The story
Soon after Federation, the new Australian Parliament passed the Immigration Restriction Act in December 1901. It did not name race, but it let officials give a dictation test in any European language to any would-be immigrant, and anyone who failed could be refused. The Pacific Island Labourers Act of 1901 ended the use of Pacific Islander workers in Queensland's sugar fields, and several thousand were deported in the following years. Together these laws made up the White Australia policy.
Concern about Asian migration went back to the gold rushes, when tens of thousands of Chinese diggers arrived and met riots and special taxes. Fear of labor competition and racial ideas common at the time joined the wish to build a British style nation, and restriction was a popular issue in the Federation campaign. The policy faded slowly. Rules were relaxed in 1966, and the Whitlam government formally ended race as a criterion in 1973. Australia now has about a third of its people born overseas, and the policy's legacy is still debated.
Why it mattered
- Australia's population stayed overwhelmingly of European origin until the second half of the twentieth century.
- The policy shaped Australia's relations with Asia, and was a sore point with Japan and China.
- Its dismantling in the 1960s and 1970s led to the multicultural Australia of today.
- Thousands of Pacific Islanders were deported from Queensland.
Sources
- White Australia policy National Museum of Australia
- The Immigration Restriction Act 1901 National Archives of Australia
- South Sea Islanders National Archives of Australia
- Dictionary of Sydney: Egon Kisch Dictionary of Sydney
Drafted by AI (Claude) from the sources above and checked against them by AI; no historian has reviewed this page. Spot a mistake? Suggest a correction. How pages are made
Community notes
Loading notes…