Historical Information Sheet No 17: Australian South Sea Islander Demography in the Twentieth and Twenty-First Centuries
The New Hebrides (now Vanuatu) supplied nearly 40,000 and Solomon Islands 18,000 just over one-quarter) of the original Australian South Sea Islander (ASSI) population between 1863 and 1904. The New Hebrides dominated early recruiting, then in the 1880s the number from the Solomons expanded, providing over half of the recruits in the final years of the labour trade. Numbers increased rapidly from 1,543 in 1868 to a peak of 11,443 in 1883, and then declined, only to increase again in the 1890s and 1890s. In 1901 there were around 10,000 Australian South Sea Islanders, after which the number declined through attrition until 1906 when the Australian Government planned to begin deportation of as many as possible of those remaining. The deportation ended in 1908 by which time about 2,000 to 2,500 remained.[1]
As Patricia Mercer states, for the next sixty years there ASSI were a closed population with no immigration from and little emigration back to their home islands. Three-quarters of them continued to live in Queensland, with about half in North Queensland. The geographic spread established during the nineteenth century remained the same: Mackay was the largest ASSI community in North Queensland, with other substantial populations at Cairns and Port Douglas, the Herbert River (Ingham), Johnstone River (Innisfail), Bowen and in later years the Burdekin (Ayr/Homehill). The only sizeable ASSI population not in a sugarcane-growing district was at Bowen, with small numbers also in Townsville, the Atherton Tablelands, the Gulf of Carpentaria down to Cloncurry and across to the coast through Hughenden and Charters Towers. Some others were amalgamated into Aboriginal communities at Yarrabah, Mapoon, Aurukun and Palm Island. Others lived in Torres Strait and have become part of that indigenous community. The Islanders have always migrated within Queensland and to Northern New South Wales to be near kin. This has led to movement from Central Queensland to Mackay, and into the Bowen and Burdekin areas.[2]
The Table One, expanded in the Appendix to this paper, indicates the geographic spread of the ASSI population in 1891 and 1901. The 1901 ASSI population was 9,537. The most interesting points arising from the table (and the Appendix) are the enormous geographic spread, not only along the coast but also into pastoral areas, Cape York and Torres Strait and the number of minors along with the adults: 2,127 in 1891 and 1,547 in 1901. The deportation process occurred between 1906 and 1908 there and many of these would have left Australia, however, there most of the Islanders in pastoral and remote maritime areas would have been in Queensland since the 1870s and early 1880s. They were in a pre-1879 special category and were allowed to remain in Australia. Most would have been single men but significant numbers would also have had Aboriginal wives and their families were absorbed into local Indigenous communities.
Table One: Estimate of Major Pacific Islander Populations in Queensland, 1891 and 1901
District
1891
1901
Torres Strait
219?
672
Cairns and Mossman
100
500
Johnstone River (Innisfail)
800
530
Herbert River (Ingham)
800
1,233
Burdekin (Ayr & Homehill)
400
500
Bowen & Proserpine
624
298
Mackay
2,277
1,475
Rockhampton
111
150?
Bundaberg
2,000
1,912
Isis
700
500
Maryborough
170?
900
Brisbane & Logan
335
500
Other
266?
367?
TOTAL
8,602
9,537
(Note: Based on 1891 and 1901 Census statistics, and accumulated personal knowledge. It is difficult to estimate from the Census Districts, which changed shape between the two census years.) There has been no totally adequate count of the number of South Sea Islanders in Australia since 1906. Reaching a satisfactory estimate has always been a significant challenge as the National Census statistics are of limited use. There is inconsistency in the race and ethnicity questions asked, some individuals of ASSI descent choose not to be identified, and others are cloaked under the statistics for Australia’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population as their primary identification.)
