After months of campaigning, the referendum failed to pass with 60.6 per cent of Australians voting ‘no’ nationally, and a majority of all states following suit.
Victoria and NSW were the two states with the most marginal results, with a 54.8 per cent ‘No’ vote in the former and 59.4 per cent of people voting ‘No’ in the latter.
The ACT was the only state or territory to have a majority ‘Yes’ vote but, as a territory and not a full state, the votes in that region only count in the national tally.
In the Farrer electorate, just more than 25 per cent of the voters supported the referendum questions.
The Pastoral Times reached out to representatives of both the Deniliquin Local Aboriginal Land Council and Yarkuwa Indigenous Knowledge Centre for comment on the outcome.
Both declined to do so publicly, as they are observing a nation-wide week of mourning.
But the Pastoral Times understands the Aboriginal flag will be flown at half mast at Yarkuwa’s offices on Hay Rd in an expression of their thoughts on the result.
While there was strong public campaigning for ‘yes’ in the local community, the ‘no’ vote carried at every local polling booth in the Edward River and Murray River region.
Of the 122,149 registered voters in the Farrer electorate, 102,263 particpated in the referendum.
Of those, 75,878 voted ‘no’ and 25,365 votes ‘yes’. There were 1,020 informal votes.
In a break down of the local polls, the results were as follows:
Blighty - 8 yes, 115 no.
Bunnaloo - 8 yes, 84 no.
Deniliquin High School - 254 yes; 757 no.
Deniliquin North School - 60 yes, 292 no.
Deniliquin pre-poll voting - 625 yes, 2891 no.
Edward Public School - 92 yes, 315 no.
Mathoura - 83 yes, 339 no.
Moulamein - 40 yes, 229 no.
Wakool - 19 yes, 171 no.
Tooleybuc - 27 yes, 136 no.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on Saturday night this was not the end of the road for the fight for First Nations constitutional recognition.
“Tonight is not the end of the road and is certainly not the end of our efforts to bring people together,” Mr Albanese said.
“The issues we sought to address have not gone away and neither have the people of goodwill and good heart who want to address them, and address them we will.”
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