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The Afghans in Australia

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The Afghans in Australia THE AFGHANISTAN COUNCIL THE AFGHANSIN AUSTRALIA by May Schinasi OccasionalPaper #22 THE ASIA SOCIETY 112 East 64th Street, New York, N.Y. 10021 THE AFGHANSIN AUSTRALIA by Nay S chinas i OccasionalPaper #22 October, 1980 Afghanistan Council The Asia Society 112East 64th Street New York City 4 \/ PAC /F /C PARWIN° I.Bel' p./of , OCEAN A'/MBERLEYI NORTHERN 1 PLATEAU TERRITORY CLON IOCEAN NO/AN Pell H.1on AUSTRALIA PORT HEDLAN °MARBLE BAR r ALICE° Q°UUCHESSQUEENSLAND Memel,Per Adskidi\M\'ApAuqus ours. -WESTERN SPRINGS J _CgArko74 LOCATION MAP 2000V km MEEKATHARRAQQAUSTRALIA°WILUNA AUSTRALIAOODNADATTlSOUTH LI4ERGOTTISPRMSYRE í--Q(MARREE) ABRISBANE Q°KALGOORUE TARCOOLA°L.TLVPRENSOBELTAAIAÓFARINA%NWI ITNNI pall + URKE PERTH COOICaARI.IE AUGUSTAPORT WOKFNOMEnaNOltNEW SOUTH Ci FREMANTL )°ADELAIDE1 WALES YLiNEY VICTORIAME LBOUPIIE AUSTRALIA TASMN:ÁQ 0L i . .5001 . .10004 km 1. Introduction The projectto buildanAfghan MemorialHall inthetown of Adelaide,South Australiawasannouncedin1976.1 Thisannouncementmay seem strange to the rest of the worldwhere thehistoricalconnectionsbetween Afghanistanand Australiaappearto beremote. However, inAustraliait iswell knownthat in thesecond halfof the19thcentury cameleersbrought theircamelsfrom Afghanistanand Indiaand that theyplayedaprominentrole in variousex- peditionsexploringthat hugecontinent. Theintroductionof the camel greatlyexpeditedthe explorationof Australia. Thecameleerswereamong Australia'spioneers. An extensivebody ofliteraturerecounts with praisethe journeysof these cameleersand theirbeasts. Today theirpresenceis recalledat tourist and cultural sites,museums,zoologicalgardens and reserves. Australiansare well informedofthe importantcontributionsmade bythesemenfromAfghanistan. Thestory ofthe came inAustraliawastoldremarkablywell inabook published inMelbournein 1969. TheCamel in Australiacoveredallaspects of camellore, includingthe physicaland biologicalconstitutionof thespecies, theeventful voyagesbyseafrom1860onwards,their varioususes aspack and ridingcamels ° in thedesert,theirdeclinefrom the 1920sand theirpresent returntoawild state. Since thelives ofthese animalswerecloselyconnectedto those of themenwhoaccompaniedthemand settledinAustralia,the author,T.L. McKnight, didnot neglectthe immigrants. He describedtheir journeysas caravaneers andtheirsettlementin Australia,whichat timesended miserably. up to now,writershave beenmoreinterestedin thecamelsthan in themen. To Australiansthestrangeappearanceof thebeastswasstrikinglynoveland theirsignificantshare intheexploration ofthecontinentwas anaddedat- traction. Themenwhoaccompaniedthe camelsremained intheirshadow. Thestory ofthe continuoususeof thecamel lastedroughly 60years. It started withthe Burkeand Willsexpedition in1860 andended inthe 1920s whenmotortransport took theplace ofcameltransport. Documents related to the variousstages of thisstoryareavailable inAustralia whereboth writtenrecords andliving evidenceofanottoo distant, andfar from dead, past exist. Additionalinformationmaybe gleaned fromAustralianarchives and also from Afghanistanwheresomeof thecameleers originated. Much ofthe information isnot entirelynewsince in bothcasesitwaspublishedmany years ago;butaccessto itwassomewhat difficultwiththe resultthat it remained littleknown. Not the least ofthe problemswasthe factthat thematerial fromAfghanistanwaswritten in Persian. The additionalsourcesconsist ofabook publishedinAustraliabyoneMusakhan whooriginallycamefrom Karachiand who, inAustralia,had presidedoverthe establishmentofa mosquein Perth. Then there isashortpassageinatravel account of the Britishengineer,FrankA. Martin, publishedin Englandin1907.4 Martin workedinAfghanistanfrom 1895to 1903. Later, severalletters sent from Perthto Kabul in 1914-15 byamember ofthe Muslimcommunity of Australiawerepublished inanAfghannewspaper.5 Thesesourcesdeal withthemen. Musakhan in hisnarrativeabout thePerthmosque gave,amongother things,anextensive listof all thecontributorsto the building fund. Martinreferredontwopagestosome newsfrom "theAfghancolony of Australia"which hadreached Kabul whilehewasthere;and he mentionedsomeof 1 the personal difficulties the cameleers encountered while theywerein Australia in addition to those they faced at home when andif they returned. The letters in the Kabulperiodical dealt mainly with the religious life centered around the mosquesthese zealous Muslims built inanumber of places in Australia. Fromthis materialone canat lastpositively identify something of the personality of the cameleers. Considering the relatively smallsize of their communityin its heyday, whichwascomparatively brief, itnowseemed possible to get to knowthese peopleasindividualsrather thanasshadows of their initial