Part 1: The Early Years

The 2006 Australian census reports that approximately 1.71% (340,392 people) of the population identify as Muslim. It has been estimated that in the coming 2011 census the figure will be closer to half a million (500,000). The growing Australian Muslim community is a diverse religious group, with members from over 60 different ethnic and racial backgrounds. Islam is increasingly merging into the Australian culture, and has been for some time. Although many people believe that Islam in Australia is a recent phenomenon, Muslims have been visiting and making their presence felt in the great southern land for perhaps more than 400 years.

Muslims in Australia before white settlement

According to Bilal Cleland, the author of the History of Islam in Australia, it is difficult to determine when Islam arrived in South East Asia or when contact with Australia and the indigenous inhabitants was established.  However, a map of the Sea of Java by Muhammad Ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi circa 820 CE shows Cape York Peninsula, a V shaped Gulf of Carpentaria and a curved Arnhem Land. A later map, by Abu Isak Al-Farisi Istakhari 934 CE, also includes an outline of the northern coast of Australia.  Muslims appear to have been aware of the great southern land approximately 900 years before #CDDCEB colonial settlement.

In 1770, when Captain James Cook of the British Royal Navy sailed into Botany Bay, on the east coast of the island continent now known as Australia, Indigenous Aboriginals had already lived in Australia for more than 40,000 years. In the north of Australia there was a significant amount of sea travel by representatives of many world civilisations including the Chinese, Indian and Islamic South East Asian. On August 22^nd of that year, Captain Cook claimed part of the eastern seaboard as British territory and the officially accepted history of Australia began.  However, it is a history that conveniently neglects many facts, the significant Indigenous population for one. In the face of often armed opposition the continent was declared terra nullius – a land belonging to no one. No one, except for more than 300,000 Aboriginal people speaking more than 250 languages and living in more than 600 distinct tribes or clans.

 The Indonesian connection

The first evidence of Muslims in Australia comes in the 17^th century from the Macassan and Bugis traders from Sulawesi, in what is now known as Indonesia. They visited the coast of northern Australia for hundreds of years prior to British colonial settlement, to fish for trepang (also known as sea cucumber), a marine invertebrate prized by the Chinese for its culinary and medicinal value. The traders came to exploit the shallow seas not only for trepang but also for tortoise-shell, pearl-shell and pearls which were later sold in the markets of Europe. The traders are believed to have interacted and intermarried with the Aboriginal people of northern Australia, influencing their language, art, economy and customs.

The Macassans referred to Australia as the land of Marege and they travelled there using the monsoon winds. Aboriginal people were hired to assist in gathering the trepang and with the exception of a few isolated incidents the ongoing contact was peaceful.  Often Aboriginals people would return to Sulawesi Island on the Praus (long boats) with the Macassans.  Confirmation of these visits can be found in the similarities of certain words that were absorbed into the Aboriginal languages, and the Aboriginal cave paintings depicting traditional Macassar vessels.  

A number of Macassan artefacts, such as pots and crockery have been found in Indigenous settlements on the western and northern coasts of Australia. The abundance of tamarind trees on Australia’s northern coast are a result of the seeds left behind by the traders who used them to flavour their rice. Today, amongst the tamarind trees we can see wooden posts marking the graves of Macassans who died in Marege and the places where trepang was prepared. In the 21^st century genetically proven descendants of both Macassan and Indigenous Australians can be found on both sides of the Arafura and Banda Seas.

 Muslims convicts & settlers

In the 17^th and 18^th centuries various European maritime expeditions set out in search of the great southern land including the Portuguese, Spanish, and Dutch. Seventeen years after Captain Cook’s proclamation and in the light of the knowledge that the   French were also keen to lay claim to part of the eastern seaboard, formal possession, colonisation and European settlement began in earnest. The first fleet of British ships arrived at Sydney Cove in January 1788.

