Normanton get complete article

Running amok: the Normanton race riots of 1888 and the genesis of white Australia.
by Jacqui Donegan , Raymond Evans Journal of Australian Studies, No. 71, 2001
Journal Article Excerpt


Running amok: the Normanton race riots of 1888 and the genesis of white Australia.



by Jacqui Donegan , Raymond Evans


(A) quiet and peaceful community on the Gulf is just now convulsed with passion and shouting for 'Lynch law' because Queensland has given sanctuary too long to degraded off-puts of degraded races ... They have seen their civilisation polluted, their social life corrupted and their wages ground to a rice and chop-sticks point, and they have contented themselves--or tried to--with protesting as the law directs. But they have found that their protests are worth about as much as a Governor's speech, and so when a demon-possessed Malay 'runs amuck' among a white population, they naturally think the time has come for something more serious than a wind-baggy protest. (Boomerang, 23 June 1888).

In June 1888, the colonies of Australia were formally considering a unified, legislative response to what was then known as the 'Chinese question'. Delegates, including Queensland's outgoing premier, Sir Samuel Griffith, had gathered in Sydney for the anti-Chinese intercolonial conference, and high on the agenda was racial turmoil, in particular, anti-Chinese protests and riots that had flared throughout the colonies over the preceding months. In Queensland, up to eighty demonstrations alone had been organised by the mob orator, John Potts, who had embarked on a barnstorming tour of twenty-nine centres and agitated for the establishment of local anti-Chinese leagues. (1) Consequently, the anti-Chinese conference represented an Australia-wide effort to achieve one of the earliest examples of inter-colonial cooperation and consensus. This agreement, however, was not achieved without considerable dialogue and discord. South Australia, mindful of an Asian influx through its protectorate of the Northern Territory, had already imposed a polltax on Chinese immigrants, which it freely admitted was illegal, but was likely to be endorsed by parliament. Victoria and New South Wales had 'almost identical' views but the two encountered some resistance from Queensland. The only real obstacle to more restrictive, uniform legislation against Chinese people, however, appeared to be Tasmania, which advocated a moderate approach to save offending Downing Street. (2)

By 15 June, the conference had resolved to seek an international agreement excluding from Australia all Chinese people--British subjects included--unless they were officials, travellers, merchants or students. (3) Delegates had weighed up the political and commercial interests of the empire and the colonies, and concluded that China was of little value to them as an export destination. They believed that, while the treatment of China's peoples in Australia had been 'invariably humane and considerate ... in spite of the intensity of popular feeling', 'strong and decisive action' was required for the...