Pacific Islander Hospital and Cemetery site is a heritage-listed archaeological site of a former hospital and private cemetery at the corner of Bluebell Road East and Gernich Road, Tinana, Fraser Coast Region, Queensland, Australia. It was built from 1883 to 1888. It is also known as Pacific Islander Hospital and Cemetery site, South Sea Islander Hospital and Cemetery site, and Pacific Islander Hospital, Maryborough. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 27 October 2017.
History The Pacific Islander Hospital and Cemetery site at Tinana, formerly named the Pacific Islander Hospital, Maryborough, and originally comprising , is situated between Iindah, Genrich and Bluebird Roads, at Tinana, approximately southwest of Maryborough. The hospital officially opened on 19 December 1883 and closed on 31 December 1888. One of only four central hospitals built for the treatment of South Sea Islanders (then called Pacific Islanders or Polynesians), the site is a rare and important remnant of the response by the Queensland Government during the 1880s to the high death rate among indentured South Sea Islanders. The former "Polynesian Cemetery" site has the potential to yield new information that will contribute to a greater understanding of the role and treatment of indentured South Sea Islander workers in Queensland's history. The Pacific Islander Hospital and Cemetery site has a special association with South Sea Islanders who, as indentured workers, made an important contribution to the establishment of the Queensland sugar industry, and has a special association with their descendants.
The settlement of Maryborough in the traditional country of the Butchulla people, started in 1847 to serve the needs of the pastoral settlers in the district. Maryborough, with a population of 299, was declared a township in 1851. It was proclaimed a port of entry in 1859 and a municipality (the Borough of Maryborough) in 1861. From April 1861, land on the Mary River was sold for agricultural purposes, and by the end of the 1860s thousands of free immigrants had entered Queensland through the Port of Maryborough. Supplying the Gympie goldfields from 1867 further boosted Maryborough's growth.Cultural Heritage Register, Dept of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Partnerships website, >, accessed 16 Jun 2017.
Sugar cane was cultivated around Maryborough from the late 1860s. The first commercially viable sugar cane crop in Australia had been grown by Captain Louis Hope on his Ormiston House Estate at Ormiston, Queensland in 1862 and by 1864 he had established the first commercial sugar mill in Australia. Cultivated primarily on plantations, sugar cane production spread rapidly to coastal areas to the north, such as Maryborough, Mackay and Bundaberg, where the warmer climate proved more suitable.QHR602488 Central Sugar Mill Ruins. Plantations are large land holdings growing one principal crop.
A labour shortage existed in Queensland at the time and it was believed that labouring in the tropics was unhealthy for Europeans.Ray Evans, Kay Saunders & Kathryn Cronin, Exclusion, Exploitation and ExterminationRace relations in Colonial Queensland, Sydney: Australia & New Zealand Book Co, 1975, p. 240 cited by QHR601700 Sunnyside Sugar Plantation. Therefore, an inexpensive, non-European labour force was sought by cane plantation owners (planters). The use of South Sea Islander labour in Australia began in the 1840s when Benjamin Boyd employed them as shepherds in lieu of convict labourers in the Riverina District of New South Wales.BH Molesworth, "Kanaka Labour in Queensland", RHSQ Journal, Issue 3, 1917, p.140 cited by QHR601700 Sunnyside Sugar Plantation. The first group of South Sea Islanders brought to Queensland as indentured labour arrived at Brisbane on 14 August 1863 aboard Robert Towns' ship the Don Juan, and went to work on his cotton plantation, Townsvale (later Veresdale), on the Logan River.Tony Matthews, River of Dreams: A History of Maryborough and District, Vol. 1, Maryborough City Council, Maryborough, 1995, p. 181. Captain Claudius Whish employed Islanders on his Oaklands property near Caboolture, as did Captain Louis Hope on his sugar plantation at Ormiston, near Cleveland.Janette Nolan, Bundaberg history and people, University of Queensland Press, St Lucia, 1978, p. 124 cited by QHR601700 Sunnyside Sugar Plantation600755 Ormiston House Estate.
South Sea Islanders made a major contribution to Queensland's early sugar industry. Between 1863 and 1904, approximately 50,000 Islanders were brought to Queensland as indentured labourers, generally employed on three-year contracts bound by the current Masters and Servants Act 1861.Pacific Islanders Labourer's Act Amendment Act 1884, provides background to this Act, <>, accessed Jun 2017. Most came from 80 islands in Melanesia, mainly those of present day Vanuatu and the Solomon Islands. They made a vital contribution to the sugar industry by performing virtually all of the associated field work during the first phase of the sugar industry's development. Most returned to their islands at the conclusion of their contract period.
The first South Sea Islanders employed in the Maryborough district arrived in November 1867 aboard the schooner Mary Smith, a month after the Gympie gold rush commenced. Most of this group of 84 men became employees of the Maryborough Sugar Company. The cost to employers of their travel to Maryborough was approximately £9 and their wages were £6 per annum (compared with wages for a European of £6 per month).Maryborough Chronicle, Wide Bay and Burnett Advertiser (Maryborough Chronicle),: "Shipping Intelligence", 13 Nov 1867, p. 2'Advertising', 2 Nov 1867, p. 3'The South Sea Islanders by the Mary Smith', 4 Jan 1868, p. 4'editorial' 26 Nov 1868, p. 227 Sep 1958, p. 2 cited by Matthews, River of Dreams, p. 182.
