WEST KIMBERLEY PLACE REPORT - Department of Sustainability ...

work in the sugar industry, while non-white labour filled a variety of occupations
across the Northern Territory in the 1890s (Bach 1955, 20). Following Federation, the
pearling industry, in common with a number of other remote-area industries, was
partly exempted from the Immigration Restriction Act 1901, the cornerstone of the
Commonwealth's White Australia policy.
The exemption of the pearling industry from the usual immigration requirements was
re–examined several times in the first two decades following Federation. This
ongoing scrutiny indicated that the exemption was considered to be a loophole in the
White Australia Policy which the Commonwealth Government tried to close by
importing white divers in 1912. On this and subsequent occasions the Commonwealth
Government reluctantly accepted evidence that it would not be practicable to replace
non-white divers and crews with white divers. There were other similarly
unsuccessful attempts to replace Asian workers in a particular industry; for example
on the goldfields of the Northern Territory (Reynolds 2003).
The presence of indentured Asian divers and the longevity of their connection with
Broome, due in part to the exemptions to the White Australia Policy, have contributed
to the multiculturalism for which Broome is known, and is an important demographic
feature of the region. This aspect of Broome is considered further. See migration
history below for further discussion.
The history of indentured labour and the application of the White Australia Policy are
important subcategories of the historical themes of immigration and nation building in
the colonial and post colonial eras. The pearling industry is one of several industries
to be largely exempted from the White Australia Policy for several decades after
Federation (Willard 1923). The pearling industry of the west Kimberley is similar to
other industries which used indentured labour, most notably the Queensland sugar
industry during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
Following Federation, pragmatic temporary exemptions to the Immigration
Restriction Act 1901 were granted for a range of non-whites deemed essential for
particular roles (such as the Afghan cameleers) or industries, especially those
involving relatively small numbers working in inhospitable conditions in remote
locations that were therefore unlikely to undermine the White Australia Policy. For
example, following agitation by the Queensland Government, the Immigration
Restriction Act 1901 and the Pacific Islands Labourers Act 1901 were amended to
enable around 21 per cent of the Pacific Islanders to remain in Australia when the
remainder were deported in 1906–1907 (Reynolds 2003). While exempted from the
dictation test, these workers remained subject to strict controls not applied to white
migrants, and it was generally a condition of the exemption that non-white migrants
be repatriated at the end of a specified period (although an extension of the exemption
certificate could be granted). Indentured workers in the pearling industry could be
readily deported if they did not work as directed, or were rebellious (Sickert 2003).
Analysis of the history of indentured labour and the White Australia Policy in Broome
shows that exemptions were not influential in the operation or evolution of the policy
nationally, and were similar to other exemptions made for similar reasons in other
areas of Australia.
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