Almost 60 years after the Freedom Ride, Walgett is honouring the local mob who made it happen - SBS

A memorial to the brave efforts of Aboriginal activists in Walgett has taken pride of place in the northern NSW town.

The famous Freedom Ride saw a bus of students and activists drive through rural NSW towns in 1965, daringly calling for Indigenous rights in the face of entrenched white prejudice and oppression.

A project of the Walgett Aboriginal Medical Service (WAMS) and created by local artist Frank Wright, the memorial display was unveiled on Monday before a crowd of locals, including some of the original students and their families.

The Chairperson of the WAMS, Mary Purse, said the event was a moving experience.

"It was really overwhelming," she told NITV.

"It was really good to see that people were interested in our project."

Fighting discrimination

The bus began its journey in Sydney before driving through regional NSW towns. Source: NITV

Ms Purse (née Hall) was ten years old when that famous bus rolled through Walgett. Her father, Harry Hall, enthusiastically welcomed the travelling protest to his town, a place of discrimination for him and his people.

"He was a very active Aboriginal activist in those days," the Gamilaraay Yuwaalaraay woman said.

"He led the students. There was a big gathering of local people too, about 100 of them, some non-Aboriginal people too."

Mary Purse's father Harry Hall (inset) joined the bus in Walgett, calling for Aboriginal rights there before going with the activists to more regional towns like Moree.

The protest took place in front of the local RSL club, where Aboriginal ex-servicemen had been denied entry. Signs bore messages like 'Good enough for Tobruk - why not Walgett RSL?'.

The Ride would go through Orange, Boggabilla, Inverell and down much of east coast of NSW. Many discriminatory practices, such as banning Aboriginal people from using local pools, fell away after the event.

However the immediate effect of the Ride's passage was not uniformly positive.

"[My father] lost his job," said Ms Purse.

"He was targeted as a trouble maker then."

"Then when I turned 18, I tried to join one of the clubs in town and they just totally refused me and my other two cousins.

"Because I was branded as a trouble maker too."

But Ms Purse is quick to point out the benefits she believes were a direct result of the activism.

"Because of the Freedom Ride, the Aboriginal legal services came along, the Aboriginal medical centres, the [National Aboriginal Conference]."

That history has been immortalised in a website that was also launched as part of Monday's ceremony.

Ms Purse said she is "over the moon" that the Freedom Ride is being permanently honoured, along with the work of Aboriginal fighters like Charles Perkins, Uncle Ted Fields and of course her father.

"I'm very proud of Dad ... He's done a lot."

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Almost 60 years after the Freedom Ride, Walgett is honouring the local mob who made it happen - SBS
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