Author: GRAYDEN, W. L.
Title: Report Of The Select Committee Appointed To Inquire into Native Welfare Conditions In The Laverton-Warburton Range Area. Presented by Mr. W. L. Grayden on 12th December, 1956.
Description: First Edition; F'cap Folio; pp. 20 (including covers); extracts from votes and proceedings, minutes of proceedings of select committee, report, bound in original stiff stapled printed wrappers, very good copy. Perth; William H. Wyatt, Government printer; 1956. In 1957, the "Warburton Ranges controversy" or "Warburton Ranges crisis" arose, after it was reported in 1956 that at least 40 Aboriginal people had been discovered to be ill and malnourished in the Central Desert. An enquiry into the state of the Aboriginal people by a select committee followed an the above report was presented to parliament. It reported that many of the Wongi people (referring to the Wangkatha, a group of eight Aboriginal peoples of the Warburton Ranges region suffered from malnutrition, blindness, disease, burns and other injuries, and that abortions and infanticide were common. Mainstream newspapers brought the matter to public attention after the Communist Party of Australia's newspaper Tribune published a damning assessment of the report, and letters to the editors flooded in. The incident proved a spur to a range of activism, including plans by the Anti-Slavery and Aborigines' Protection Society, based in London, in conjunction with the Victorian Council for Aboriginal Rights (CAR) and the Aboriginal-Australian Fellowship in New South Wales, in collaboration with Jessie Street, a leading Australian suffragette. Anna Froland of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom's Melbourne branch, was a leading figure in keeping the issue alive, arguing that both federate and state governments were responsible for the welfare of the country's Aboriginal peoples.

Keywords: Australian aboriginal history western australia south australia wealfare parliamentary paper