raisond'être, thecamel. To achieve this itwas necessaryto consult the record books andthe archives extant indifferent Australianstatesaswellasthe memoires ofsomeprivate individuals. All the material presented herewascollected through correspondence. Manycor- respondents,all of whomwereatfirst unknown to the author, not only answered but took thetrouble to send references, documents, photocopies of articles andpress cuttings,photographs, personal souvenirs and othertestimonies, in spite of the inconvenienceand the slowness of the mail. Each has its place in thisarticle.6 Nevertheless, it is likely thatasystematic study of all Australiansourceswill enableus oneday to revise the followingsurveywhich is basedonthe above-men- tionedmaterials. In order toplace the cameleers intheirnewAustralian perspective, it appeared usefultooutline briefly the history of the explorations of the continent, to- gether withthepartthe camels tookin it. Thiswasdone with the help of expeditionaccountsand with the aid of McKnight's unique study. 2. The Exploration of the Continent: The Camels After the discovery of the Australian coastsin the 17thcentury byDutch navigators andmerchants, in the 18th century byBritish explorersJ.Cook(1770), Flinders (1799),Vancouver(1791),etc., and the French D'Entrecasteaux (1791 -93) and Baudin (1800), the timecameto penetrate theinterior,anarid task ifevertherewas one. Australia'sphysical topography is immense, monotonous and devoid of largerivers. The soilisarid and the climate generallywarmand dry, with extreme temperature variations and torrentialrains.7 GreatBritainsentits first convicts to the bay of present day Sydneyin 1788 and there foundedNewSouth Wales, the first colony. Then settlers, farmersandowners of large herds of sheep began arrivingtosettle where they could. Theywere soon joinedby workmen whocamemainly from Asia. While the colonizing of ^parts of the continentwastakingplace,8anumber ofcourageousand dauntlessmen were exploring the rest of thecountry.9 The explorations lastedmanymonths and large amounts ofmaterial and provisions were necessaryboth for themen aswellasthe animals. Saddle horses, pack horses andbullocks formed part of the transport teamsand thesuccessof the expedition dependedonthe well -being of theseanimals. Thirst and exhaustionwerethe main hazardsof the treks andeach journey, successfulorunsuccessful, undoubtedly met withmoments ofdistress;somefailed with all hands lost. When the cameleers first landedin Australia in 1860, the easternpart of the continent had already been largely explored. Upuntil this time the beasts of burden used inAustraliawerethe horse and the bullock andmany wererequired for each expedition. While these animals lacked neither endurancenorrobust- ness,itwasknown that these qualitieswere even moreexplicitlyrepresented, 2 together with added desirable characteristics, by the camel,ananimalnotfound onthe Australian continent. In1839, the Sydney Herald first presented the ideaof introducing the camelto Australia by describing this animalasbeing "admirablyadapted to the climate and soilofNew South Wales." An attempt to bring camelsto Australiawasmade in the followingyear. Out ofninecamels imported from theCanaryIslands, however, only onesurvivedthe long journey. Itarrived inPort Adelaide andwastaken by J. Horrocks,anexplorer, toward LakeTorrens. Horrocks, unfortunately, hadanaccident and the camelwasshot. Thesame year acouple of camels which had travelledon theshipCalcutta landed in Melbourne. Theywereused onlytosatisfy people's curiosityand "their actualfate isunknown."10 Twentyyearslater,asthe exploration of Australiawasprogressing, the Royal Society ofVictoriacame upwith thenovel idea of crossing the continent from south to north. TheGovernment of Victoria quickly became involvedwith thepro- jectand appointedanorganizing committee, collected funds and namedanIrishman, R.O.Burke,ashead of the party. Burke pinned his hopes ofsuccess oncamels eventhough the earliercamel performances had been disappointing. Twomonths before thestart ofthe expedition, 24 camels landed in Melbourne. ABritish officer, George J.Landells, whowasposted in Lahore, had been askedtoselect and buy the camels. Little is known of Landells, his itinerary,thestepshe took for the deal or eventhe places hewent to: "Mr. Landells then in India,wascommunicated with, and in May lastyearhas acknowledged from Lahore the receiptof the instructions addressedtohim (...) but the difficultiesMr. Landells experiencedin procuring the animals-for which he travelled to Affghanistan (sic)atatime when Northern Indiawasstill under the influence of the expiring flames of rebellion-occasioned moredelay than had been anticipated."12 Onlysomeof the 24 camels join ^d the exhibition but their serviceswerefully appreciatedeventhough several of them perished-lost, boggedoreaten!
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