The Pilbara Strike Movements In Australia

Strikes were and still are, very effective forms of protesting, especially for the Indigenous Australians in changing their rights and freedoms. Strikes have had an exceedingly positive effect on helping Aboriginals achieve their goals of raising the minimum wages, granting aboriginals the right to elect and their rights to freedom within Australia.
This strike was a very good strike to start a kind of rebellion for the aboriginals to gain their share of wages and land rights. This strike was most effective in the Pilbara region. The strike movement was harshly suppressed by police action and was more short lived but still was very effective.
It began during 1901 where six self-governing colonies collectively became the states of the Commonwealth of Australia. The constitution stated that ‘in reckoning the numbers of people Aboriginal natives shall not be counted”. It was also stated that the Commonwealth would legislate for any race except Aboriginal people.
This was very intelligent since almost every sheep station was paralysed without Aboriginal labour. There were too many strikers, at its height around 800 people, which was a huge problem for the white locals and government. When measured against all of the workers’ initial demands, the strike was not a total victory. But the strike was of great historical significance, which had provided a powerful example of the Aboriginal people’s resolve to struggle against their slave- like conditions that they were held captive in. This opened the way for the Aboriginal land rights movement which the struggle had finally won equal wages in the wake of the Gurindji strike, or more commonly known as, The Wave-hill Walk