Petition - Shark Bay pearlers
Date Published
: discrimination / racism, legal restictions, petition
: Indian Ocean Coast (WA)
: Shark Bay
: 1886
Petition - Shark Bay pearlers
At the beginning of 1886 the pearl shell banks of Shark Bay, some 700 km north of Perth, were opened up and Chinese pearlers supposedly from Singapore and Hong Kong, as well as many previously working for others on the pearl luggers were active; described by one newspaper as a “Mongolian Invasion”.[1] By May 1886 there were reportedly 153 “Asiatic residents” (including people labeled “Malay”) and 56 “Europeans” at Shark Bay. Efforts by the Europeans to prevent the Chinese collecting pearl shell while they were awaiting the outcome of their lobbying for government restrictions were met with resistance.[2] When the government did legislate it was to institute a licensing system rigged to ensure that Chinese would not get any such licenses.[3]
The response when this legislation was introduced ranged from hiring lawyers to petitioning the Governor, to threats of open defiance on the pearl shell banks of Shark Bay. The police were worried and called for armed reinforcements. The end result was the Chinese pearlers were forced to demand compensation if they were to be denied access to the pearl shells and the government, perhaps shamed by its discrimination or at least frightened by the prospect of possible violence, agreed. After requesting £1,525 to cover the cost of “houses, boats and gear” a sum of £1,000 was agreed and in a symbolic exit many of the Chinese men left Shark Bay on a ship called the S. S. Natal, which had brought them down from Singapore.[4] This being the name soon to be given to the test that would become the foundation of the White Australia policy.
Despite the cry that the Chinese would ruin the pearl shell banks, by 1891 it seems the white pearlers had managed to do that by themselves.[5] Another noteworthy feature of this incident is that at no point was it argued in terms of citizenship or in the language of the day, the rights of British subjects. It was discussed entirely in racial terms as Chinese and Malay, European and white. This may have been because some of the “Asiatics” could claim British subjecthood but more likely it was sufficient argument in the eyes of those involved, with the legalities of citizenship only to be argued increasingly in the following century.
[1] Western Mail, 2 January 1886, p.24.
[2] Victorian Express, 29 May 1886, p.3.
[3] Western Mail, 2 January 1886, p.24.
[4] Atkinson, Anne, “The responses of Chinese capital to social and economic restrictions and exclusions in Western Australia”, in Macgregor, P., Histories of the Chinese in Australasia and the South Pacific, Melbourne, Museum of Chinese Australian History, 1995, pp.30-32. The West Australian, 22 November 1886, p.3.
[5] Western Mail, 29 August 1891, p.6.
Transcription
To His Excellency Sir Frederick Napier Broome Knight Commander
of the Most Distinguished Order of St Michael and St George
Governor in and over the Territory of Western Australia &c
The Humble Petition of the undersigned Pearlers of
the district of Sharks Bay
Sheweth
1
That your Petitioners are informed that it is the intention of the Government to put an end to the present arrangement regarding pearling at Sharks Bay and instead to Lease the no pearling banks Tenders being invited for such Leases by the Government.
2
That your Petitioners would respectfully point out the great hardship and even ruin such an arrangement would work to your Petitioners and other small pearlers now engaged in this industry in that your Petitioners and others would not be able to compete with Merchants and others who would be able to tender high amounts for such Leases and thus the banks would be held by perhaps two or three persons and your Petitioners and others who have been engaged in this industry for years would be shut out from working the banks and would therefore lose our livelihood our boats and plant would be useless to us and we would be utterly ruined.
3
Your Petitioners would humbly request that the Government would continue the present existing arrangements with the exception that pearling nets be licensed under the same conditions existing at the North West and this would allow all persons who are now engaged in pearling at Sharks Bay to still continue such engagement and we feel confident would work advantageously to all parties.
And your Petitioners will ever pray &c
Signatories
Ah Hing
Gang Kee
Ah Sam
Su Pan
Ah You
Ah Sing
Ah Ferwee?
Ah Sawee?
Hing Sam
See Woh
Ah Ghee
You Jie
Jung Sam?
Ah Fan
Ah Low
King Sing
Ah Hong
Ah Dung
Various files relating to this protest are in the WA State Archives under AU WA S675- cons527 1888/1668 and others. A copy of these came be downloaded here.
See also: Smith, Benjamin & Tao, Yu, 2023, Documented People of Chinese Heritage in the Shark Bay Area between the 1870s and the 1890s
