[Editor: This chapter is part of The White Australia Policy: The Rise and Fall of Australia’s Racial Ideology (2025).]
Supporters of moderate amounts of Asian immigration
Even amongst those who opposed large-scale Asian immigration, many were willing to accept Asian immigration in small numbers, or for specific purposes. For example, we can look at the attitudes of three leading colonial statesmen, William Charles Wentworth (1790-1872), Henry Parkes (1815-1896), and Peter Lalor (1827-1889).
W. C. Wentworth, who was an activist for the expansion of political rights in Australia (and President of the Legislative Council in New South Wales, 1861-1862) opposed Asian immigration in 1837, but supported their introduction five years later, as a temporary measure to fill in for the lack of shepherds and other rural workers in New South Wales. Wentworth stated that he preferred British shepherds, but he was willing to accept Asian workers if British workers were not readily available.[1]
In 1837 Wentworth spoke out in support of the idea of importing 10,000 British immigrants, especially for use in rural areas, but he opposed the immigration of Indians, so as to avoid racial integration. He said:
“I cannot approve of the introduction of Indians, whether their wives are brought with them or not, it will be impossible to prevent an intermixture of races, which, I consider, it would be highly desirable to avoid. … I think emigrants from Great Britain and Ireland, in any numbers, may be obtained quite as soon; and that they would be infinitely superior in efficiency.”[2]
Yet, five years later, in December 1842, Wentworth advocated the temporary importation of Asian workers, due to the expense and impracticality of obtaining British workers. His speech at a public meeting was reported in The Sydney Morning Herald:
“he had on a late occasion, in order to take some steps for the salvation of this country from utter ruin, advocated a temporary recourse to the introduction of Coolie labour; but it was only for a time; for in the abstract he was not friendly to the introduction of Coolies, or of any class of labourers which might tend to injure or deteriorate the labouring population of the country.
Even so lately as four years ago, when examined before a Committee of the Legislative Council, he had expressed himself decidedly against the introduction of Coolies, and his opinions were there recorded, and it was only when the absolute necessity of the case became apparent to him, that he did assent to it, and, in advocating it now, it was because he was convinced of that necessity; and if he could not make out a case to prove to their satisfaction, that the introduction of Coolies had become for a time indispensably necessary, then he would admit that he was wrong.
Look at the state of the colony, however; look at the immigration fund; where was it? Utterly exhausted. … Was there any probability of means arising to replenish that fund, by which we had hitherto been supplied with labour! None. Then we could not have immigrants from Europe.
To say that he had ever hinted that he would prefer a Coolie labourer if he could get an European, whether English, or Scotch, or Irish, or German, were false; but there were no means of getting these; there was no public fund from whence to defray the expense of importing any kind of immigrants.
Those who wanted labour must import it themselves; and they were driven by their necessities to seek the nearest and the cheapest market for it. Until some new system of immigration was organized by the Govern- ment; until some means were devised, by which the colonists could be supplied with European labour, Coolie labour must be had recourse to, or our grazing interests must inevitably be utterly ruined.”[3]
Henry Parkes, who was Premier of New South Wales (prior to the federation of the Australian colonies), brought in a law to stop Chinese immigration, but had previously arranged for the immigration of a group of Eurasian compositors (along with their wives and children) into New South Wales, from India, to work on the printing presses of his newspaper, The Empire. His use of Eurasians (people of European and Asian mixed racial origin) as staff on his newspaper shows that Parkes was not a hater of people from non-white racial backgrounds, even though he was later to oppose large-scale Asian immigration.[4]
In 1958 The Bulletin weighed in on Henry Parkes and his racial attitudes, saying:
“Sir Henry Parkes, indeed, was no race-hater, and even imported Eurasian compositors from Asia. But he was quite firm about the advantages of a nation racially unified and of equality of right between nations”.[5]
Peter Lalor, who had led the Eureka Rebellion in 1854 (and afterwards became a Member of the Legislative Assembly in Victoria, 1856-1871, 1874-1889; serving as Speaker, 1880-1887) was opposed to large-scale Asian immigration, but was amenable to Asian immigration on a smaller scale.[6]
At an election meeting in 1856, Lalor said that he was “in favor of allowing the Chinese to come here, unless they came in such numbers as to be injurious to the liberty and interests of the community”.[7]
The following year (1857), in the Victorian Parliament, Lalor opposed the introduction of a poll tax being levied upon Chinese immigrants (the poll tax was the major measure designed to discourage and reduce the immigration of Chinese into Victoria).[8]
When miners at the Lothair mine in Clunes went on strike in late 1873, the bosses of the Lothair Gold Mining Company arranged for Chinese from Ballarat and Creswick to replace them (Peter Lalor was one of the company’s directors). However, the miners at Clunes erected barriers against the coaches bringing in the Chinese “scabs” (strike-breakers); many of the miners were armed, and violence loomed. When the coaches, full of Chinese, and accompanied by a detachment of police, arrived at Clunes on 9 December 1873, their passage was blocked by a barrier erected across the road, backed by a huge crowd, comprised of miners, their wives and children, and various supporters. Rocks and clumps of earth were thrown, the coaches were hit with sticks, and coach windows were smashed. The final result of the riot was that the police, and the coaches laden with their Chinese passengers, retreated from the scene.[9]
Primary evidence regarding whether Lalor was specifically involved in the decision to use Chinese strike-breakers is unavailable at this stage (although it should be noted that Lalor was not a Member of Parliament from January 1871 to May 1874, which includes the date of the Clunes riot, and was therefore not busy with any parliamentary duties). Weston Bate, author of Lucky City: The First Generation at Ballarat, 1851-1901 wrote that Peter Lalor “disgraced himself in democratic eyes by trying to use Chinese as strike-breakers at the Clunes mine of which he was a director”. If the author’s accusation is correct, then Lalor was willing to use Chinese immigrant workers to displace the white miners.[10]
These examples illustrate that the notion of a White Australia was not a cut and dried affair. There were those who desired a predominantly white Australia, but were willing (like William Charles Wentworth) to import non-white people for purposes of employment (often as indentured labourers), or who were willing (like Peter Lalor) to accept them in small numbers.