Pacific Islanders in the National Census, 1911 to 1966
The National Census data is the only demographic data on ASSI available for most of the twentieth centuries; however it was always regarded as only an approximate source of information on the non-Europeans section of the population. There are statistics on Pacific Islanders in the National Censuses but it is not entirely clear how many of these are descendants of the nineteenth century labour trade immigrants. The National Census until 1966 asked a question on race, but it is still difficult to get accurate information as the designation South Sea Islander or Pacific Islander includes both the original labour trade immigrants and more recent immigrants. Because of the White Australia Policy, between 1901 and the 1960s very few Pacific Islanders were able to enter Australia, although a trickle began to do so for education onwards from the 1950s. Questions on race are difficult to ask and get accurate information from. An example is the 1986 Census which did contain a question on ancestry. Only 133 people in Queensland responded “Kanaka”, and the response “South Sea Islander” was not counted.[3]
It is worth beginning with Patricia Mercer’s findings on demographic patterns for ASSI during the first half of the twentieth century, to show that they were not average in the wider Australian community, and that the 1976 calculations cited below were based on false premises about the average size of the families.
Islanders, like most minority and many migrant groups, did not share the demographic patterns of the wider community. In Australia this was a period of declining fertility in which the growth rate was only maintained by immigration. Pacific Islanders, in contrast, were a closed population whose survival was dependent on a high rate of natural increase. Amongst the native-born the pre-requisites for such an increase were all present: a very young age at marriage, a narrow gap in age between spouses, conception before or soon after marriage for all but the unfecund, the virtual absence of family planning practices, social pressure to bear and raise large families, a long child-bearing span, and declining mortality and infant mortality rates.[4]
The ASSI who remained after 1907-1908 fell into three categories: old men living alone or in groups; old childless couples; and those relatively few men and women, often younger, married to other Islanders, Aborigines or Asians and with families. By the 1910s and 1920s, the children of these unions were themselves of marriageable age, and faced social pressure to marry back into the ASSI community first, then to Aborigines and last to Europeans. Reflecting the common patterns amongst immigrants, the family size of the original Islanders had been generally small; the families of their children and their children were much larger. By the 1940s and 1950s, families of ten or more were increasingly to be found. For instance, in 1957 novelist Ernestine Hill wrote of meeting Mary Tanna of Halifax (near Ingham), the daughter of Islander immigrants from the New Hebrides. She had married twice and borne seven children who had raised at least fifty-eight children many of whom had begun their own families.[5]
Table Two: 1911-1947, Pacific Islanders in Australia and Queensland
Australia Queensland
Year
M
F
Total
M
% of Aust total
F
% of Aust total
Total
% of Aust total
1911
1,803
439
2,242
1,476
81.9
384
87.5
1,860
83.0
1921
1,819
750
2,569
1,482
81.5
616
82.1
2,098
81.7
1933
1,145
747
1,892
954
83.3
628
84.1
1,582
83.6
1947*
1,161
817
1,978
1,007
86.7
676
82.7
1,683
85.1
Source: Patricia Mercer, White Australia Defied: Pacific Islander Settlement in North Queensland, Studies in North Queensland History No. 21, Townsville, Department of History and Politics, James Cook University, 1995, p. 150.
*In 1947 Torres Strait Islanders were counted in with Pacific Islanders. These figures were calculated by subtracting approximate figures given for the number of Torres Strait Islanders from the Australian and Queensland totals.
Table Three: 1911-1933 South Sea Islanders in North Queensland
1911 Census
1921 Census
1933 Census
District
M
F
Total
M
F
Total
M
F
Total
Pt Douglas
40
0
40
26
2
28
12
4
16
Cairns
103
5
108
45
18
63
8
2
10
Atherton Tableland
15
0
15
33
12
45
5
0
5
Johnstone R
*
*
*
45
5
50
11
5
16
Herbert R
71
12
83
65
36
101
31
24
55
Townsville
27
3
30
13
3
16
6
4
10
Burdekin
+
+
+
25
11
36
42
20
62
Charters Towers
6
2
8
11
6
17
3
1
4
Hughenden & West
10
0
10
13
8
21
6
4
10
Bowen
49
5
54
33
14
47
33
22
55
Proserpine
#
#
#
28
22
50
8
4
12
Mackay
208
22
230
234
81
315
169
93
262
TOTAL
529
49
578
571
218
789
334
183
517
*Included in Cairns Total
+Included in Townsville Total
#Included in Bowen Total
Source: Patricia Mercer, White Australia Defied: Pacific Islander Settlement in North Queensland, Studies in North Queensland History No. 21, Townsville, Department of History and Politics, James Cook University, 1995, p. 112.
