Long before the Lebanese and the Sudanese, racial intolerance in Australia was directed at Afghans. (What would President call George W. Bush the Aboriginal experience? "Historic Mass Killings", I think. At least that is what he is calling the ‘Armenian Genocide’, now the Turkish Army is about to roll into Iraqi Kurdistan.)
There is no pleasing some folk. Afghans made fundamental contributions to opening up Australia with pivotal roles in pioneering projects including the Overland Telegraph Line between Adelaide and Darwin, the Queensland Border Fence, the Transcontinental Railway Line between Port Augusta and Kalgoorlie, and the Rabbit Proof fence and Canning Stock Route in Western Australia.
The remnants of the Afghan contribution are now an emblematic part of Australia, from the date palms in Alice Springs to the ‘Ghan’ train line which links Adelaide to Alice Springs and to any tourist who mounts a camel in Cooper Pedy or in the Northern Territories.
Unlike the Lebanese and Sudanese, the Afghans had to face the double whammy of violence and harassment being institutionalized in The Immigration Restriction Act, later known as the White Australia Policy, which denied naturalization to Afghans (most of whom has been resident in Australia for generations). Many were forced to leave the continent.
In recent years Afghan boat people seeking refuse have been offered mandatory detention or have forced out of Australian waters by the Australian Navy.
No doubt Prime Minister Howard thinks the beaches and train stations have enough “wogs” to worry about.
* The first Afghans arrived in South Australia in 1838 when Joseph Bruce brought 18 of the ‘blighters’ into Australia. The first camel arrived at Port Adelaide in 1840. There followed small incremental deliveries of Camels in the years after. The first significant importation of Camels was in 1866 when Samuel Stuckey succeeded in bringing out more than a hundred camels and 31 Afghan cameleers, as well. The Afghan camelmen, came from different ethnic groups and from vastly different places such as Baluchistan, Egypt, Kashmir, Persia, Punjab, Rajastan, Sind and Turkey.
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