History of Indigenous Australians: Difference between revisions

Nevertheless, Indigenous workers in the north were able to find jobs better than in south since there was no cheap convict labour available, though they were not paid in wages and were abused.<ref name="Broome 2019 115">{{Cite book|last=Broome|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SMGlDwAAQBAJ&q=aboriginal+australians+since+1788|title=Aboriginal Australians|date=2019|publisher=Allen & Unwin|isbn=9781760872625|pages=115|language=en}}</ref> There was a widely held belief that white people could not work in [[Northern Australia]].<ref name="Broome-2019w">{{Cite book|last=Broome|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SMGlDwAAQBAJ&q=aboriginal+australians+since+1788|title=Aboriginal Australians|date=2019|publisher=Allen & Unwin|isbn=9781760872625|pages=123|language=en}}</ref> [[Pearl hunting]] employed Aboriginal and [[Torres Strait Islanders|Torres Strait Islander]] workers, though many were [[Blackbirding|coerced]] into it.<ref name="Broome 2019 115"/> By the 1880s, the introduction of diving suits had reduced Indigenous workers to deckhands.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Broome|first=d|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SMGlDwAAQBAJ&q=aboriginal+australians+since+1788|title=Aboriginal Australians|date=2019|publisher=Allen & Unwin|isbn=9781760872625|pages=116|language=en}}</ref> Otherwise Indigenous people congregated at settlements such as [[Broome, Western Australia|Broome]] (servicing luggers) or [[Darwin, Northern Territory|Darwin]] (where 20 percent of the Northern Territory's Indigenous workers were employed).<ref name="Broome-2019w" /> However, in Darwin the Indigenous workers were kept locked up at night.<ref name="Broome-2019x">{{Cite book|last=Broome|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SMGlDwAAQBAJ&q=aboriginal+australians+since+1788|title=Aboriginal Australians|date=2019|publisher=Allen & Unwin|isbn=9781760872625|pages=124|language=en}}</ref> Most of the Indigenous workers in North Queensland, the Northern Territory, and the Kimberley were employed by the cattle industry.<ref name="Broome-2019x" /> Wage payment varied by state. In Queensland, wages were paid from 1901 onwards, being set at a third of white wages in 1911, two-thirds in 1918, and equal in 1930.<ref name="Broome-2019y">{{Cite book|last=Broome|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SMGlDwAAQBAJ&q=aboriginal+australians+since+1788|title=Aboriginal Australians|date=2019|publisher=Allen & Unwin|isbn=9781760872625|pages=130|language=en}}</ref> However, some of the wages were deposited on trust accounts, from which they could be [[Slavery in Australia|stolen]].<ref name="Broome-2019y" /> In the Northern Territory, there was no requirement to pay a wage.<ref name="Broome-2019y" /> Overall, up to the Second World War about half of the Indigenous stockmen received wages, and if so, they were well below the white level.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Broome|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SMGlDwAAQBAJ&q=aboriginal+australians+since+1788|title=Aboriginal Australians|date=2019|publisher=Allen & Unwin|isbn=9781760872625|pages=131|language=en}}</ref> There was also physical abuse of the workers, sometimes including by the police.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Broome|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SMGlDwAAQBAJ&q=aboriginal+australians+since+1788|title=Aboriginal Australians|date=2019|publisher=Allen & Unwin|isbn=9781760872625|pages=133|language=en}}</ref>