The numbers born overseas steadily declined: 1,506 in 1911; 1,075 in 1921; 519 in 1933. Most of the first generation of ASSI was dead by the time of the 1961 and 1966 Censuses. Mercer also calculated the numbers of South Sea Islanders in North Queensland, according to the Census, 1911-1933.
Table Four: 1954 to 1966, Pacific Islanders in the Australian Censuses
Australian-Born Overseas-born Total
Year
Males
Females
Persons
Males
Females
Persons
Males
Females
Persons
1954
1,049
974
2,023
142
47
189
1,191
1,021
2,221
1961
1,320
1,250
2,570
205
140
345
1,525
1,390
2,915
1966
1,189
1,145
2,334
352
319
671
1,541
1,464
3,005
Source: Report of the Inter-Departmental Committee on South Sea Islanders in Australia, Canberra, July 1977, p. 9.
The first modern estimate was made in 1977 by an Interdepartmental Committee set up by the Whitlam Government in 1975 after extensive representations by the Australian South Sea Islanders United Council. The Report used census statistics and a 1976 survey and argued that the 1961 and 1966 overseas-born Islanders were predominantly students. The IDC survey found evidence of between 2,900 and 3,700 persons in Australia who identified as descendants of Australian South Sea Islanders. It has always been felt that this estimate was far too low, which is proved by the more complete 1992 survey.
One interesting part of the 1977 Report is the 1911-1961 calculation of the average annual rate of growth of the Islander population which was suggested to be 2.53%. This figure is unlikely to be correct: as Mercer suggest, the second and third generation of ASSI had very large families: 10 to 12 children surviving into adulthood in one family was quite usual.
The 1976 survey, even though of only 1,218 ASSI individuals, provides an solid forecast for 2013, given the number of ASSI in the 0 to 39 age group (995) who are part of the present adult generation. This figure requires analysis by a demographer to forecast the possible ASSI population thirty-six years later in 2012.
Table Five: 1976 Survey Age and Sex Distribution of ASSI
Age Group
Males
Females
% Males
% Females
0-4
94
77
14.7
13.3
5-9
83
87
12.8
15.2
10-14
80
71
12.5
12.3
15-19
93
75
14.5
13.0
20-24
64
59
10.0
10.2
25-29
61
38
9.5
6.6
30-34
28
29
4.4
5.0
35-39
21
35
3.3
6.1
40-44
32
26
5.0
4.5
45-49
21
22
3.3
3.8
50-54
25
19
3.9
3.3
55-59
14
17
2.2
2.0
60-64
12
12
1.9
2.1
65-69
9
4
1.4
0.7
70+
4
6
0.6
1.0
Sub Total
641
577
100.0
100.0
Age not stated
53
78
Report of the Inter-Departmental Committee on South Sea Islanders in Australia, Canberra, July 1977, p. 12.
In 1991, Faith Bandler persuaded the Evatt Foundation to undertake a preliminary survey of the ASSI population, which was the forerunner of the Human Right and Equal Opportunity Commission survey the next year. The population statistics were gathered by Nasuven Enares .
Table Six: 1991 Estimate of Australia South Sea Islanders throughout some Areas of Queensland and Interstate.
Mackay
3,400
Ayr
900
Rockhampton/Yeppoon
1,500
Bundaberg
5,000
Nambour
500
Innisfail
500
Proserpine
100
Townsville
100
Cairns
600
Ingham
500
Tweed River
500
Brisbane
600
Sydney/Canberra
600
Mt Isa/Charters Towers
300
Melbourne
100
South Australia
100
TOTAL
15,700
Evatt Foundation, Australian South Sea Islanders: A Report on the Current Status of South Sea Islanders in Australia, Sydney, February 1992, p. 17.
This estimate is reasonably accurate, although Mackay is always considered to be the largest community and if Bundaberg had 5,000 ASSI descendants, Mackay would have had more, which would bring the figure to 17,000 or 18,000, and this does not count ASSIs in Aboriginal communities, on Thursday Island and other Torres Strait Islands, Cape York and in other towns and states, such as were enumerated in the 1992 survey.
