Discriminatory pieces of Legislation were repealed and a new Commonwealth Electoral Act was formed. The Commonwealth Electoral Act 1962 entitled "Aboriginal natives of Australia to enroll and vote as electors. This right had previously only been granted to Aboriginal people who owned property, had been educated or who had served in the Defence Force. Another milestone was the status of aborigines. .
In addition to the Referendum a quest of the Aborigines was to have some of their sacred land returned to them. It was also in these next few years that people became more racist towards the Aboriginals and the people began to voice their opinions in relation to the aboriginals. Many people considered that Aboriginal people were inferior to white people and also that because Aboriginal people did not make use of the land they did not deserve to have rights over it, so why should it be returned to them now. .
In August, 1966, the Gurindji withheld their labour from the Wave Hill cattle station and entrenched themselves in a make-shift village which was close to their most sacred of their religious sites at Wattie Creek. .
Up to 1968 it was against the law to pay Aboriginal worker more than a specified amount in goods and money. They were housed in corrugated iron humpies with corrugated iron shatters for windows, without floors, lighting, sanitation, furniture or cooking facilities. Social service payments (old age pension etc. ) were paid into the pastoral company's funds together with a Federal Government subsidies for the worker's dependents. .
When the Gurindji demands were understood, they attracted strong support from the public both overseas and in Australia and opposition from the Government and pastoralists. In spite the Government tried to cut off means of obtaining food supplies, threatening evictions and bribery with offers of relatively attractive houses which the Government built specially for them at Wave Hill Welfare settlement, the Gurindji persisted with their protest and stayed put at Wattie Creek until they got a freehold title to a substantial part of their tribal land.