Townsvale Plantation short history of South Sea Islander indentured labour.

On 18 th August 1863, sixty-seven labourers from the South Pacific Islands of Marie, Lifou, Tanna and Sandwich disembarked in from the 130 ton schooner the Don Juan. They were indentured for one year to toil the cotton fields of Townsvale Cotton Plantation on the Logan River, 6km north of Beaudesert. Queensland’s cotton experiment using cheap South Sea Island labour had begun.

This was a time when the new colony of Queensland was being established after separating from on 10 th December 1859, and in order to encourage the growth of new crops such as cotton, and coffee the Government was offering tempting incentives and bounties to landholders. Furthermore, world cotton prices were at a premium with the American Civil War of 1861-1965 severely disrupting world supplies.

Shrewd businessman, mercantile merchant and politician Capt. Robert Towns saw the opportunity and in 1861 as R Towns & Co. received a cotton grant of 1280 acres on the Logan River. (Kennedy, K, 2004, Historical Report to City Council, Robert Towns’ Townsville and the ‘’ controversy, p10).

Vital to the success of the venture was the use of cheap labour, as Towns pointed out a couple of years later that he had spent considerable capital on the cultivation of cotton in Queensland but much depended on the rate of labour to the ultimate success of the enterprise. (Letter to missionaries 29 May 1863 – Appendix 4, Kennedy, K, 2004, Historical Report to Townsville City Council, Robert Towns’ Townsville and the ‘Blackbirding’ controversy ).

Towns’s solution to the labour shortage problem was to indenture men from the nearby islands of the South Pacific. He had previously employed this type of labour on his ships and on his private wharves, although not on the large systematic scale he was about to embark upon.

On that crisp winter day in August 1863 as the first Islanders stepped onto Queensland soil they were dressed in suits of shirts and trousers supplied by their new employer, who had placed two sets on board the Don Juan for each worker – one for when they embarked and the other to look clean and smart on their arrival. (Towns to Grueber 29/5/1863). Captain Towns himself planned to greet his new recruits.

On the plantation, the suits were probably kept for special occasions. The men wore little clothing as they ploughed, seeded, and picked the fields of white, with one visitor to the plantation suggesting for decency they should be taught to wear Scotch skirts like the Scottish, or flannel skirts like the East Indians. (The Courier 10/11/1866). The islanders were described as well shaped young men with short curly hair, and a deep indent across the nose between the eyes. These men became known as ‘Kanakas’, a Polynesian word meaning ‘man’.

Towns’s instructions to his superintendent, labour recruiter, and second mate of the Don Juan, Henry (Ross) Lewin were to engage “any able adult native that may be hired for my service, at and after the rate of ten shillings (10s.) per month in such trade as he may prefer at the end of his agreement, and to return him to his home within twelve months should he require such.” (Memorandum of Agreement)

Preference was for fourteen to eighteen year old young lads rather than older men, but some old hands were needed so as to induce the young ones to enlist. (Letter to Ross Lewin 29/5/1863) Qld. Legislative Assembly 26.8.1863). After the initial intake of workers, the following indentures were for the term of three years.

Communication Communicating the terms of service became an issue from the start. H. Ross Lewin had spent much time on and around the South Pacific Islands and spoke the native language, so Towns was confident in his ability to procure the required manpower. However, Towns insisted that no force was to be used, and the men were to be assured they would have a kind master to protect them. (Letter to Capt Grueber, “Don Juan” 29 July 1863 - Kennedy, K, 2004, Historical Report to Townsville City Council, Robert Towns’ Townsville and the ‘Blackbirding’ controversy - Appendix)

Yet, how to communicate the length of time the men would be away from their family and loved ones?

Ross Lewin told his indentured workers that their term was for three seasons of yams in the ground. (Letter Lewin to Towns 30/1/1865, Robert Towns & Co Papers, Mitchell Library, .)

Towns later decided on a better explanation, which was to count the moons. He said to tell them their term of service was for thirty-nine moons from the day of landing in Queensland until the day of leaving the Colony. (Robert Towns’ Memorandum of Agreement with his agent Frank Grant 1867, in Kennedy, K H, 2004, Historical Report to Townsville City Council].

That was how each time a new moon appeared in the southern sky on a small farm near Townsvale, an Islander cut a notch in the blue gum tree outside his hut as he counted the moons until his return. (Franklin, Edwin 1935, 1982, The Early Days of Canungra and Reminiscences, Wards Quality Print)

Cotton Plantation

Separated tribes dwelt in huts around the Townsvale plantation. One hut was a 60’ x 40’ weatherboard building covered in grass, with double storey bunks all round the room, broad enough for two Islanders to lie side by side. Thick sacking covered the bunks and blankets were provided.

