'Better than anywhere else'
Lebanese settlement in Queensland, 1880–1947
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1017/qre.2014.22Keywords:
Lebanese migrants, 1880–1947, dispersed settlement pattern, immigration policies, self-employment and commercial occupationsAbstract
Until the 1960s, the settlement of Lebanese migrants in Queensland was characteristically regional, with the immigrants dispersed widely throughout the state. Immigrant settlement involves a dynamic and complex interaction between the immigrants and the social, political and economic structures of the receiving society. An analysis of the settlement experience of Lebanese immigrants in Queensland from the 1880s reveals the interplay of several factors, which resulted in a distinct pattern of settlement. Fundamental to this experience was the influence of racially exclusive state and Commonwealth legislation and immigration policies. Additionally, Queensland’s particular geography and style of development, in conjunction with the predominance of self-employment and the segregation of Lebanese in petty commercial occupations such as hawking and shopkeeping, significantly determined the immigrants’ geographic settlement pattern. Finally, a less obvious but nonetheless important factor was the determination of the immigrants to settle permanently in Queensland. Whatever the reasons, this dispersed settlement pattern significantly shaped the lives of the immigrants and their descendants.
References
A. Monsour, ‘Negotiating a place in a white Australia: Syrian/Lebanese in Australia, 1880 to 1947: A Queensland case study’ (unpublished PhD thesis, University of Queensland, 2004); A. Monsour, Not quite white: Lebanese and the White Australia Policy 1880 to 1947(Brisbane: Post Pressed, 2010).
The early immigrants were from the Ottoman region of Greater Syria, so in Australia they were identified as Syrians, and until the Ottoman defeat in World War I were classified as Turkish subjects. Despite the creation of Greater Lebanon under French mandate in 1920, in Australia the replacement of the term ‘Syrian’ by ‘Lebanese’ occurred gradually and was only officially enforced from the 1940s. In this article, ‘Syrian’ refers to these immigrants who, in the main, came from the modern state of Lebanon.
J. McKay, Phoenician farewell: Three generations of Lebanese Christians in Australia (Melbourne: Ashwood House Academic, 1989), p. 30; A. Naff, Becoming American: The early Arab immigrant experience (Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University Press, 1985), p. 82.
National Archives of Australia (NAA): A1, 1904/2368, David Tomi, Naturalisation application.
Monsour, Not quite white, p. 17.
Monsour, Not quite white, p. 17; S. Khalaf, ‘The background and causes of Lebanese/Syrian immigration’, in E. J. Hooglund (ed.), Crossing the waters: Arabic-speaking immigrants to the United States before 1940 (Washington DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1987), p. 18.
R. Evans, A history of Queensland (Melbourne: Cambridge University Press, 2007), p. 124; F. G. Clarke, Australia: A concise political and social history (Sydney: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1992), pp. 158–68.
D. Adair, ‘Declarations of difference: Attempts to exclude non-whites from late colonial Australia’, Flinders Journal of History and Politics, 16 (1993), 16–26.
C. Y. Choi, Chinese migration and settlement in Australia (Sydney: Sydney University Press, 1975), p. 27.
T. Batrouney, ‘The Lebanese in Australia, 1880–1989’, in A. Hourani and N. Shehadi (eds), The Lebanese in the world: A century of emigration (London: Centre for Lebanese Studies & I. B. Tauris, 1992), p. 422.
J. McKay and T. Batrouney, ‘Lebanese immigration until the 1970s’, in J. Jupp (ed.), The Australian people: An encyclopedia of the nation, its people and their origins (Sydney: Angus & Robertson, 1988), p. 668.
Government Statistician, The Queensland year book: 1940, No. 4 (Brisbane, Queensland Government Statistician’s Office, 1940), p. 45.
Monsour, Not quite white, pp. 127–47.
A. T. Yarwood, Asian migration to Australia: the background to exclusion 1896–1923 (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1967), pp. 141–50.
Yarwood, Asian migration to Australia, p. 149.
