What kind evidence could Phyllis Corowa have drawn upon to find out about the life of her maternal grandmother – or to ‘piece all these things together ‘as she puts it?.*The Call for Recognition: a report on the situation of Australian South Sea Islanders, Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission, 1992 – cited in ‘The Call for Recognition’, Department of the Premier and Cabinet (Queensland) Today north Queensland is home to more than 20,000 of their descendants. In the southern states of Australia there were others, including those in labour movement, who took a different view and called for fair treatment of the Pacific Island workers.Īfter Federation a few thousand Pacific Islanders were not deported and were permitted to remain in Australia. They did not object when the Commonwealth decided to deport most Pacific Islanders between 19 as part of the implementation of the Immigration Restriction Act 1901 (often referred to as the ‘White Australia policy’). Opposition to these non-white immigrants came in some cases from those involved in the labour movement. Workers who left without permission or ‘absconded’ faced three months imprisonment.īecause the Pacific Islanders were paid so poorly compared to other unskilled workers in Australia, they were seen by some as a threat to employment. They were forbidden by law from striking and from leaving their place of employment. In the late 19th century trade unions in Australia were fighting for workers’ rights but the Pacific Islander workers of Queensland were banned from organising as a group.

Abuse of the Islanders included being beaten, being deprived of food or leisure time, medical neglect and sometimes separation of married couples. However few Islanders escaped some form of physical or mental violence.

According to the Department of the Premier and Cabinet, *conditions varied from plantation to plantation depending on how considerate the owners and overseers were.

The Islanders worked in harsh conditions in the Queensland sugar fields, some in conditions akin to slavery. This human trafficking is euphemistically known as ‘blackbirding’. Pacific Islanders were ‘recruited’ from various islands including the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu (then the New Hebrides) and the Loyalty Islands of New Caledonia.

Some of these islanders moved there willingly on the promise of income, whilst others were kidnapped from their island homes. Between 18 about 60,000 Pacific Islanders were transported to Queensland, where they toiled to create the sugar plantations of the far north.

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