Table Seven: 1992 Survey Estimate of the Australian South Sea Islander Population
Region
ASSI Households
ASSI Estimated Population
Far North Qld
70
266
North West Qld
50
190
Northern Qld
430
1,634
Mackay
900
3,420
Fitzroy
300
1,140
Wide Bay
100
380
Sunshine Coast
30
114
Brisbane/Moreton
200
760
Rest of Qld; unknown
50
190
Northern Rivers
250
950
Sydney
100
380
Rest of NSW; unknown
30
114
ACT
40
152
Melbourne
30
114
Rest of Vic; Unknown
30
114
South Australia
30
114
Western Australia
20
76
Northern Territory
30
114
TOTAL
2,690
10,200
Human Right and Equal Opportunity Commission, The Call for Recognition: A Report on the Situation of Australian South Sea Islanders, 15 December 1992, Sydney, p. 26.
Conclusion
In the 1970s Faith Bandler estimated that there were 30,000 descendants of ASSI, while the 1976 Australian Government estimate was a low 2,900 to 3,700. In 1993 Clive Moore and Patricia Mercer, based on their twenty years knowledge of the community, suggested that the figure was approximately 15.000.[6] In 1994, when the Australian Government responded to the 1992 HEROC Report, Senator Ian MacDonald in introducing the Report to the Senate stated that there were 15,000 to 20,000 ASSI descendants in Australia.[7] These estimates do not count the ASSI descendants who identify as Indigenous Australians, either Aborigines or Torres Strait Islanders. Many ASSI have now moved away from the coastal areas of Queensland and Northern New South Wales and can be found in rural towns such as Mildura or in any of the capital cities. As well, around half of Australia’s 53,000 Torres Strait Islanders have ASSI ancestry, most from the nineteenth century labour trade but also from London Missionary Society staff.[8] The 672 ASSI in Torres Strait in 1901 largely escaped the deportation process and became incorporated into the Torres Strait Islander population. Depending on how they identify, it is reasonable to suggest that there are at least 40,000 descendants of South Sea Islanders living in Australia today.
Prepared by Emeritus Professor Clive Moore, University of Queensland: c.moore@uq.edu.au
Appendix One: 1891 and 1901 Spread of South Sea Islanders in Queensland by Census District
Year
1891
1901
District
Adults
Minors
Total
Adults
Minors
Total
Albert
55
10
65
Aramac (w of Clermont)
2
0
2
Aubigny
1
0
1
Barcoo
2
0
2
Blackall (SW of Clermont)
3
12
15
Bowen
454
170
624
231
67
298
Brisbane
41
8
49
Brisbane, North
21
3
24
Brisbane, South
32
2
34
Bulimba, Brisbane
36
2
38
Bundaberg
195
180
375
1,591
321
1,912
Burke (Gulf)
8
0
8
2
0
2
Burnett (W of Bundaberg)
4
0
4
4
0
4
Barrum
239
79
318
Caboolture (N of Brisbane)
103
27
130
Cairns (& Innisfail)
249
3
252
943
187
1,130
Cambooy
1
0
1
Cardwell (Ingham)
1,117
116
1,233
Carnavon
2
0
2
Carpentaria
4
0
4
Charleville
4
0
4
Charters Towers
1
0
1
Clermont
3
0
3
8
1
9
Cloncurry
4
0
4
Cook (E Cp York incl. Mossman)
47
219
266
238
122
360
Cannamulla
1
0
1
Cunningham
1
0
1
Darling Downs Central
2
0
2
Darling Downs East
1
0
1
Enoggera, Brisbane
2
0
2
3
0
3
Etheridge (W of Cardwell)
6
0
6
Fassifern (S of Ipswich)
1
0
1
Fitzroy
1
0
1
Flinders
3
0
3
Fortitude Valley, Brisbane
3
2
5
Gladstone
16
6
22
Gregory
1
0
1
