Testing the Boundaries of White Australia: Domestic Servants and Immigration Policy, 1901-45

Abstract

In the period 1901-45 Australian governments sought to increase the nation's domestic service workforce through immigration while confining that immigration to British sources. Implementation of the White Australia policy resulted in an active deportation of household workers, particularly in the tropical north. In spite of broad acceptance of race-based immigration restrictions as a national ideal, calls came from the tropical and pastoral margins for a relaxation specific to domestic service in order to encourage white women to settle in remote areas. Proponents of non-British immigration argued that such servants would enable the long-term achievement of White Australia but they met firm resistance. Show more