By March 1868, 2107 Islanders had been brought to Queensland, and were employed in various capacities including agricultural and pastoral work, and as servants in the towns. They lived and worked from Bowen to the Moreton Bay district, and west to Roma.BH Molesworth, "Kanaka Labour in Queensland", p. 146 cited by QHR601700 Sunnyside Plantation;
The need to protect South Sea Islanders from illegal practices became apparent soon after this trade in indentured labour from the islands arose. By 1868, there were reports that the recruitment of South Sea Islanders had devolved into kidnapping (known as blackbirding). At the least, there was coercion and deception involved in their hiring. The Polynesian Labourer Act 1868 was enacted to regulate recruitment. Under the Act, a government agent accompanied each recruiting ship to ensure all the regulations referred to in the Act were upheld, the Islanders were required to sign a contract for up to three years, and employers were required to pay them a minimum wage of £6 per year plus rations and pay for their return voyage home after completion of their contract. Deaths and desertions were reported to the nearest magistrate.'Intercolonial Telegrams', North Australian and Queensland General Advertiser (Ipswich), 4 Jul 1863, p. 2'Kidnapping Polynesians', The Toowoomba Chronicle And Queensland Advertiser, 12 Sep 1868, p.2'Capt. McEachern and the South Sea Islanders', The Brisbane Courier, 9 Oct 1868, p. 3Queensland State Archives Item ID 1543615, online digital image of Polynesian Labourer's Act 1868Matthews, River of Dreams, pp. 184, 185Australian Human Rights Commission - a history of South Sea Islanders in Australia, <> cited by QHR601700 SunnysideNolan, Bundaberg, history and people, p. 124 cited by QHR601700 Sunnyside Sugar Plantation.
By 1870, sugar had become the third largest of Queensland's crops, by area of cultivation. In 1872, 56 mills in Queensland were producing more than of sugar and of rum per year, and sugar was being exported to other colonies. The labour shortage remained acute and the entire industry would have collapsed without South Sea Islanders.A L Lougheed, The Brisbane Stock Exchange 1884-1984, Boolarong, Brisbane, 1984, p. 2Matthews, River of Dreams, p. 194.
During the 1870s and 1880s there was ongoing public criticism and political debate about the use of South Sea Islander labour. Further Acts of Parliament were introduced to protect the Islanders from unscrupulous recruiters and employers. Inspectors of Polynesians were appointed to monitor Islanders' health and welfare. The first Inspector appointed to oversee Bundaberg and Maryborough was employed in 1875 and also acted as the sub-collector of customs.Diana Shogren, "The politics and administration of the Queensland sugar industry to 1930", PhD Thesis, University of Queensland, 1980, pp. 33-34 cited by QHR601700 Sunnyside Sugar PlantationRockhampton Bulletin, 13 July 1877, p. 2 cited by QHR 601700 Sunnyside Sugar PlantationQueensland State Archives (QSA), Series 2268, Inspector of Pacific Islanders, Maryborough 10/7/1868-31/7/1908. The Acts of Parliament meant to protect Islanders included the Kidnapping Act 1872 and the Pacific Islanders Labourers Act 1875.
Concerns continued to be raised about the living and working conditions, and the illness and death rates for South Sea Islanders. Complaints were made by successive Inspectors of Polynesians at Maryborough.QSA, COL/A 209, letter 1491 of 1875, Mayor of Maryborough to Col Sec, 26 May 1875QSA, CPS 10B/61, WR Goodall, Inspector of Pacific Islanders at Mackay to Immigration Agent, 4 Mar 1878The Queenslander, 20 Apr 1876 cited by Kay Saunders, "Pacific Islander Hospitals in Queensland: the Failure of Liberal Principals", The Journal of Pacific History, Vol. 11, No.1, Labour Trade (part 1), 1976', p. 30'Maryborough', The Queenslander, 5 June 1875, p.3'Maryborough', The Telegraph, 23 Oct 1875, p. 5.
In January 1876, Richard Bingham Sheridan, Inspector of Polynesians at Maryborough, reported to the Office of the Colonial Secretary that South Sea Islanders were experiencing both harsh treatment and poor living standards. He alleged that some planters were deterred from trying to diminish the death rate by the prospect of saving both the cost of the labourer's return passage and his accumulated wages if he died.R B Sheridan to Immigration Agent, 28 Jan 1876, Queensland Votes and Proceedings (QV&P), 1876, Vol. III, 61 cited by Saunders, "Pacific Islander Hospitals in Queensland", p. 30. As a result of Sheridan's charges, a select committee was established in September 1876 to investigate. Sheridan gave evidence about the medical neglect of the South Sea Islanders: "that medical attendance upon the Polynesians was greatly neglected; that there was no system of regular medical attendance; that numbers died without any medical man".Select Committee to Enquire into Conditions of Polynesians, QV&P, 1876, Vol. III, 95 cited by Saunders, "Pacific Islander Hospitals in Queensland", p. 30. Other witnesses, who were wealthy planters and Members of Parliament, reported favourably on the conditions for South Sea Islander employees.Select Committee to Enquire into Conditions of Polynesians, QV&P, 1876, Vol. III, 95, cited by Saunders, "Pacific Islander Hospitals in Queensland", p. 30. The investigation did not result in legislation for improved conditions.