The first fleet consisted of 11 ships containing 1487 people, including an attachment of Royal Marines and 778 convicts. Within five years, despite tales of great hardship, free settlers had begun to arrive in the new colony of New South Wales.    Muslims residing in Australia is portrayed as a relatively new occurrence, however,   at that time they were among the sailors, convicts and settlers arriving in Australia from all parts of the British Empire.

British companies were making good use of the plentiful supply of labour all over the vast British Empire. Shipping companies frequently employed Muslims known as lascars, from India and Ceylon (now known as Sri Lanka). At times they immigrated to the new colony as free men. Reference is made to them in the 1796 Norfolk Island Victualling Book,  a the record of all those receiving government food assistance.  A number of seemingly Muslim names appear in these books including Mahomet Cassem who is on the "General Muster of Free Men, Women and Children off and on Stores in His Majesty’s Settlement of Hobart Town 2 October 1818".  Sua Sultan is recorded as possessing 28 acres of pasture and two acres of wheat.

Convicts arriving in the new colony also included Muslims, commonly referred to at that time as Mohamadens. Many of the names have been lost, forgotten or mistranslated, however reference can be found to Zimran Wriam, an Indian Muslim convict who arrived on the Third Fleet in 1791. There were also at least eight convicts who arrived in Australia after 1813 who may have been Muslim. Five came from Oman, one from Bussarah (Iraq), one from Mauritius and one from South Africa.

 The names of both the Muslim convicts and settlers disappear from the records, history records them no more. They left no Muslim families, institutions or mosques.  Nevertheless life rolls inexorably onwards, with or without meticulous records. The next wave of Muslims in Australia did leave families, mosques and a rich heritage. They were the Afghan Cameleers, and Part 2 will examine the legacy they left behind.

 * Aisha Stacey is an Australian writer and researcher

Muslims in Australia: A Historical Perspective

http://www.islamonline.net/en/IOLArticle_C/1278407758693/1278406710644/-Part-II-The-Afghan-Cameleers

Part II: The Afghan Cameleers

 By: Aisha Stacey*2011-04-18 10:29:18

 The Aboriginal people in the northern part of the continent, now known as Australia, formed bonds with Muslims from Indonesia and the Malay Peninsula as early as the 1600’s. However, the first significant Muslim community in colonial Australia was that of the Afghan cameleers. By the 1800’s, the Australian colonies were all experiencing an economic boom period. Explorers, settlers, pastoralists, and prospectors were racing to discover the mysteries of the vast interior. As they moved away from the coast, it became obvious that traditional methods of transportation were not suitable in this wide open, apparently barren, land.

Muslims in the Australian Interior

Many of the expeditions into the vast Australian interior ended in tragedy. The climate and terrain were unlike anything the explorers had ever experienced, and many people died without having achieved their exploratory goals. Horses, donkeys, and bullocks were the conventional methods of transport, but they required regular watering and large stocks of feed. They were not suited to the harsh, dry, rocky environment. As early as the 1830s, camels were being suggested as a solution to the problem, and the first lone camel to be used in Australia was attached to the Horrocks expedition of 1846.

John Ainsworth Horrocks (English pastoralist and explorer) described the camel as temperamental; biting both humans and goats, but could carry up to 350 lbs (approx. 159kg).  Neither Horrocks nor the camel survived this expedition, but not due to the camel’s unsuitability.  Four days into their journey, Horrocks paused to reload his gun, but when the camel lurched, the firearm was accidentally discharged and he shot himself in the hand and face.  Seriously wounded, Horrocks died several days later, but not before ordering the destruction of the camel.

The first Muslim cameleers arrived at Port Melbourne on 9 June 1860 to join the ill-fated Burke and Wills expedition.  The extensive introduction of camels and their handlers proved to be a turning point in the exploration and development of the Australian colonies.  Consequently, over the next 50 years, more than 2000 Afghan cameleers played a significant role in the Australian economy. However, the Muslim cameleers were rarely given credit for their accomplishments. Diaries and historical records confirm that several of the cameleers deserved recognition as explorers and vital members of scientific expeditions.

