintain their stand.

Strikers were increasingly able to negotiate individual agreements with pastoralists to return to station work on increased wages and with improved living conditions, while the Department of Native Affairs found itself unable to reimpose control over marrngu because of fear that those now in employment would re-join the strike. This letter, written by Tommy Sampie in response to a government decision to declare the Twelve Mile a prohibited area for Aboriginal people to camp, caused the prohibition to be quickly reversed and illustrates the considerable political power that marrngu were gaining through their actions.

The strikers’ campaign to fill the jails took place in 1949, following the imprisonment of ten men for removing a worker, Cocky Brown, from Corunna Downs Station. In protest, and to demonstrate their refusal to be cowed by O’Neill’s threat, parties of strikers began travelling out to stations to bring more workers into the strike. By April, 43 men had been imprisoned.

The imprisonment of so many strikers, and the use of chains in making the arrests, led the Fremantle branch of the Seamen’s Union of Australia to impose a black ban on the shipment of wool from Pilbara stations. Although there was little or no disruption to the wool industry, the ban was not insignificant, adding weight to the actions of the Aboriginal strikers and forcing the Department of Native Affairs to find less punitive responses to the strike. Secretary of the Fremantle Branch of the Seamen’s Union, Ron Hurd, gave the government two months warning before imposing the ban on 1 July 1949.