Student Action for Aboriginals (SAFA) activists with banner at Inverell Airport

In 1964 SAFA was formed by of University of Sydney students. Charles Perkins, an Arrernte and Kalkadoon man born in Alice Springs, who was a third-year arts student at the university, was elected president of SAFA. In February 1965 SAFA organised a bus tour of western and coastal New South Wales towns. They drew attention to the discrimination and social disadvantages faced by Aboriginal people. The Freedom Ride, as it came to be called, included visits to Walgett, Gulargambone, Kempsey, Bowraville and Moree.