Indentured labour and the sugar industry on the Capricorn Coast, a brief history of the attempt to create a sugar industry on the Capricorn Coast in the last quarter of the nineteenth century, the part played by indentured Pacific Islanders and their subsequent history.

The Sugar Industry on the Capricorn Coast

	It may be difficult for us to understand today why the the site at Farnborough was seen as favourable for the establishment of a sugar industry in the 1880's, however at the time sugar was a boom crop, its world price was high, Australia's economic optimism hadn't been shattered by the depression of the 1890's and then, as now, people simply wanted to believe. Whatever may have appealed to the initial propenents and investors it had become apparent by mid 1886 that the venture was performing poorly and the ordinary shareholders were becoming alarmed and demanding reassurance, this loss of confidence in the company's future led to its liquidation in 1888, only 5 years after its inception. The company survived this crisis but the continued recuurence of similar crises finally led to its demise in 1903.

	The real interest for us in this subject is not in the failure of an incipient industry, there have been plenty of those, it is in the coincidental employment of indentured labour in the industry and the long term effects this had on the character of our region. At the heart of this episode in our history is the story of upwards of 60,000 people brought in chains from a traditional culture alien to Europeans, of their struggle to maintain that culture and their dignity and of their eventual freedom and acceptance as a legitimate part of our often hostile European society.

	My interest in this subject arose from two exhibitions I helped organise for the Australian Pacific Islanders Museum at Joskeleigh near Keppel Sands where I was engaged to prepare photographic work. Like most Australians I was aware of the use of indentured Pacific Island labour in our sugar industry but that was about as far as it went, it was only through my exposure to the personal, family, history of these Australian South Pacific Islanders that I began to understand the depth of that history.

	Further reading
	The Trail Of Endurance A Journey from Paradise
	Published by Livingstone Shire Coucil
	ISBN 1 876674 37 7

Section I: History of the Mill

The Yeppoon Sugar Company was constantly plagued by a lack of finance and in the end the cost of transporting the raw sugar to Bundaberg for refining proved too much and after a chequered life the mill was finally closed and sold off in 1903.

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The Yeppoon Sugar Company mill at Farnborough

Section II: Blackbirding and Indentured Labour

Obtaining and retaining men to work in the cane fields was a universal problem in the Queensland industry, this was solved by the use of indentured Pacific Island workers in Queensland cane fields. This raised a number of hotly debated issues until it was banned in 1906.

Image provenance unknown

Indentured workers on a Queensland cane farm

Section III: Life at Farnborough

Though conditions for Indentured Labour were harsh by contemporary Free Labour standards the Farnborough districts was considered to be one of the better areas to work.

Image provenance unknown

Indentured workers at Farnborough

Section IV: After Farnborough - Joskeleigh

The demise of the system of indentured labour saw many Pacific Islanders return to their island homes, however some chose to stay. At first they settled wherever they could but eventually formed permanent communities.


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