"Look at all those little black tadpoles swimming around," he laughed, pointing to one particular photo which shows white children standing on the pool deck, while the last few scramble to get out of the pool, afraid they'd be somehow contaminated by the Aboriginal children in the water.

Mr Nean was referring to words spoken by former Moree mayor Bill Lloyd, during discussions of rescinding the 1955 by-law banning Aboriginal people from the Moree pool.

"He said, 'just imagine you sent your daughter, or wife, or mother, or sister over there to the pool and they got impregnated by those black tadpoles'," Mr Nean said.

"How sick that people talked like that."

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As an 11-year-old at the time, Mr Nean, who grew up in the mission at Mehi Crescent, was oblivious to the racism that was rife in Moree in 1965 - "we were conditioned to think that's just the way it was; we didn't know any different".

"Looking back, it was very racist then," he said.

"We weren't allowed to do any shopping. We used to jump in the manager's truck and go to the police station to get our rations. We'd walk across to the old Pan Kees shop. Once we got our flour, sugar and milk, we'd wait for the truck to pick us up again.

"If we were found anywhere in town roaming around, we were charged with trespassing and people would often be shipped away, never to be seen again."

Mr Nean still clearly remembers the day when Aboriginal university student activist Charlie Perkins and a bus full of university students arrived at the mission, asking if anyone would like to go to the town pool. It was February 16, 1965.

"When Charlie came over with the bus down to the mission at Mehi Crescent they sung out, 'would anyone like to go out to the pool?'," Mr Nean recalled.

"We were all excited because our own pool [on the mission] was closed down and we were swimming in the river.

"So we thought it was great. We were so excited to get the opportunity to go to the pool, we didn't know what was going on. We were just happy to be part of it.

"Being young, we didn't know about racism and all that."

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When the bus arrived at the pool, Mr Nean said they were "shocked" by the hostility that greeted them as a crowd of angry people had began to gather outside.

"We were shocked to hear the language - 'black this and black that'," he said.

"We didn't know whether to laugh about it or cry about it. We didn't understand. The older ones took offence to it.

"We didn't realise that not letting us swim in the pool created so much disrespect and disharmony."

When they were finally allowed into the pool, following a heated argument between the Freedom Riders, the pool manager and Moree mayor, Mr Nean said it was a great feeling.

"We were just as excited to jump in the pool with Charlie than we were when we first jumped on the bus," he said.

Mr Nean had no idea at the time that he was making history; he and the other children were just excited about swimming in a nice pool "instead of dodging old carcasses in the river" on a hot day.

Jubilant that the colour ban had been lifted, the Freedom Riders left Moree to continue their trip highlighting racial segregation across western NSW. But when local councillor Bob Brown attempted to take another group of Aboriginal children to the pool that next day, the manager refused them entry.

So the Freedom Riders decided to turn the bus around and returned to Moree on February 19. They collected another group of Aboriginal children and when arriving at the pool Perkins attempted to purchase tickets for himself and 10 children.

During the three-hour hostile stand-off, hundreds of people gathered outside the pool, some throwing rotten tomatoes and eggs, while others spat at the student protesters, igniting fights and violence.

Eventually, mayor Bill Lloyd arrived at the pool, agreeing to rescind the 1955 by-law and permanently desegregate the pool.

And while Aboriginal people have since been able to enjoy the Moree pool along with the rest of the community, Mr Nean has only returned three times - one of these was for the 50^th anniversary celebrations in 2015, and another time was for the ABC's The Pool documentary.

"I didn't feel comfortable," he said.

"It felt like you were trespassing."

Mr Nean said while he believes some segregation still exists at the pool today - "young people tell me today that they feel uncomfortable. They're still regarded as unhygienic and [people] are always eyeing you off" - Moree has come a long way since 1965.

This month marks the 55^th anniversary of the historic 1965 Freedom Rides.