Zachariah Matthews, in his essay on Islam in Australia, states that the journals, diaries and reports of the early European explorers speak very highly of the Afghans and their strict adherence to the religion of Islam. They write of their excellent character, reliability, stamina and life-saving skills.  He asserts that many of the explorers gladly acknowledged the debt owed to their camel-handlers.

According to Bilal Cleland, in his History of Islam in Australia, Afghan Muslims participated in all the major explorations since 1860, including the last exploration of the interior, the Madigan expedition across the Simpson Desert in 1939.  Apart from these heroic achievements, the cameleers were responsible for carting supplies, mail and even water to remote settlements.  They had an important role in the development of infrastructure, such as the overland telegraph line between Adelaide and Darwin and the rail link between Port Augusta and Alice Springs, which became known as the Ghan.

Who were the Afghans?

Although all cameleers in Australia were known as Afghans, they actually came from many different countries including Afghanistan, the area that is now known as Pakistan, Kashmir, Egypt, Persia, and Turkey. The cameleers were culturally and linguistically different.  However, they were united by the religion of Islam.

According to research carried out by Museum Victoria, at first the cameleers sheltered in small camps but little by little, they added elements from their homelands and religion.  The camps became makeshift villages with mosques and religious teachers, halal butchers, vegetable gardens and date groves. These settlements sprung up on the outer edge of outback towns such as Broken Hill, Marree, Oodnadatta, Coolgardie and Bourke. The cameleers from these Ghan towns, as they were called, developed cross-cultural alliances with Aboriginal communities; relationships were formed and intermarriages were common.  Even today, there are Aboriginal people with surnames such as Mahomed, Khan and Sultan.

The first mosque in Australia was built to meet the needs of the Afghan cameleers. It was built at Marree in northern South Australia in 1861. Many of the outback settlements often referred to as Ghan towns had at least one mosque usually constructed from corrugated iron. The settlement’s social life was centred on the mosque; it provided a focal point for the cameleers as they moved from one Ghan town to the next. The first major mosque still in use was built in Adelaide in 1890. Another was built in Broken Hill (New South Wales) in 1891.

The Broken Hill City Council’s Migration Heritage Centre describes Abdul Wade as the most successful of all the Afghan cameleers.  He arrived in Australia in 1879, and by 1893 he had moved to Bourke and began importing camels and recruiting Afghan cameleers for the recently formed Bourke Camel Carrying Company. Dost Mahomet was another prominent Afghan camel driver who worked at Broken Hill. His grave lies three kilometres from Menindee, on the road to Broken Hill. He is thought to be the first Muslim to be buried on Australian soil.

 The End of an Era

The advent of the motor vehicle transport in the 1920’s spelled the end of an era for the cameleers.  Some returned to their homelands, others chose to stay and settle in the colonies. Unfortunately, the Afghan cameleers left no thriving Muslim communities behind.  However, there are descendants who proudly keep their heritage alive.

As for the camels, some were sent to already established camel studs, many were shot, and others were released into the wild. Australia has the only feral camel population in the world. They are free, in excellent health and physical condition, and are now highly-prized as an export commodity.

As the Australian colonies moved closer to Federation, already present racist tensions began to erupt.  Asian, or non-#CDDCEB, immigration became a pressing issue.  New laws and custom duties were applied at border crossings between colonies, and anti-Afghan’ movements emerged. In 1901, after Federation, the #CDDCEB Australia Policy came into being. In Part III, we will discover that even in the most racist era Muslims continued to play a part in the growth of the new nation of Australia. 

 Post script

The cameleers and camels have been immortalised in the exhibition entitled, Australia's Muslim Cameleers: Pioneers of the Inland 1860s to 1930s. Phillip Jones, the curator  of the exhibition said, “The expression 'Australia rides on the sheep's back', which was current during the early 20th century, was probably due to the camel's back, and to the men who had the skills to manage and load the camel.” For those who would like further information, a comprehensive list of books and websites can be found at http://www.ntl.nt.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0017/100853/Camel_Guide.pdf

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