A. T. Yarwood, ‘The dictation test–historical survey’, Australian Quarterly 30(2) (1958), 19–29.
Yarwood, Asian migration to Australia, p. 78.
Registrar-General’s Office, Queensland, Index to Queensland births: 1885–1889 (Brisbane: Queensland Government, 1997).
Yarwood, Asian migration to Australia, p. 144; Table from Appendix II, p. 163.
Yarwood, Asian migration to Australia, p. 144.
Monsour, Not quite white, p. 135.
NAA: A1194, 15.20/5615, Disabilities of aliens and coloured persons within the Commonwealth and its territories, 1920, Prime Minister’s department; Queensland State Archives Item ID 339564, List showing restrictions or disabilities in Queensland applicable to aliens, 1943.
A. Markus, Australian race relations 1788–1993 (Sydney: Allen & Unwin, 1994), p. 120.
J. Jupp, ‘Immigration and settlement policy in Australia’, in R. Nile (ed.), Immigration and the politics of ethnicity and race in Australia and Britain (Melbourne: Bureau of Immigration Research, 1991), p. 62.
A. Batrouney and T. Batrouney, The Lebanese in Australia (Melbourne: Australasia Educa Press, 1985), p. 22.
J. H. Holmes (ed.), Queensland: A geographical interpretation (Brisbane: Boolarong, 1986), p. 1; W. R. Johnston, The call of the land (Brisbane: Jacaranda, 1982), p. vii.
Johnston, The call of the land, pp. 80–4, 189; G. Lewis, ‘Queensland nationalism and Australian capitalism’, in E. L. Wheelwright and K. Buckley (eds), Essays in the political economy of Australian capitalism, vol. 2 (Sydney: ANZ Book Company, 1978), p. 114.
Monsour, Not quite white, pp. 115–17.
Choi, Chinese migration and settlement, p. 34.
A. Huck, The Chinese in Australia (Sydney: Longmans Green & Co., 1968), p. 12.
Huck, The Chinese in Australia.
G. Lewis, A history of the Ports of Queensland: A study in economic nationalism (Brisbane: University of Queensland Press, 1973), p. 240.
Monsour, Not quite white, p. 116.
Monsour, Not quite white, pp. 117–8.
Monsour, Not quite white, p. 118.
Monsour, Not quite white, p. 118.
Queensland State Archives Item ID 5759, Register — licence fees, Maryborough, 16 April 1886–14 February 1910.
Queensland State Archives Item ID 6547, Register — licence fees, Townsville, January 1890–July 1895.
Queensland Post Office (QPO) Trade Directory, 1894–95.
QPO Directory, 1900.
Cairns Post, 3 September 1982; QPO Directories, 1940–49.
H. Francis, interview with Anne Monsour, Brisbane, 1995.
Queensland State Archives Item ID 6547, Register — licence fees, Townsville, January 1890–July 1895.
Queensland State Archives Item ID 6833, Batch file, Michael Malouf, naturalisation application, January 1903; QPO Directories, 1905–1935; Queensland State Archives Item ID 4962, Register — licence fees, Georgetown, August 1881–February 1907; Queensland State Archives Item ID4963, Register — licence fees, Georgetown, 3 March 1908–25 November 1911.
QPO Directory, 1919–20; Queensland State Archives Item ID 841184, Register — naturalisations, register of aliens to whom oaths of allegiance were administered; Queensland State Archives Item ID 882631, Papers — naturalisation, applications for copies of records of naturalisation, and related correspondence.
QPO Directory, 1919–20.
NAA: A1, 1934/9986, Wadih Wigan, naturalisation application; NAA: A1, 1935/7512, George Wigan, naturalisation application.
NAA: J25, 1947/1427, Application to bring Stephen Wigan to Australia; NAA: J25, 1949/11695, Application to bring G. Haddad to Australia; QPO Directories, 1935–49.
QPO Directories, 1935–49.
NAA: A1, 1927/19373, Helena Mellick, naturalisation application.
