Our Brisbane History

Determined To be White

Pacific Repatriation

In the years following Federation there were often tensions between the needs and aspirations of the new national Government and the continuing and often opposing demands of the individual States. This became a significant issue for Queensland with the passage of the Commonwealth Immigration Restriction Act in 1901, which was the effective beginning of the White Australia Policy. The immediate impact for Queensland was that this would terminate the repressive system of indentured Kanaka labour on which the Queensland sugar industry was built.

At this time, the sugar industry was one of the State's greatest income earners and any threat to its viability was a major concern.

All major political parties supported a White Australia Policy. Prime Minister Deakin declare, Unity of Rae is an absolute essential to the Unity of Australia. Part of the Labor Party platform insisted on the desirability of the cultivation of an Australian Sentiment based on the notion of racial purity. In the years prior to Federation, some States legislated for penalties for certain offences to be higher for Chinese and no-Europeans. Some States also prevented Chinese and non-Europeans from engaging in certain occupations in competition with white labour.

The Naturalisation Act (Cwlth) of 1903 prevented Asian and non-European people from applying for citizenship. In the broader community there were a number of organizations with clearly racist objectives. The Anti-Chinese and Asiatic League formed at the beginning of the century had 20,000 members.

The Pacific Island Labourers Act (Cwlth) required that all Kanaka labour in Qld be repatriated by 1906. Between 1892 and 1900, 11,000 Pacific Islanders were brought into Queensland. By 1906 4,000 remained who were to be repatriated, although and additional 691 were granted exemptions. One of these, a Mt Cotton resident named Robtelines, with the support of local farmers successfully challenged a Brisbane magistrate's deportation order in the High Court in October 1906. However, on 22 October, the SS Malaita was despatched from Pinkenba with the first group of deportees from Brisbane.

The Kanaka issue was a complex one for Queensland. The tension between the widespread racism of the day and the perceived economic necessity of the Pacific Island labour force was not easily resolved.