Mr Lowe, then a 20-year-old living on the Framlingham Aboriginal Mission, said being counted as part of Australia’s population was virtually meaningless when he was still not allowed to go south beyond Lava Street when he travelled from the mission to Warrnambool’s CBD.

The boundaries were imposed to enforce prejudice and policed by shopkeepers who chased Aborigines away when they ventured beyond them.

The year of the referendum was the same year that Mr Lowe and his wife decided to move from the Framlingham mission to Warrnambool, only to face a petition from their potential neighbours who were opposed to having Aborigines living near them.

This week’s commemoration of the 50-year anniversary of the referendum leaves him underwhelmed because he said the referendum was one of several reforms that did not deliver much for Aborigines.

He said the 1992 Mabo decision, whose 25th anniversary is also being commemorated this year, meant more to him because it did create positive changes for Aborigines.

The Mabo decision recognised that Aborigines had rights to their land.

“Mabo achieved something,” Mr Lowe said.

Speaking on the eve of National Sorry Day on Friday, May 26, Mr Lowe said he believed the federal Community Development Employment Program (CDEP) had been of more benefit to local aborigines than other government changes.

Up to 200 local indigenous and non-indigenous people had been employed through the CDEP which ran for about 30 years until the federal government closed it down about 10 years ago.

He said the CDEP had helped lots of local aborigines gain work skills and confidence.  

Mr Lowe said that for him, the major change had been during the past 10 years when he took on the volunteer role of teaching local people about aboriginal culture.

“The last 10 years have been a wonderful journey,” Mr Lowe said.

Organisations that he had been scared of as a youth were now inviting him to speak to them to get a better understanding of local Aboriginal culture, he said.