White Western Australia continued

Federation 1901

In Broome and the State's North West Chinese, Japanese, Malays, Indonesians and Phillipinos were employed in the pearl industry as divers, deckhands and sailors.  The newly formed Federal Parliament immediately moved to institute a White Australia Policy in 1901.  The second Act it passed restricted immigration to Australia on the basis of race. It was intended to restrict the use of Kanak and coloured labour by regulating immigration on the basis of race. The White Australia Policy grew as much from fears about miscegnation and the moral corruption it was anticipated would follow, as well as xenophobic fears of invasion from the north, as from worries about cheap labour throwing white Australians out of work. There is little doubt that Parliament reflected the mood and the will of the Australian people at the time. In Western Australia, the institution of a 'White Australia Policy was seen by most citizens as both sensible and prudent.