J. G. Monsour, interview with Anne Monsour, Maryborough, 1984.
A. Berkmann, ‘Kenneth and Barbara Coorey’, in A. Monsour (ed.), Here to stay: Lebanese in Toowoomba and south west Queensland (Sydney: Australian Lebanese Historical Society, 2012), p. 143.
N. Coorey, ‘Tony and Lily Coorey’, in Monsour, Here to stay, p. 148.
A. Monsour (ed.), Raw kibbeh: Generations of Lebanese enterprise (Sydney: Australian Lebanese Historical Society, 2009), pp. 49–50.
‘Migrants in the bush: Lebanese drapers’, ABC Rural Online, http://www.abc.net.au/rural/bushmigrants/lebanesedrapers.htm.
C. George, ‘The Georges’, in Monsour, Raw kibbeh, pp. 63–5.
A. Monsour, ‘Massouds’, in Monsour, Raw kibbeh, pp. 26–30.
A. Monsour, ‘Massouds’, in Monsour, Raw kibbeh, pp. 26–30.
J. Hanna, ‘The Hannas of the Darling Downs’, in N. J. Lindsay and Justin Craig (eds), Stars under the Southern Cross: The untold story of Queensland family businesses (Gold Coast: Bond University, 2001), p. 80.
A. Monsour, ‘Norman and Lavina Hanna’, in Monsour, Raw kibbeh, pp. 49–50.
C. Lutvey, J. Lutvey and W. Lutvey, ‘Russia Lutvey’, in Monsour, Raw kibbeh, pp. 96–7.
Y. Carrigan, ‘Family of Wadiah Kayrouz and Salim Anthony Ruhme’, in Monsour, Raw kibbeh, pp. 100–1.
A. Monsour, ‘Peter John Mellick’, in Monsour, Raw kibbeh, pp. 105–8.
Queensland State Archives Item ID 4443, Register — licences, Bundaberg, 1904 to 1907; Queensland State Archives Item ID 5642, ‘Register — licence fees, Mackay, 1908 to 1910.
QPO Directories, 1890–1949.
Townsville Daily Bulletin, 22 March 1930, 13.
QPO Directories, 1890–1949.
Queensland State Archives Item ID 349430, Inquest file.
NAA: A1, 1927/19373, Helena Mellick, naturalization application.
Queensland State Archives Item ID 6833, Batch file, Assad Aboud, naturalisation application, marriage certificate, 31 January 1901; QPO Directories, 1890–1949.
QPO Directories, 1890–1949.
NAA: BP 25/1, Alien registrations, Queensland, Lebanese box 261; QPO Directories, 1949.
Monsour, ‘Negotiating a place in a white Australia’; Monsour, Not quite white.
Queensland, Aliens Act of 1867, 31 Vic., no. 28, ss. 6–12; Commonwealth of Australia, Naturalization Act, no. 11 of 1903, s. 5.
Monsour, Not quite white, pp. 63–5.
Queensland State Archives Item ID 6833, Batch file, Massoud Nowham naturalization application, letter to Home Secretary’s office, Brisbane, 03487, 9 March 1904; NAA: A1, 1921/24130, Massoud Nowham, naturalisation application.
Monsour, Not quite white; A. Monsour, ‘Becoming white: how early Syrian/Lebanese in Australia recognised the value of whiteness’, in L. Boucher, J. Carey and K. Ellinghaus (eds), Historicising whiteness: Transnational perspectives on the construction of an identity (Melbourne: RMIT Publishing, 2007), pp. 124–32.
Queensland State Archives Item ID 847567, Correspondence—inwards, Richard Arida naturalisation application, Marsland, Jarvis & Co. to G. H. Ryder, Under Secretary, Home Secretary’s Office, 08813, 6 June 1900.
Queensland State Archives Item ID 6833, Batch file, Joseph Abdullah to Home Secretary, 7760, 9 June 1903.
