White Australia policy

The **White Australia Policy** was the name given to laws that stopped non-white immigrants from living or working in Australia. The laws were put in place in 1901 and were repealed between 1949 and 1973.

## Overview

In the 1850s, many Chinese people, mainly men, came to Australia to search for gold. This led to anti-Chinese riots on the goldfields at Lambing Flat in New South Wales and at the Buckland River diggings in Victoria.

The Victorian government tried to stop more Chinese people from arriving by charging a special tax of £10 for every Chinese person who came on a ship to Victoria. In 1861, New South Wales passed laws to stop Chinese people coming, followed by Queensland in 1877 and Western Australia in 1886.

Later, mostly Melanesian men from the Pacific Islands called "kanakas", were "blackbirded" to Australia to work on the sugarcane farms in Queensland. That also caused problems because they worked for much lower wages than other people.

The new federal government acted in 1901 to stop certain types of people coming to work or live in Australia. At this time, 98% of people living in Australia were of European (mostly British or Irish) background, with "clean" (white) skin and with British laws and customs. The government wanted to keep Australia that way, which influenced on the type of people living in Australia.

By 2001, about 6% of people in Australia were Asian, and about 2% were Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander. Many Australians claimed to have fathers from Europe.  In 2018, overall, about 76% of Australians and 95% of the country's leaders were of European descent.

## Immigration Restriction Act

The Immigration Restriction Act (1901) listed who could come into to Australia and who could not.

### Restricted groups

People were not allowed to immigrate to Australia if:
- They were 'insane'
- They would have to be cared for by the government or a charitable organisation
- They had an infectious or contagious disease
- They were "loathsome"
- They were dangerous
- They were a criminal or prostitute
- They were on a contract to do hard physical work
- They could not pass a dictation test

### Racism

The purpose of this test was to keep out anyone the Australian government did not want to allow, without seeming racist. Anyone who wanted to come to Australia had to be literate (able to read and write). They had to pass a diction test to prove that they were literate. This required them to write down something that a government official read to them in a European language. It did not have to be in a language that they understood.

For example, to keep out people from Malta, they were given the test in Dutch. One person who spoke several languages was given the test in Gaelic (Irish).

At first, the test was to be given in English. However, the government decided to use European languages because they worried that black Americans and Japanese people would be able to pass the test in English.

The laws allowed the government to give this dictation test to any immigrant during their first year living in Australia. In 1932, that was changed to the first five years, and the test could be given many times. It was a very difficult test. From 1902 to 1909, it was given to 1359 people, and only 52 (3.8%) passed. After 1909, no person passed the test. Anyone who failed the test was forced to leave Australia.

This law was used until 1958.

## End of policy

After World War II, the Australian government wanted to attract migrants. Labor Prime Minister Ben Chifley started the Snowy Mountains Scheme, which needed a large population of labourers. Australians became more willing to allow people from other cultures into the country.

In the early 1950s, Liberal Prime Minister Robert Menzies created the Colombo Plan, which brought students from Asia to Australian universities to help the continent's development.

In the 1950s, many Southern European and Eastern European refugees resettled in Australia. At this time, Europe was still recovering from World War II and was partly under the communist Eastern Bloc.

In 1958, the government ended the "dictation test" and the Government said that well-qualified non-Europeans would be suitable for immigration. Other laws made it easier to bring non-Europeans to Australia. Labor Prime Minister Harold Holt's Migration Act, 1966 effectively ended the White Australian Policy so that migrants from different parts of the world could come to Australia (such as refugees from the Vietnam War).

In 1973, Labor Prime Minister Gough Whitlam finally passed a law that said Australian immigration officers should "totally disregard race" in considering migrants. However, Whitlam took in less migrants in total, and the number of migrants from outside Europe did not increase until Liberal Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser came to power.

## Related pages

- Racism
- Racism in Australia
- White people in Australia

## Other websites

- Scanned copy of the Immigration Restriction Act (1901)