Pilbara strike

The Pilbara strike was a landmark strike by Indigenous Australian pastoral workers in the Pilbara region of Western Australia. The strike lasted between 1946 and 1949, and was the longest industrial action in Australian history.

The strike has been noted for its significance for the human rights of Aboriginal Australians. The strikers demanded social recognition, payment of fair wages, and an improvement in working conditions.

Participating in the strike were 800 Aboriginal pastoral workers who walked off the large pastoral stations in the Pilbara on 1 May 1946, and also from employment in the two major towns of Port Hedland and Marble Bar. The strike did not end until August 1949, and even after its conclusion many Aboriginal Australians refused to return to work for white station owners.

Historians have noted it as the first industrial strike by Aboriginal people since colonisation and the longest industrial strike in Australian history. It is regarded as a landmark historical moment in the history of the human rights, cultural rights, and Native title rights of Indigenous Australians.