At night the men sang around the open fire where their three-legged cooking pots hung in the middle of the room, not letting the flames die down for warmth during the frosty nights on the damp Logan River flats. Outside, plovers cried across the lily fringed lagoon. (Hassell, R, Beaudesert Historical Society archives).

The workers were called to work at six in the morning with the ringing of the plantation bell which hung above the two-storey provision shed. (Hassell) This bell was later donated to Brisbane Boys College to call a different set of young men to their lessons. Work on the plantation was stopped for breakfast at eight, and lunch was one or two hours depending on the seasons. Work ceased before dark so supper could be eaten before the deep of night set in. (The Brisbane Courier 10/11/1866 pp 6-8)

Sundays were spent hunting in the scrub for turkeys or kangaroos and a couple of clever hunters used the rods from an old iron bedstead to catch their prey. Occasionally the men returned with a sheet of bark soaking with bush honeycomb. (Franklin)

Also on their one day of rest there were some who spent the day beautifying the ringlets of their hair as they bound each separate curl with sewing cotton. Then the hair was washed with lime and red clay added to the water, turning their long ringlets the colour of old gold (Franklin, Edwin 1935, 1982, The Early Days of Canungra and Reminiscences, Wards Quality Print).

A bullock was killed every two days from the mob of 1,000 head of cattle running on the plantation and each man received 1½ lb rice and 1 ½ lbs beef each day. They drank water (The Brisbane Courier 10/11/1866 pp 6-8).

Besides that, pumpkins, potatoes, yams and tons of melons in season were grown and milk was readily available. A large number of Islanders cultivated their own vegetables and fruit and reared poultry and pigs for their own consumption. (Samuel Hunt – former employee of Capt. Towns – Brisbane Courier 10/7/1869).

Towns instructed Lewin on his voyage to recruit more on The Uncle Tom in 1864, to bring back yams and a few sugar cane cuttings and anything else that would be of service on the plantation. (Towns to Lewin 10 Sept 1864 Appendix 6 Kennedy.)

The Islanders at Townsvale were found to be happy, industrious, and faithful with wonderful powers of mimicry. (Samuel Hunt – former employee at Townsvale – Brisbane Courier 10/7/1869) Yet, white man’s habit of smoking soon became their habit too, and each week a fig of tobacco was given to each man. (Samuel Hunt – former employee)

The latest in machinery was bought for the plantation, such as a steam plough operated entirely by the Islanders except for an English engineer who scarcely had to leave the engine (The Brisbane Courier 10/11/1866, pp 6-8)

At cotton planting time the sowers with large bags full of seed slung over their backs, threw large handfulls of seed in the furrow till it was quite white. Men followed to cover the seed, followed by another Islander perched on the dickey of a double shafted roller looking pert and proud of his mastery of the roller. (Brisbane Courier 10/11/1866)

Picking Each man took his own bag into the field for picking, and at night by candlelight his cotton was weighed without the bag, and an account kept in the Picking Book of each man’s efforts. On June 27 1866 Charlie picked 90 lbs and Ebzr, 32 lbs. Prizes of pocket knives, beads, buckles, belts, pipes, jews-harps, figs and cakes of tobacco were given to the top pickers.

The varieties of cotton grown at Townsvale were Sea Island and New Orleans.

The plantation had its own cotton gin with 75 saws driven by a 10 horse power engine. There were carpenter’s and blacksmith’s shops, machinery shed, sawmill, stables, butcher shop, stockyards and a French stone flour mill for grinding maize into meal.

Lack of clothing may have been preferred by the Townsvale workers, but in 1866 when the reputation of the plantation was in public view as the South Sea Islanders drove four bullock teams loaded with bales of cotton through the streets of Brisbane en route to the Brisbane wharf for shipment overseas, Towns made sure his men were dressed to impress. They wore striking uniforms of white flannel suits and red caps. If Brisbane did not know before that the South Sea Islanders had arrived, they knew then. (Qld. Daily Guardian 21/5/1866).

At one stage, soldiers’ uniforms left over from the Crimean War were purchased to clothe the South Sea Islanders. The coats were scarlet and trimmed with brass buttons.(Hassell, R, Plantation Days, Cotton Planting in the Sixties – Logan & Albert Times, Dec. 1968) .

In 1865 William Tutin Walker was appointed Manager of the plantation. He later became a partner and then sole owner. Walker had studied a little medicine in Scotland before emigrating to Australia in 1852. This knowledge became valuable at Townsvale as the nearest doctor was some 45 kms away and only reached on horseback. Walker was called upon to set broken bones and once had to push a protruding bowel back into a gaping wound and stitch it back up. A dose of salts soon found that all was well. (Hassell)

Homestead The two storied homestead was made of timber and painted white with green shutters. Wide verandahs invited summer breezes. It had a cedar staircase leading to the upstairs bedrooms. There was a cupboard under the stairs which was always full of bottles and smelt strongly of whisky and wine, and a cellar that went down into the ground beneath a trap door in the verandah floor. The pantry was crammed full of huge tins of biscuits, plum puddings hanging in cloths, chests of tea and a huge flour bin. (Hassell).

