WEST KIMBERLEY PLACE REPORT - Department of Sustainability ...

feared that the policy might lead pearlers to relocate their bases from Australia to
Dutch Timor or Indonesia (since most pearling took place in international waters). In
1902, the Commonwealth appointed two investigators to consider the implications of
the policy for the pearling industry. They reported that the level of pay necessary to
attract white labour to pearling would make the industry uneconomic. In response, the
Commonwealth Parliament agreed to exempt pearl divers from the Immigration
Restriction Act, provided that they were later repatriated. In 1905, the exemption was
reconsidered but upheld, with the addition of a permit system for divers (Bach 1955).
In 1908, the Mackay Commission recommended the establishment of a training
school for white divers, and approaches were made to Scottish fishermen to work in
the Torres Strait pearl fields. The use of fishermen from Norway and Sweden, and of
Greek sponge divers, was also unsuccessfully mooted.
Although Broome was granted an exemption from the White Australia policy,
indentured workers in the pearling industry could still readily be deported if they did
not work as directed or were rebellious (Sickert 2003). Divers who had been born in
Australia, or had arrived in Australia before the implementation of the White
Australia policy, were nonetheless in a vulnerable position. Despite the fact that they
were legally naturalised Australians and not subject to deportation, by law they could
be committed to a lunatic asylum for refusing to work, or for other behaviour deemed
'antisocial'. Chinese people and other Asians who arrived prior to the White Australia
policy were further restricted by legislation which prevented them from owning land,
pearling licenses or pearling fleets (Yu and Tang Wei 1999). The many headstones in
the Japanese and Chinese cemeteries in Broome bear witness to the danger and high
mortality rate of the pearling industry (Akerman et al. 2010).
The Aborigines Act 1905
The Western Australian Aborigines Act 1905, like the South Australian Aborigines
Act 1911, was based on the Queensland Aboriginal Protection and Restriction of the
Sale of Opium Act 1897, and controlled all aspects of Aboriginal people's lives. The
main features of the Act related to employment, the powers of the Chief Protector and
police, cohabitation and the establishment of Aboriginal reserves. The Chief
Protector's powers over Aboriginal people became extensive. He was now legal
guardian of every Aboriginal or 'half-caste' child under the age of sixteen, had the
right to intervene for the general care and protection of any person who came under
the Act, including the management of property, controlled the marriage of Aboriginal
women to non-Aboriginal men, and could initiate proceedings to force the father of an
illegitimate child to pay maintenance costs if the child was in care. A range of
offences relating to marriage, cohabitation and the supply of alcohol were created and
the police were empowered to arrest without warrant any Aboriginal person suspected
of offending.
Employment provisions were a major feature of the Act, including the prohibition of
employment of Aboriginal children under the age of sixteen, reiteration of the
contract system of employment and the introduction of compulsory employment
permits to be renewed annually. Employers were compelled under the Act to provide
adequate rations, medical care, clothing and blankets. Finally, the Governor was given
the power to reserve areas of Crown land up to a limit of 2,000 acres in any
magisterial district, and to order the removal of any unemployed Aboriginal person to
such a reserve (Biskup 1973; Haebich 2000).
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