Herbert, Ingham
1,318
297
1,615
Herberton (W of Cairns)
20
1
21
Ipswich
1
0
1
3
0
3
Kennedy (Charters Towers)
6
0
6
10
10
20
Leichhardt (W of Gladstone)
13
0
13
2
0
2
Logan (Brisbane)
69
7
76
36
1
37
Mackay
1,739
538
2,277
1,250
225
1,475
Maranoa (W of Darling Downs)
1
0
1
2
0
2
Marathon (S of Cloncurry)
2
0
2
Maryborough
90
51
141
41
7
48
Mitchell
6
0
6
Moreton (Brisbane)
47
5
52
Moreton East
90
10
100
Moreton West
9
0
9
Murilla
1
1
2
Musgrave, Innisfail
1,331
652
1,983
Normanby
6
0
6
Nunda, Brisbane
2
0
2
16
0
16
Oxley, Brisbane
11
1
12
7
1
8
Palmer (W Cape York)
1
0
1
Peak Downs (W of Rockhampton)
1
0
1
Port Curtis, Gladstone
26
3
29
Rockhampton
9
1
10
9
0
9
Rockhampton North
92
9
101
Rosewood
12
0
12
Somerset (Torres Strait)
518
154
672
Springsure (S of Clermont)
14
0
14
Stanley (W of Caboolture)
1
0
1
1
0
1
St. Lawrence
1
0
1
Toombul, Brisbane
22
1
23
Toowong, Brisbane
9
4
13
Taroom (W of Burnett)
2
0
2
Tiaro (S of Maryborough)
71
42
113
Toowong, Brisbane
5
0
5
Townsville
42
32
74
491
44
535
Westwood
154
56
210
Wide Bay, Maryborough
26
3
29
705
129
834
Woolloongabba, Brisbane
3
1
4
Woothakata (Gulf behind Cairns)
37
9
46
TOTAL
6,475
2,127
8,602
7,780
1,547
9, 537
Source:Census of Queensland, 1891, p. 459, QVP 1892, Vol III, p. 1391; 1901, p. 16, QVP 1901, Vol. 11, p. 956
[1] Clive Moore and Patricia Mercer, ‘The Forgotten Immigrants: Australia’s South Sea Islanders, 1906-1993’, in Henry Reynolds (ed.), Race Relations in North Queensland, Townsville: Department of History and Politics, James Cook University, 1993, pp. 208-242.
[2] Patricia Mercer, White Australia Defied: Pacific Islander Settlement in North Queensland, Studies in North Queensland History No. 21, Townsville, Department of History and Politics, James Cook University, 1995, pp. 1-2, 100, 106-107.
[3] Colin Menzies (The Public Practice Ltd.), A Profile of Neglect: A Background Paper on the Situation of Australian South Sea Islanders, 1992, p. 6.
[4] Mercer, White Australia Defied, p. 149.
[5] Moore and Mercer, ‘The Forgotten Immigrants’, p. 211.
[6] Moore and Mercer, ‘The Forgotten Immigrants’, p. 212.
[7] Senator Ian MacDonald, Senate, 1 September 1994.
[8] Demographic, Social and Economic Characteristics Overview: Torres Strait Islander People, Australian Bureau of Statistics, http://www.abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/abs@.nsf/lookup/4704.0Chapter260Oct+2010 (accessed 12 December 2012). Steve Mullins, ‘”Heathen Polynee” and “Nigger Teachers”: Torres Strait and the Pacific Islander Ascendancy’, Aboriginal History, 1990, Vol. 14, No. 2, pp. 152-167; Anna Shnukal, Pacific Islander Immigrants in Torres Strait’, Voices, 1992 Vol. 2, No. 2, pp. 5-14; Anna Shnukal, ‘Pacific Islanders and Torres Strait 1860-1940’, Australian Aboriginal Studies, 1992, Vol. 1, pp. 14-27; Anna Shnukal, ‘The Interwar Pacific Islander Community of Port Lihou, Torres Strait’, Royal Historical Society of Queensland Journal, 2001, Vol. 17, No. 10, pp. 433-460; Bruno David, Louise Manas and Michael Quinnell (eds), Gelam’s Homeland: Cultural and Natural History on the Island of Mua, Torres Strait, Memoirs of the Queensland Museum, Cultural Heritage Series, Vol. 4, Part 2, 2008.