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During the period 1863 to 1904, 61,000 Pacific Islanders arrived to work as indentured servants in Queensland, despite concerted community anxiety and Liberal opposition.
In 1877, the Liberal Douglas ministry restricted Islander labour to the coastal sugar industry. Further limits were placed on their activities to menial fieldwork with plans to stop the trade in 1890. However, the depression in the sugar industry during 1889 meant that the plan had to be shelved.
The new Commonwealth, with its adoption of a 'White Australia Policy', implemented legislation in 1901 to deport Islanders without consideration of the hardship this would cause. Those who arrived before 1879, or who had children born in Australia, were exempted. Those who left in 1906 were transported on Burns Philp vessels, co-owned by former Premier Sir Robert Philp.
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 | John Gaggin, opposed the deportation of Melanesians in a letter to the Sugar Industry Labour Commission on 21 May 1906. A man familiar with the sugar industry, he claimed one fifth of Pacific Islanders would be put to death if returned against their will.
Queensland State Archives Item ID 1139151, Digital Image ID 2898
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 | 1906 Finnish women got the vote, the first in Europe |
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