This article by Prof. Clive Moore was originally published on the Queensland State Archives website, November 2013.
Over a period of 40 years from the early 1860s, tens of thousands of Pacific Islanders worked on Queensland plantations. They were often underpaid, treated harshly and many died, yet they contributed greatly to the growing state and founded the Australian South Sea Islander community in Queensland today.
Over 62,000 indenture contracts were issued for Pacific Islanders to work as labourers in Queensland between 1863 and 1904. They travelled to Queensland on 807 voyages involving 80 islands in what is generally known as the Queensland labour trade from Melanesia. Given the rate of re-enlistments from the islands it seems likely that there were about 50,000 individuals involved. The vast majority (95 per cent) were adolescent and young adult males. The terms ‘South Sea Islander’ or ‘Kanaka’ were used to describe the labour recruits who came from islands within present-day Vanuatu, Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea, Loyalty Islands (New Caledonia), Fiji, Kiribati and Tuvalu. The vast majority came from Vanuatu and Solomon Islands. The whole process was supervised by the Queensland Government through the Pacific Islanders branch of the Immigration Department. Queensland State Archives has substantial holdings on their history, with the best details surviving from Maryborough and Port Douglas, along with central immigration registers and supporting files such as those of the Colonial Secretary and the Governor.
Throughout the labour trade there were allegations of kidnapping and slavery, which have some foundation. Today’s Australian South Sea Islanders refer to themselves as the descendants of slaves and it is clear that the community harbours a deep sense of injustice. Estimates vary as to the number of Islanders who were physically forced into the labour trade: most historians would say 10 to 15 per cent; the Islanders suggest a larger percentage. All of them were ‘culturally kidnapped’, meaning that Europeans took cultural advantage of their small-scale societies and enticed them to come to Australia under circumstances they did not understand. Once indentured in Queensland they were servile bonded labour, paid poorly (by comparison with European labourers), often held in circumstances that can be described as slave-like, and subjected to the same level of racial discrimination as faced by Indigenous Australians.
Four categories of Islander immigrants emerged: first-time indenture labourers who had never left their islands before; re-enlistments; time-expired labourers; and ticket-holders. Re-enlistments occurred from the late 1860s onwards, and by the early 1890s more than one-quarter of the newly arriving labourers were re-enlisting: in 1897, 230 of the 934 new recruits had previously served terms of indenture in Queensland, Fiji, New Caledonia and Samoa. Time-expired labourers were those who had completed one three-year agreement but opted to stay in Queensland and entered new agreements. The time-expired segment of the Islander workforce grew increasingly important over the four decades of immigration. By 1895 time-expired Islanders made up 65 per cent of the Melanesians. Ticket-holders were the 835 Islanders who had resided in Queensland for five years before September 1884 – they had no restriction on the types of work they undertook. In 1892 there were 716 ticket-holders, 704 in 1901 and 691 in 1906. Expressed as a proportion of the overall Islander population in Queensland from 1885 to 1906, in any one year ticket-holders constituted between seven and 11 per cent of the Islander population.
These categories are important for three reasons. First, from the 1860s onwards the standard rate of pay was £6 per year for first-indentured labourers. Re-recruiting labourers received around £10 a year, and between the mid-1880s to the 1900s re-enlisting labourers in Queensland earned £16 to £23 a year. Several hundred others, the ticket-holders, were outside the indenture system and could earn independently, some running small businesses and farms.
Second, government records show that in excess of 14,564 Islander labourers died in Queensland between 1868 and 1906, with around another 100 deaths between 1863 and 1867. This is by far the highest death rate for any group of immigrants in Australia. Pacific Islanders lived in an isolated environment lacking many of the common diseases found on large land masses. For those newly arrived in Queensland, the common cold, tuberculosis, pneumonia, bronchitis and pleurisy were major killers. The Islanders also had no immunity to measles and chicken pox, which caused large numbers of deaths. Dysentery also occurred, particularly on plantations where public health standards were often low. The estimated death rate of Islanders in the first year of their indenture was 81 per 1000 – over three times the estimated death rate for the rest of the Islander population, which was 26 per 1000. If an Islander survived the first three years in Queensland, he or she would probably have lived until old age, remembering of course that in the nineteenth-century people died much younger than today. The upper band of the death rate for ticket-holders was 14 per 1000 – a similar rate to Europeans in Queensland. It was always the newcomers, the first-indenture labourers, who suffered worst in Queensland. The third reason that the categories are important is that the present-day Australian South Sea Islander population is largely descended from the time-expired and ticket-holder Islanders.
The Islanders worked six days a week on plantations and farms, able to wander the districts in their spare time. From the 1880s onwards they began to attend Christian missions, predominantly run by the Anglicans, Presbyterians and the Queensland Kanaka Mission. Their accommodation was either barracks or island-style houses which they constructed themselves and preferred.
gar industry the Australian Government introduced an embargo on all ‘foreign’ sugar and introduced a bonus for sugar produced using only white labour. Under 1906 changes, Islanders were exempt from deportation if they had lived continuously in Australia since 31 December 1886, were aged or infirm, had children educated at state schools, owned freehold land, were (before 31 October 1906) married to a person not from their own island, or could prove that they would be in danger if they returned home. The majority of present-day Australian South Sea Islanders are descended from this group.
Forced deportation began in late 1906 and continued until mid-1908. Families were ripped apart and property was forfeited. On return to the islands many faced severe problems readjusting to their old lives and some were killed. The official number allowed to remain was 1654, but later estimates suggest that around 2000 remained. Today 20,000 to 40,000 people make up the Australian South Islander community, the numbers depending on self-identification, particularly for the 40 to 50 per cent of those who have Australian Indigenous ancestry.
