The Pacific Island Labourers Act 1901 was an Act of the

Parliament of Australia The Parliament of Australia (officially the Federal Parliament, also called the Commonwealth Parliament) is the legislature, legislative branch of the government of Australia. It consists of three elements: the monarch (represented by the ...

which was designed to facilitate the mass deportation of nearly all the

Pacific Islander Pacific Islanders, Pasifika, Pasefika, or rarely Pacificers are the peoples of the Pacific Islands. As an ethnic/racial term, it is used to describe the original peoples—inhabitants and diasporas—of any of the three major subregions of O ...

s (called "

Kanakas Kanakas were workers (a mix of voluntary and involuntary) from various Pacific Islands employed in British colonies, such as British Columbia (Canada), Fiji, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Papua New Guinea and Queensland (Australia) in the 19 ...

") working in Australia, especially in the

Queensland ) , nickname = Sunshine State , image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , establishe ...

sugar industry. Along with the

Immigration Restriction Act 1901 The Immigration Restriction Act 1901 was an Act of the Parliament of Australia which limited immigration to Australia and formed the basis of the White Australia policy which sought to exclude all non-Europeans from Australia. The law granted i ...

, enacted six days later, it formed an important part of the

White Australia policy The White Australia policy is a term encapsulating a set of historical policies that aimed to forbid people of non-European ethnic origin, especially Asians (primarily Chinese) and Pacific Islanders, from immigrating to Australia, starting i ...

. In 1901, there were approximately 10,000 Pacific Islanders working in Australia, most in the

sugar cane Sugarcane or sugar cane is a species of (often hybrid) tall, perennial grass (in the genus '' Saccharum'', tribe Andropogoneae) that is used for sugar production. The plants are 2–6 m (6–20 ft) tall with stout, jointed, fibrous stalk ...

industry in Queensland and northern

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

, many working as indentured labourers. The Act ultimately resulted in the deportation of approximately 7,500 Pacific Islanders.

History of the Act

Beginning in the 1860s, tens of thousands of Pacific Islanders were brought to Australia as low-paid labourers. By the early 1890s, 46,000 labourers had arrived in Queensland, and up to 62,000 such labourers arrived in all. Many of these people had been forcibly removed from their homes, in a process called "

blackbirding Blackbirding involves the coercion of people through deception or kidnapping to work as slaves or poorly paid labourers in countries distant from their native land. The term has been most commonly applied to the large-scale taking of people in ...

", by which Islanders were either kidnapped or deceived into traveling to Australia. They were brought in to meet the growing need for cheap labour in the sugar industry, since white labour was scarce and expensive. The majority of such labourers were employed under indentured labour arrangements, whereby they received either no pay or extremely small amounts of pay. By 1880, Queensland legislation prevented Pacific Islanders from working in higher paid jobs in sugar mills and other industrial areas, and limited them to manual agricultural labour.

Provisions of the Act

The Act prohibited any Pacific Islanders from entering Australia after 31 March 1904, and required all those entering before then to have a licence. During 1902, the maximum number of licences that could be issued was limited to three-quarters of the number of Pacific Islanders who left Australia in 1901. During 1903, this licence quota was lowered even further, to half of the total departures in 1902. Any person who brought a Pacific Islander into the country contrary to the Act could be fined £100. It was an offence to employ a Pacific Islander in any other way than an indentured labour agreement, punishable by a fine of £100. The most forcible component of the legislation was section 8. It provided that any Pacific Islander found in Australia after 31 December 1906 could be deported immediately by order of the Minister for External Affairs, and any Islander found in Australia before that date, who had not been employed under an indentured labour agreement at any time in the preceding month, could be deported immediately by order of a Magistrate in summary proceedings. Section 7 provided all labour agreements made with Pacific Islander labourers no longer remained in force from 31 December 1906. The practical effect of the legislation was that by this date, Pacific Islanders were legally barred from undertaking labour contracts in Australia and ultimately compelled to return to their country of origin. There were various grounds for exemption from deportation, including marriage to an Australian. The case of ''Robtelmes v Brennan'' (1906) 4 CLR 395, the first

deportation Deportation is the expulsion of a person or group of people from a place or country. The term ''expulsion'' is often used as a synonym for deportation, though expulsion is more often used in the context of international law, while deportation ...

case to come before the High Court of Australia, provides an illustration of the Act's operation..

References

{{Reflist

External links

Image of the assent copy of the Act
at the National Archives of Australia Labour history of Australia History of immigration to Australia 1901 in Australian law Oceanian Australian Repealed Acts of the Parliament of Australia White Australia policy

History of the Act

Provisions of the Act

See also

References

External links