CityLibraries Townsville/flickr October 31, 2017 Australia’s hidden history of … Australian South Sea Islanders were segregated from mainstream society and excluded from services.

Australian South Sea Islanders provided labour to help build local economies and key industries. The Australian South Sea Islanders Secretariat (ASSIS ) Is administered by the descendants of some 62,000 Pacific Islanders who were brought to Australia during the late 19th century as pastoralists, then to build the cotton and sugar cane industry of Queensland and later northern New South Wales. The Australian South Sea Islanders Secretariat (ASSIS ) Is administered by the descendants of some 62,000 Pacific Islanders who were brought to Australia during the late 19th century as pastoralists, then to build the cotton and sugar cane industry of Queensland and later northern New South Wales. At South Seas Tattoo Company we believe in the Oceanic and Pacific Islander tradition that tattoos are an individual's rite of passage. Communities formed in places such as Ayr, Mourilyan, Innisfail, the beach and river areas of Mackay, Joskeleigh outside of Rockhampton, and Hervey Bay north of Maryborough.

They contributed to the development of farming and grazing, as well as the maritime industry, pearling, mining, the railways, domestic services and childcare. The result was a very high death rate for South Sea Islanders compared to that of Europeans.

Their exact numbers are uncertain, though estimates range from around 10,000 to 15,000-20,000 and even 30,000 – 60,000. Eventually, in the 1880s hospitals were set up for South Sea Islanders in Maryborough, Ingham and Mackay. South Sea Islanders working in a Townsville cane field in 1907. The church and hall were removed from the Fairymead site in 1995 and relocated to a section of the Bundaberg Cemetery where many South Sea Islander people have been buried. South Seas Island Resort is located on 330-acres on tropical Captiva Island, on the west coast of Florida, just off the beaches of Fort Myers, Fl. South Seas is an iconic resort village combining a natural wonderland with modern resort amenities and accommodations. Main image: South Sea Islanders at a garden party near Mackay, Queensland. History. They are meant to mark a significant event in one's life, commemorate a transitory period, honor a loved one, and tell a story of heritage. Australia’s South Sea Islanders mostly around Mackay in north Queensland. The South Sea Islander Church and Hall were built c. 1920 on the Fairymead sugar plantation to cater to the spiritual needs of the South Sea Islander population, many of whom were labourers on the plantation.

In an Australian context, South Sea Islanders refers to Australian descendants of Pacific Islanders from more than 80 islands in the South Seas – including the Melanesian archipelagoes of the Solomon Islands, New Caledonia and Vanuatu – who were kidnapped or recruited between the mid to late 19th century as labourers in the sugarcane fields of Queensland.

Maybe this was survival, or maybe it was that Islanders were more familiar with a life of subsistence living on islands. Historical context South Sea Islanders and their families moved off farms and down to the sea. Australian South Sea Islanders – Port Jackson represent the descendants of the Blackbirding trade that saw some 62,500 Pacific Islanders trafficked from the eighty islands of Vanuatu and Solomon’s to established sugar, maritime, pastoral, cotton and railways industries. The 2011 Census identified just over 4,000 South Sea Islander responses. Photograph: John Oxley Library/State Library of Queensland Wed 27 … Some hospitals created separate ‘Kanaka’ wards.