2. “The Whitest of them all”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SYRdHcHC8yo
Watch this clip carefully
What do you think this clips says about Australians attitudes towards Asians in the 1960’s?
How would you compare this clip with the attitudes displayed towards Asians during the 1800’s?
How would you compare this clip with the attitudes displayed towards Asians today?
4. The „crimson thread of kinship‟
After the gold rush, colonial governments encouraged and assisted a smaller but steady stream
of British migrants to come to Australia. This helped to preserve what was referred to as the
‘crimson thread of kinship’, the close cultural and sentimental ties between Britain and Australia.
5. Racial fears
Most Australians felt loyal to Britain and fearful of their Asian neighbours. But ties to Britain did
not mean that all Australians had faith in the British Empire. Some Australians feared that Britain
might put the interests of her multiracial empire ahead of the interests of white Australia.
Increasingly, colonial governments became determined to exclude non-European migrants. In
1888 the colonial leaders united in an appeal to Britain to stop Chinese immigration to Australia.
6. Pacific Islanders in Queensland
Many Pacific Islanders, mainly from Vanuatu (then called the New Hebrides) and the Solomon
Islands, were kidnapped or tricked into leaving their homes and brought to work in the sugar
plantations of North Queensland. This trade was called ‘blackbirding’ and the Islanders were
referred to as Kanakas. Most were on three-year contracts, 151after which they were returned
to the islands. Workers and other people in cities and towns accused plantation owners of
creating slavery but the North Queensland planters were even prepared to secede, or separate,
from the south in order to keep this cheap labour.
7. Defence fears
Most white Australians felt isolated and fearful of invasion. Believing that Australia could rely on
the British Navy for protection, they clung to Britain and to the empire. The colonists and their
governments were alarmed when France annexed New Caledonia in 1853. From the 1860s to
the 1880s sensational stories of possible Russian invasion appeared in the colonial press. In 1883
Queensland hoped to stop German expansion in the south-west Pacific by annexing New
Guinea. Britain opposed this move because of Queensland's dreadful record in dealing with
native peoples. But in 1884 Britain took possession of eastern New Guinea shortly before
Germany seized northern New Guinea.
8. Fighting the empire's wars
Each Australian colony developed its own defence forces, but it was also generally believed that
if Australians fought for Britain, then Britain would come to white Australia's aid if it was
threatened. Australians first took part in the wars of the British Empire during the Sudan
Campaign in North Africa in 1885. When New South Wales sent 734 troops to this conflict, many
people saw it as a chance to prove loyalty to Britain. Much the same reasoning saw Australian
colonial forces involved in Britain's wars in South Africa and China at the end of the century.
