Rick Farley

Who was Rick Farley?

Richard Andrew Farley was a white Australian activist for the rights of Indigenous Australians.

Born in Townsville, Queensland, Farley had a career which went from actor and hippie to journalist, Whitlam government staffer, head of the Cattlemen's Union and then to his most celebrated role, with the National Farmers' Federation. He was later a member of the Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation.

In 1990, he and Phillip Toyne of the Australian Conservation Foundation persuaded the Australian Government to contribute a significant sum of money to the national Landcare volunteer movement.

His approach to political activism was based on the view that the future of the Australian environment depended on cooperation between Indigenous Australians and settler Australians whose livelihoods depended on conservation of the rural ecology with the Green movement.

He was also Chief Executive of the National Farmers' Federation for eight years. In 1998 he was a candidate for the Australian Democrats, to represent the Australian Capital Territory in the Australian Senate, receiving approximately 16% of the primary vote.

His partner, for the last decade or so of his life, was Linda Burney, the first Indigenous member of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly and currently the Deputy Leader of the New South Wales Opposition and he had two children, Cailin and Jeremy. He died in Sydney.