16. Stopping them using our boats

Controlling entry to an island continent proved more complex than the Immigration Restriction Act, 1901 framers imagined. Chinese people had been coming to Australia in numbers since the 1850s and by 1901 had substantial community, family, and economic links with their Pearl River Delta villages, around the colonies and with Hong Kong and Shanghai. Resistance was fought out on the boats themselves; musters were held, documents examined, searches made and dictation tests administered. Secrecy, fraud, informers, and harassment reduced but did not eliminate communities while also causing governments much embarrassment before this first attempt at halting boat people was abandoned. Throughout the period after 1901 evolved a system that was not simply one of restriction but also of interaction between the Chinese-Australian community and its Pearl River Delta, Hong Kong and Shanghai based connections. The result, after more than 50 years, was a fall in Chinese community numbers but never an elimination of that community or its links with China before a gradual rise, after much cost in economic links, political embarrassment, and personal hardship. 

For the published article see: Michael Williams, 2020. Stopping them Using Our Boats. Australian Economic History Review, 61(1), pp.64–79. https://doi.org/10.1111/aehr.12207

Please check out our publications at - https://chidestudypresscom.wordpress.com/the-bookstore

Feel free to ask questions at: chidestudypress@gmail.com 

For a general overview of Chinese Australian history check out Episode 7: https://chidestudypress.podbean.com/e/7-chinese-australian-history-a-brief-overview/