Queensland State Archives Item ID 6833, Batch file, Joseph Abdullah to Home Secretary, 7760, 9 June 1903.
Monsour, Not quite white, pp. 70–83.
Monsour, Not quite white, pp. 70–83.
Queensland State Archives Item ID 6832, Batch file, Chaker Abood naturalisation application, Acting Sergeant, A. Benzies to Inspector of Police, Charleville, 2426/1902, 6 February 1902.
Queensland State Archives Item ID 6832, Batch file, Joseph Michael naturalisation application, Acting Sergeant, George Dillon, Warwick to Sub Inspector Dillon, Toowoomba, 7051, 27 November 1902.
Queensland State Archives Item ID 6832, Batch file, Anthony Michael naturalisation application, Senior Sergeant, J. Taylor Warwick to Sub Inspector Dillon, Toowoomba, 18234/1902, 18 November 1902.
Western Star and Roma Advertiser, 22 June 1904, 2; Queensland State Archives Item ID 663469, Register — correspondence, inwards, letters to the Home Secretary, 19233M, 22 November 1902.
Monsour, Not quite white, pp. 127–47.
Monsour, Raw kibbeh; Monsour, Here to stay.
Monsour, Not quite white, pp. 135–41.
D. Huntington, ‘The fabric of life’, Australian Country Style (March 1999), 110–111.
T. Mellick, ‘Abraham Selim Mellick’, in Monsour, Raw kibbeh, p. 112.
T. Mellick, ‘Abraham Selim Mellick’, p. 112.
Y. Toauk, ‘Rashid Arida (1873–1944): A philanthropist and a patriot’, in Getting to here: launch of the Australian Lebanese Historical Society Inc., Queensland branch (Sydney: Australian Lebanese Historical Society, 2009), p. 28.
Townsville Daily Bulletin, 8 September 1944, 2.
Toauk, ‘Rashid Arida’, 28; Townsville Daily Bulletin, 14 November 1944, 3.
A. Monsour, ‘Charles Abraham Mellick’, in Monsour, Raw kibbeh, p. 116.
Monsour, ‘Charles Abraham Mellick’, p. 16.
Monsour, ‘Charles Abraham Mellick’, p. 16.
Monsour, ‘Charles Abraham Mellick’, p. 16.
H. Francis, interview with Anne Monsour, Brisbane, 1994.
M. Simpson, interview with Anne Monsour, Brisbane, 1993.
E. Ogden and L. Lucus, interview with Anne Monsour, Brisbane, 1995.
T. Monsour, interview with Anne Monsour, Sydney, 1989.
A. Shear and J. Shear, interview with Anne Monsour, Toowoomba, 1993.
A. Simpson, ‘A history of migration from Kfars Sghab and Zahle and settlement in Toowoomba, Australia, of four families: their adaptation to Australia’ (unpublished, 1982).
M. Simpson, interview with Anne Monsour, Brisbane, 1993.
M. Nasser, interview with Anne Monsour, Brisbane, 1995.
F. Tooma, interview with Anne Monsour, Brisbane, 1991.
Monsour, ‘Thelma Mellick: citizen of the year’, Australian Lebanese Historical Society Newsletter 45 (2013), 5–6.
Monsour, ‘Thelma Mellick.
B. Bakhash, ‘The Bakhash family of Cloncurry’, in B. Armstrong (ed.), Beyond the call of duty: Frontier doctor David Harvey Sutton (Brisbane: Boolarong, 1989), p. 79.
Commonwealth of Australia, House of Representatives, Parliamentary debates (official Hansard) (1993). http://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/search/display/display.w3p;db=CHAMBER;id=chamber%2Fhansardr%2F1993–05–06%2F0041;query=Id%3A%22chamber%2Fhansardr%2F1993–05–06%2F0042%22.
C. King, A new beginning (Brisbane: Author, 1994).
C. King, A new beginning, pp. 43, 55; Central & North Burnett Times, 10 July 1986.
King, A new beginning, p. 55
Cairns Post, 25 January 1992, 27.
