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Screen (3 of 9) ...Queensland’s Island trade ...
 


Kanaka labourers on a Queensland pineapple plantation, 1890s.
(National Library of Australia, nla.pic-an24494586.)


Hear Commentary:
...Queensland’s Island trade - Listen to Professor Andrew Jakubowicz discuss the events and issues surrounding this topic. Read text commentary
Archival Images: “White Australia” pineapples label - “White Australia” pineapples, grown after the expulsion of the South Sea Islander workers (National Museum of Australia) - More ...

Interviews:
Queensland's Islander trade - Clive Moore explores the contradictions of the recruitment of South Sea Islanders for work in Queensland - and their later expulsion. - More ...
Cartoons: The South Sea Labour Trade - An 1886 cartoon depicting a slave trader using coconuts as a lure to entice buyers for his "niggers".
The caption reads: “South Sea Island Trader: ‘Now gentlemen, give me a start. What shall we say for this ‘ere cocoanut – and the nigger thrown in? Five pounds only bid for this cocoanut. Five pounds; five o’ny; five – did I hear six? No advance; going at five; gone. Next nigger; I mean next cocoanut.’ ” - More ...
Archival Footage: "Kanakas" workers in Queensland Canefields 1899 - Workers from the South Pacific were brought to Australia, often against their will, to work for British farmers in appalling conditions. After Federation, this practice was eventually stopped and the "Kanakas" deported, as they were seen as unfair competition to the white workforce. - More ...
Image Collections: South Sea Islander and Asian workers - Archival photographs of South Sea Islander and Asian workers at various occupations in Queensland in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. - More ...
Web References: Across the Coral Sea - The website of an exhibition of historic photographs showing how South Sea Islanders came to Queensland, and their lives and work in the nineteenth century. - More ...
Web References: White Australia - Links to documents on the National Archives of Australia website which outline legislation and other government action to install a White Australia policy - to remain in force for well over half the twentieth century. - More ...
Letters: Impact of restrictive legislation - Letter on the effects of the Pacific Islanders Act on the Solomon Islands from C. Woodford (Commissioner Western Pacific) to A. Barton (Prime Minister), 28 November 1901. - More ...
Articles: Deportations after Federation - Clive Moore writes about efforts to prevent the mass deportations of South Sea Islanders in the wake of the 1901 restrictive legislation. - More ...
Book Excerpts: Pacific Islanders in Queensland - This chapter in a state government publication outlines the history of the migration of people from the South Pacific to Queensland and briefly describes the main islands from which they have come. - More ...
Web References: The South Sea Islander community - Links to a section of the Queensland Government's website which outlines the history of South Sea Islanders in the state. - More ...

Interviews:
Pearling in the Torres Strait - Regina Ganter describes the start of the pearling industry in Queensland and both the mix of peoples who worked in it, and the exploitation of these labourers. - More ...
Book Excerpts: The Japanese in Torres Strait - Yuriko Nagata writes about the establishment of the Japanese presence in Torres Strait in the nineteenth century and the community's development from the 1880s to the 1990s. - More ...
Web References: Daring Diving - A section of the Queensland Museum website "Queensland Stories" in which a former pearl diver tells about the dangers of this type of work in the first half of the twentieth century. - More ...
Archival Images: White Australia Game - A game devised in 1914, whose aim was to "Get the Coloured Men Out and the White Men In to Australia". - More ...
Reports: Social and Economic Effect of Increase in Number of Aliens in North Queensland - A 1925 government report which expresses fears about non-English-speaking immigrants, and recommends caution in choosing who should be accepted, and measures for those already in the state. - More ...
Image Collections: European settlers - Archival photographs of various ethnic groups in Queensland in the early 1900s. - More ...
Articles: Muses magazine - Selected pages from Muses magazine, a publication launched in 1927 as a “review of the musical, artistic, literary and intellectual life of Queensland”. - More ...
 
...Queensland’s Island trade ...