Pine trees grew to shadeed the homestead, as well as a grove of Lombardy poplars imported from France by Capt.Towns. The garden was planted with magnolias, wallflowers, sweet william, jasmine, a rare perennial pink sweet pea and wisteria and a summer house stood beneath the creaking bamboos. (photo Townsvale Garden, John Oxley Library 147476)

Towns visited Townsvale during Christmas 1863 and again in December 1864 (Kennedy, K, 2004, Historical Report to Townsville City Council, Robert Towns’ Townsville and the ‘Blackbirding’ controversy, p41)

From the time of the first landing of the Don Juan, accusations arose about the use of South Sea Island labour in Queensland, likening it to blackbirding and the re-introduction of slavery. (The Courier, 22/8/1963). Towns’s recruiting agent, Ross Lewin answered the accusations by saying that the men he discharged back to the islands were so well satisfied with everything that he could have got 1,000 if he had wanted. (Letter Lewin to Towns 30/1/1865 Robert Towns & Co Papers, Mitchell Library).

Another section of the community argued that jobs in Queensland should be filled by the industrial classes of the mother country who would bring with them English principles, customs and ideas (The Brisbane Courier Editorial 29/8/1863).

Public protest meetings were held and a lively debate continued through the press. However, the new colony needed to be built. European labour was too expensive, and too many able bodied men had flocked to the gold fields to seek their fortune. All this ensured that the importation of cheap indentured labour was destined to continue.

By 1867 the relationship between Towns and Lewin had soured and Lewin began his own Recruiting business in South Brisbane charging £7 per man (South Sea Islander) for delivery. (The Brisbane Courier, 26 April 1867). At that time, the indentured South Sea Islanders were engaged on Towns’s plantation for 3 years at a wage of £6 per year.

In 1868 Lewin was charged with the rape of a Tanna girl, Naguinambo (Mary). He was alleged to have kidnapped her from her island, dragged her through the water onto his vessel the Spunkie with only ‘some grass tied around her waist’ , and after the sun had set, went down to the dank hold of the ship and raped her. (Brisbane Courier 12/1/1869.)

At his trial in Brisbane the following year Lewin’s defense was that Naguinambo had been sea sick and he had simply administered castor oil to her. The case was dismissed before going to jury because of difficulties in obtaining witnesses who understood the English language, laws and oaths on a Christian Bible. (Sydney Morning Herald 16/1/1869).

To die on foreign soil When an Islander died at Townsvale he was dressed in a clean white guernsey shirt and wrapped in a blue blanket. Then he was placed in a neatly jointed cedar coffin made by the carpenters. The plantation bell tolled and the men stopped work to attend the funeral. The coffin was carried from the house to a little spring wagon driven by an Islander, and the cortege moved slowly towards the burial ground on the banks of the Logan River. The Manager, William Tutin Walker commenced the burial service and the Islanders stood silent, expressionless and motionless, perhaps bewildered at the strange Christian ceremony. The Brisbane Courier, 10/11/1866 pp 6-8).

The first contingent of Islands at Townsvale were returned to their homes in 1864. Before they departed the plantation carpenters made cedar boxes for them to take home their prizes and goods-in-kind in lieu of their £6 per year wages. On board The Tom Thumb, Towns had placed a great array of merchandise from which the men could choose. There were umbrellas, tall black and white hats, beads, feathers and ornaments for impressing their ladies and friends back home as well as more practical items such as hatchets, knives, and useful tools. (Samuel Hunt – former employee of Capt. Towns – Brisbane Courier 10/7/1869).

That same year two more contingents of workers arrived at Townsvale - 54 on 8 July and another 80 on 28 November1864. These and those that came after were indentured for three years. Another 118 arrived on the Black Dog in 1865. It appears the last 63 arrived for Townsvale on The Spec in 1866 and would have stayed three years. (South Australian Register, Adelaide 24/7/1868 p2)

By the latter part of the 1860s cotton growing at Townsvale was winding down. The American Civil War was over, Government subsidies were drying up, and diseases had attacked the cotton crops. Many land owners had already turned to the growing of sugar. Townsvale would now concentrate on sawmilling and dairying. (The Brisbane Courier 22/3/1873).

From between 1863 and 1904 an estimated 62,500 South Sea Islanders were brought to Australia to develop the cotton and sugar plantations, and pastoral and beche-de-mer industries in Queensland and Northern NSW. Most were sent to the tropical and sub-tropical zones, where conventional wisdom ruled that white men could not work in the tropics. By 1906, coloured labour was to be totally prohibited and replaced. By 1908 almost 90% of the South Sea Islanders were deported.