References:
[1] Michael Persse, “William Charles Wentworth (1790–1872)”, Australian Dictionary of Biography
“William Wentworth”, Wikipedia
[2] “British”, The Colonist (Sydney, NSW), 17 August 1837, p. 267, column 2
[3] “Election: Mr. W. C Wentworth and Dr. Bland”, The Sydney Morning Herald (Sydney, NSW), 28 December 1842, p. 2, column 4
[4] “Arrival of compositors”, The Empire (Sydney, NSW), 31 July 1854, p. 4
“Metropolitan news”, Newcastle Morning Herald & Miners’ Advocate (Newcastle, NSW), 1 September 1887, p. 2 [“Sir Henry … achieved the dubious honour of being the first employer to import coloured labour into the country by filling the places of these trade unionists with Eurasian compositors from India”]
“Parkes and Chinese restriction: A foreign trader and foreign labour: Can the people trust him?”, The Australian Star (Sydney, NSW), 6 December 1887, p. 2
“Shoalhaven man’s biography: Pioneer printer’s reminiscences”, The Nowra Leader (Nowra, NSW), 15 March 1912, p. 2
“From yellowing pages of the past: Blazing the news trail”, Newcastle Morning Herald and Miners’ Advocate (Newcastle, NSW), 28 August 1933, p. 15
““A true democrat””, Dubbo Dispatch, and Wellington Independent (Dubbo, NSW), 10 December 1915, p. 4
A. W. Martin, “Sir Henry Parkes (1815–1896)”, Australian Dictionary of Biography
“Henry Parkes”, Wikipedia
[5] “WhiteAustralia”, The Bulletin (Sydney, NSW), 17 September 1958, p. 4
[6] Ian Turner, “Peter Lalor (1827–1889)”, Australian Dictionary of Biography
“Peter Lalor”, Wikipedia
[7] “Mr. Lalor’s meeting”, The Star (Ballarat, Vic.), 25 September 1856, p. 2
[8] “The Chinese resolutions”, The Bendigo Advertiser, (Sandhurst, Vic.), 28 September 1857, p. 2
See also: “Parliamentary intelligence”, The Argus (Melbourne, Vic.), 26 September 1857, p. 4
[9] “Chinese labour at Clunes”, The Argus (Melbourne, Vic.), 10 December 1873, p. 5
“Disturbances at Clunes”, The Ballarat Courier (Ballarat, Vic.), 10 December 1873, p. 2
“Riots at Clunes: Attack on the police by crowds of miners and their wives”, The Ballarat Star (Ballarat, Vic.), 10 December 1873, pp. 2-3
“The Clunes riot”, The Weekly Times (Melbourne, Vic.), 13 December 1873, pp. 12-13 (Town Edition)
“Disturbances at Clunes”, The Illustrated Australian News for Home Readers (Melbourne, Vic.), 31 December 1873, p. 218
[10] Weston Bate, Lucky City: The First Generation at Ballarat, 1851-1901, Carlton South (Vic.): Melbourne University Press, 1978, p. 134
See also: Evan H. Jones, “Lalor and Labor”, The Herald (Melbourne, Vic.), 18 December 1948, p. 4
T.S., “Peter Lalor”, The Ballarat Courier (Ballarat, Vic.), 4 April 1917, p. 3
“The Clunes incident, 1873”, Looking at History , 15 February 2014
“Peter Lalor”, Wikipedia [includes the dates that Lalor served as a Member of the Victorian Parliament]
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