Queensland Beckons

Chinese Gold Balance
Cane Knives
Pearlshell and buttons
Cane Cutters’ Monument, Innisfail

The discovery of gold near Charters Towers in 1872 and on the Palmer River in 1873 resulted in about 22,000 Chinese arriving in Cooktown between 1875 and 1877. The exodus from the Palmer diggings that began in about 1877, coincided with the foundation of Port Douglas, Cairns, Herberton, Atherton and Innisfail. Many Chinese people took up occupations as providers of basic services in these centres and maintained their links with Cooktown Chinese. They leased land on which they grew fruit and vegetables, they supplied fish, and from the mid-1880s they became significant players in the commerce and agriculture of the region.

A Chinese consortium (the Hop Wah Sugar Mill) pioneered cane growing in the Cairns region. The Chinese produced the first bananas to be exported from Cairns in 1886 and controlled banana cultivation in Cairns and Innisfail for 20 years.

The Chinese continued to play a crucial role in the development and growth of the primary industries of Queensland’s north long after the ‘White Australia’ policy had been endorsed and implemented by the new Commonwealth Government.

The ‘White Australia’ policy was enacted through two pieces of legislation in 1901: The Immigration Restriction Act and the Pacific Island Labourers Act. The thrust of the policy was to halt further migration from Asia and to deport the Pacific Islanders who had been recruited as indentured workers for the sugar and cotton industries. Significantly, the pearling and bêche-de-mer industries were exempt, under strict conditions, from the provisions of the ‘White Australia’ policy because the pearlers needed the skills of the Japanese people. Of all the cultural groups involved in pearling, the Japanese had the greatest impact on the development of the industry.

With the decline in the use of Pacific Island and Asian labour in the sugar industry, Southern Italians, Maltese and Spanish workers, seen as appropriate workers for a tropical climate, were encouraged to migrate to North Queensland. Those of Italian background made up the greatest numbers. Italian migrants pioneered cane farms and contributed greatly to the success of the sugar industry.