Malay Town was the unofficial name for an area of
Cairns
Cairns (, ) is a city in Queensland, Australia, on the tropical north east coast of Far North Queensland. The population in June 2019 was 153,952, having grown on average 1.02% annually over the preceding five years. The city is the 5th-most-p ...
in Australia.
It was built around
Alligator Creek by Malay workers in the early 1900s, but by the 1920s was mainly populated by
Torres Strait Islanders
Torres Strait Islanders () are the Indigenous Melanesian people of the Torres Strait Islands, which are part of the state of Queensland, Australia. Ethnically distinct from the Aboriginal people of the rest of Australia, they are often grouped ...
, with many immigrant communities also represented.
History
The town itself was surrounded by swamp and mangroves and bordered the city dump. It was described in the following terms:
[
There were, though, some post-]World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
German migrants and many living in the town learned multiple languages from their neighbours.
Many of the town's Torres Strait Islander inhabitants were members of three large families who had moved to mainland Australia without permission (their movement restricted by the government until 1947). The Pitt, Sailor and Walters families were among the largest single group of Malay Town inhabitants.''Torres Strait Islanders''
by Anna Shnukal (from ''Multilcutlural Queensland 2001: 100 years, 100 communities, A century of contributions'', Department of the Premier and Cabinet (Queensland)
The Department of the Premier and Cabinet is a department of the Queensland Government. It is responsible for advising and supporting the Premier and Cabinet, and for managing the state's public sector alongside the Public Service Commission.
...
, 2001)
See also
*
History of Cairns
The history of Cairns in Queensland, Australia, is a transition of a port from a shanty town to a modern city, following an uncertain start because of competition from the newly created neighbouring community of Port Douglas. A succession of major ...
*
Bo-Kaap
The Bo-Kaap (lit. "above the Cape" in Afrikaans) is an area of Cape Town, South Africa formerly known as the Malay Quarter. It is a former racially segregated area, situated on the slopes of Signal Hill above the city centre and is a historical ...
References
{{reflist, 2
Malaysian Australian
Cairns, Queensland