Bowraville
Out of bounds
Bowraville, a small town in a dairy district about 300 miles north of Sydney had a segregated cinema and a segregated hotel. There were many efforts to break the colour bar - one of which landed a couple of us in a farcical court appearance.
One night, when we were challenging the colour bar in the Royal Hotel, the publican claimed there was no colour bar. The photograph at left shows some of the students outside the Royal Hotel.
He said he was refusing service to Aborigines there because they were drunk. Before breathalysers this was a hard thing to disprove. We decided to visit the Aboriginal Reserve, on the fringe of the town, to find some Aborigines who had not had a drink all day.
Leaving a group behind at the hotel, Sue-Anne Loftus and I drove to the reserve. Not long after we were invited in the police arrived and arrested us. The charge was that we had entered the Aboriginal Reserve without police permission. It did not matter that the residents had invited us in - under the law Aborigines living on reserves could not invite any non-resident, even a family member, into their home.
By the mid 1960s this law was rarely enforced, but selective enforcement could be used to intimidate anyone perceived to be a trouble maker.We were due to appear in court in about two months.
The acquittal--------------------->
Buy the CD.