Following on from the SBS TV programme on Mal Meninga, in October 2016 I began research on the ‘Roderick Dhu’, labour schooner, 163 tons, built Auckland 1875, and its various ‘recruiting’ voyages. As of 12 January 2017, I have found about 45 voyages which carried some 3,011 ASSI to Queensland. A ‘biography’ of this ship has emerged and will be published sometime in 2017, after some family history research on the labourers has been attempted.
Thanks for your comment Paul, your research project concerning the ‘Roderick Dhu’ sounds very interesting!
Hello Paul
Has your research been published yet and how can I get a copy?
Thanks
Peter.rawlinson@bigpond.com
Sir, Please find and email me copies of records of my great grand father Benjamin Gwaata Buriau, a Solomon Islander sugar cane worker from 1901 to 1906 records.
please help ,
regards,
clotilda Claudia Harry.
Thanks for your comment Clotilda, a quick search of a couple of our online indexes failed to locate any matching entries for your great grand father’s name. If you can send an enquiry to QSA using our online enquiry form, we can provide you with some research assistance regarding possible records for your great grand father.
Hi,
Hi sir, can you please research for me the names of all Solomon islanders in Queensland , sugarcane Plantation from 1900 to 1910, you might find my great-grandfather Benjamin Burriau Gwaata in listing for recruitment there, arrive through Mission the kanakas in Australia. please help and direct me to where I could find his records there.
clotilda Claudia harry
Hi Clotilda – Queensland State Archives holds various records within its collection relating to Australian South Sea Islander people from their first arrivals in the early 1860s to their subsequent repatriation or settlement in Queensland, particularly in the first two decades of 1900s. View the Australian South Sea Islander Resources page: https://www.qld.gov.au/recreation/arts/heritage/archives/assi; and also view the list of nominated records (100KB) that includes links to digital images of the records: https://www.qld.gov.au/dsiti/qsa/search/. Please note, not all ASSI records at Queensland State Archives have been digitised.
You may also like to contact the Australian South Sea Islanders Secretariat (ASSIS ): http://www.assis.org.au/ .
[…] of Islanders who were physically forced into the labour trade. However, as historian Clive Moore notes, ‘all of them were “culturally kidnapped’, meaning that traders took cultural […]
Please do not imply to young researchers that these unfortunate wretches were treated well by landholders in Queensland or NSW. The accurate factual historical record needs to be put straight, thereby assuring readers that “Kanaka recruitment” from Solomon Islands and New Hebrides group, (now Vanuatu) and possibly neighbouring Pacific islands was analogous to slavery. These men were chased, herded and forcibly brought aboard ships, like cattle. It has been witnessed and recorded that some men were so heartbroken and inconsolable that they never recovered from the resultant depression, whether they returned to their homeland or not. This country owes these people a huge debt, for their blood & sweat and commitment to developing the agricultural resources of Australia.
Please don’t sugar-coat or gloss over the truth.
Hi, Please can you search Indented Labourours in Queensland in 1867 to 19903 for Solomon islands. search for name Benjamine Gwaata Burriau and send me feedback on his files and records where archives so I could communicate for his records and history in Australia during those sugarcane plantations day or on marine list for shipping. please help me find this records of my great grand father in Australia.
Clotilda .C.Harry
Hi Clotilda – please see the previous response. If you still have questions, please use our online enquiry form for reference help: https://www.qld.gov.au/dsiti/qsa/request-form.
Hello, my group and I will be competing in the documentary category at the National History Day Competition in Maryland next month. Our topic is about the Blackbirding in Queensland, Australia. We kindly ask if there are any clips of the indentured labourers, images of contacts they signed, or a list of names. It would greatly contribute to our project. Hope to get a response soon.
Hey Lolua. Apologies for the late reply. If you’re still interested, contact us at: info@archives.qld.gov.au and one of our archivists should be able to assist.
Queensland State Archives has substantial holdings on their history
Hello my great great grandfather Alexander Roach came from Vanuatu from what I discovered he came from Santo lady at the archives told me he came from Valpei village on west coast Santo island I just want to know if that is true I found a record of the contract mentions the ship name Roderick Dhu and master George Cuttler there where 3 names on the contract laborers all came from Santo and arrived on the same ship roach and 3 other names can any one have a good look my great great grandfather Alexander Roach can be found in the index list of south sea islanders thank u if any anyone can help me
[…] Australian South Sea Islanders in Queensland […]
2020, 11 September update: Despite PTS best efforts, the lack of time, money, energy, and other book projects, has meant this compilation of the 45 voyages of the ‘Roderick Dhu, labour schooner’ has not yet appeared in public.
With the manuscript currently at 90,000 words (263 pages), PTS will try to publish it in a draft pdf form by the end of 2020. Distribution will occur to all the relevant deposit and specialist libraries for consultation as a ‘finding aid’.
Hi Paul,
Any update as to when you may publish on the voyages of the “Roderick Dhu”.
Ian Cran
Could you please do Diay Entires or letters about, or from John Leak including if so the VC (Vicotrian Cross)
Our archive stores government records not personal diaries or letters.
You will find a handful of records from Queensland Department of Lands and State Migration Office for John Leak:
https://www.archivessearch.qld.gov.au/search?f%5B%5D=keywords&f%5B%5D=keywords&from=1892&has_digital=false&op%5B%5D=AND&op%5B%5D=AND&open=true&q%5B%5D=John%20&q%5B%5D=Leak&sort=relevance&to=1972&type%5B%5D=archival_object
The State Library of Queensland may hold the records you are after. You can search online: http://onesearch.slq.qld.gov.au/
All the best with your research!
[…] were treated somewhere between poorly and viciously. They suffered the highest death rate by far of any contemporaneous immigrant group to […]