Australia's White Australia Policy was a set of laws designed to restrict immigration by people who were not of European origin, especially targeting Asians - mainly Chinese - and Pacific Islanders. Those laws aimed to maintain Australia as a predominantly white, British-style society.
The roots of the policy trace back to the gold rush era of the 1850s, when thousands of Chinese immigrants came to Australia seeking prosperity. Their success in the goldfields primarily resulted from them taking all available ground, leading to tension with European miners and culminating in violent protests such as the Buckland and Lambing Flat Riots.
In response, the Colonies (now States) imposed taxes and other restrictions targeting Chinese arrivals. By the late 19th century, labor unions opposed low-wage competition from Chinese workers in industries including furnituremaking and market gardening, further fueling support for restrictive immigration laws.
The growth of Queensland's sugar industry in the 1870s brought thousands of Pacific Islanders, known as ‘Kanakas’ or ‘Sugar Slaves’ to work in harsh conditions. Many of these workers were tricked or coerced into coming, a practice called ‘blackbirding.’ Unions protested the use of cheap foreign labour, arguing it undercut wages and working conditions. By 1888, all Colonies (States from 1901) had enacted laws restricting Asian immigration. Efforts to extend these restrictions to other non-white groups continued despite resistance from landowners and the British Government.
Immigration was a key issue during the discussions leading to Australian Federation. At the 1898 Federation Convention, Western Australia’s premier, John Forrest, expressed the widespread sentiment against allowing non-white individuals into the country, a view many hesitated to discuss openly, but most favoured.
One of the first legislative actions of the new Federal Parliament was the passage of the Immigration Restriction Act 1901. That act aimed to preserve Australia’s ‘British character’ by implementing the ‘Dictation Test.’ That test, conducted in any European language chosen by immigration officials, was deliberately designed to exclude non-European migrants. Customs officers were at times instructed to ensure those applicants would fail. That signalled the introduction of the White Australia Policy, which was reinforced by subsequent Acts of the Federal Parliament.
The Pacific Island Labourers Act 1901 was another step to maintain Australia’s racial homogeneity. It mandated the deportation of thousands of Pacific Islander labourers, who were primarily employed in Queensland’s sugar industry. Prime Minister Barton argued that the practice of employing these workers was akin to slavery, likening it to the ‘negro problem’ in the United States. The majority were deported in the period 1906 to 1908 as undesirable.
After World War I, the Paris Peace Conference of 1919 brought Australia’s immigration policies into the international spotlight. Japan proposed a racial equality clause for the League of Nations, seeking to challenge immigration restrictions imposed on its citizens. Prime Minister Billy Hughes strongly opposed the clause, viewing it as a threat to the White Australia Policy. Hughes made it clear that Australia would not compromise on this principle, even if it meant withdrawing from the conference.
Ultimately, the clause was not adopted, and Hughes declared that the principle of a White Australia had been safeguarded, a sentiment he proudly reported to the Australian Parliament.
From the early days of Federation, Australia’s immigration policies were shaped by a desire to maintain a homogenous white population. These policies were enforced through legislation such as the Immigration Restriction Actas referred to above and supported by both sides of politics, despite international objections and the potential diplomatic fallout.
Throughout the 1930s, Australians remained uneasy about the possibility of Japanese expansion and a Pacific war. During this period, Billy Hughes, a minister in the United Australia Party, emphasized the need for population growth to secure Australia’s future, famously saying in a 1935 speech:‘Australia must populate or perish.’
From the onset of the Great Depression in 1929 to the conclusion of World War II in 1945, immigration to Australia remained minimal due to global challenges. At the war’s start, Labor Prime Minister John Curtin reiterated support for the White Australia Policy, asserting that Australia should remain a homeland for the descendants of British settlers who had established the nation in the South Seas.
The 1942 Fall of Singapore heightened fears of a Japanese invasion. Japanese forces bombed Australian cities and threatened shipping routes, while British naval forces were preoccupied in Europe. A Japanese fleet heading toward New Guinea was stopped by U.S. forces in the Battle of the Coral Sea. As Japanese forces advanced, thousands of refugees arrived in Australia, including Chinese civilians, sailors, and Dutch nationals fleeing the Dutch East Indies. Indigenous Australians and others from neighbouring regions, such as Papua New Guinea and Timor, played significant roles in Australia’s defence.
The Fall of Singapore was brought about by the British Lieutenant General Percival, who had more than 80,000 men under his command, unconditionally surrendering to the Japanese, advancing across the island, consisting of about 30,000 men with supplies and ammunition about to run out. General Bennett, the Australian commander, abandoned his men and fled to Australia, leaving his men to the Japanese butchery and atrocities which followed.
Despite some discussions during the war about ending the White Australia Policy, resistance to such changes remained strong. Concerns that treaties with allies likeChina could lead to demands for policy reform further solidified support for maintaining the racial exclusion framework.
After World War II, Australia launched an ambitious immigration program in response to the war's devastation, its exposure during the Pacific conflict, and concerns about its small population. The slogan ‘populate or perish’ captured the push to increase the population with European immigrants to avoid the perceived threat of being overrun by Asian nations. Labor Immigration Minister Arthur (Cocky) Calwell defended mass immigration, warning of the risks posed by a low population. Calwellreferred to white immigrants,famously remarking:
During the war, Australia saw an influx of refugees from Asia, including Chinese, Malays, Indonesians, and Filipinos. However, Calwell pursued policies to deport these non-white arrivals. Even Japanese women married to Australian soldiers were barred from entering the country until 1952. The Chifley Labor Government passed laws to facilitate deportations, although these faced challenges, including a notable High Court caseO'Keefe v Calwell [1949] HCA 6.
In 1949, Calwell's successor, LiberalHarold Holt, took a more lenient approach, allowing some non-white refugees to stay and permitting Japanese war brides to immigrate. Simultaneously, Australia intensified efforts to attract European immigrants, focusing on people from Italy, Greece, Poland, and Yugoslavia while continuing to encourage British migration. Immigrants were expected to assimilate into Australian society, which gradually weakened the case for Australia being solely ‘British.’
By the 1950s, criticism of the White Australia Policy grew, particularly from liberal British academics working in Australian universities. Groups like the Immigration Reform Group, established in 1959, began pushing for an end to racially discriminatory policies. Those shifts laid the groundwork for dismantling the White Australia Policy in the following decades, which wascarried out by Holt’s successors, culminating in Whitlam and Frazer, with the Fabians lurking in the background.
From 1880 to 1960, the fair dinkum Aussie magazine, The Bulletin,included the words‘Australia for the White Man’on its masthead, as depicted below in the 12 February 1920 edition, recovered from the National Library of Australia, through its search engine Trove.
Contributors to the Bulletin included the poets Henry Lawson, Banjo Patterson, Harry (Breaker) Morant, Dorothea Mackellar, CJ Dennis, Frank Dalby Davison, and Steele Rudd
The magazine published cartoons warning of the risk of non-white immigration:
In the late sixties, when the author ,Flysa, yes, he who should be listened to, was employed as an engineer on the new standard gauge railway from Perth to Kalgoorlie, the Kalgoorlie police would not allow the Chinese cooks at the campsite into town. No such problems for the European immigrant workers on the rail project who frequented the houses of ill-fame, and regularly, in their words, contracted ‘the poison.’
Flysa.
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