The Australian constitution comes into effect with the federation of Australia. 

There are 2 sections referring to the Aboriginal people that marginalises and excludes Australia's Indigenous population, effectively making them second-class citizens in their own country.

The Commonwealth Government's Invalid and Old Age Pension Act 1908 passes. It marks the first national social security benefits for all Australians, except Aboriginal people.

The first Commonwealth census defines 'Aboriginal native'—'half-castes' are not considered Aboriginal and can be counted in the census. However, according to the constitution, 'full-blooded' Aboriginal people cannot be counted in the census.

Amendments to the New South Wales Aborigines Protection Act 1909 result in the government-sanctioned practice of removing Indigenous children from their family at any time, without having to establish their neglect through the court. These children usually receive little education and are trained as manual labourers and domestic servants. (Later, children who were subjected to this forced removal became known as the Stolen Generations.)

The Australian Aborigines League (AAL) is established by Aboriginal leader William Cooper. The league petitions King George V for the representation of Aboriginal people in Federal Parliament.

During World War II, soldiers of the Torres Strait Light Infantry Battalion receive one-third of the pay of other Australian soldiers. Once again, at the conclusion of the war, returned Indigenous soldiers are often not granted land under the War Service Land Settlement Agreement.

Jessie Street urges the Aboriginal leader Pearl Gibbs and South Sea Islander activist Faith Bandler to form the Aboriginal–Australian Fellowship and to start a petition for a referendum to change the constitution. Although they collect up to 100,000 signatures at this time, it takes a further 10 years of campaigning before the referendum takes place.

Federal Council for the Advancement of Aborigines (FCAA) forms and becomes an important organisation in the campaign for the 1967 referendum by petitioning for changes in the constitution and by focusing attention on the treatment of Indigenous Australians. Kath Walker, who later called herself Oodgeroo Noonuccal, becomes FCAA's campaign national coordinator and tours Australia, raising awareness and lobbying for change.

The Equal Wages for Aborigines Committee is formed and campaigns against labour exploitation and for wage equality for Indigenous workers.

Elders of the Yirrkala clans send a petition against the proposed mining of their traditional lands to the prime minister on a bark painting.

The Freedom Ride, inspired by the African American Civil Rights movement in the United States, is organised by a group of students, and led by Aboriginal student Charles Perkins from the University of Sydney, to bring attention to the racism and segregation in western New South Wales towns.

A bill is put to the House of Representatives to repeal section 127 of the constitution but not section 51. Members from FCAATSI travel to Canberra to campaign for changes to section 51 as well.

Campaign for equal wages for Aboriginal pastoral workers begins.

The last population of Indigenous people living a traditional life in the Northern Territory is rounded up and relocated.