1. Correspondence opposing the Immigration Restriction Act 1901

Immigration Restriction Act 1901 Parliament of Australia, Public Domain

Activity

Correspondence opposing the Immigration Restriction Act 1901

Inquiry Question: What were the arguments made against the Immigration Restriction Act 1901 on those it sought to exclude?

Part A

Access Source 1. Effect of Immigration Restriction Bill on Indian community from the National Archives of Australia

Individual task

Analyse the source and answer the below literal, inferential and evaluative questions.

Literal questions

1. Who is the author of the source?
2. When was the source written and who is it written to?
3. Who does the author identify as and claim to represent?

Inferential Questions

1. Why do you think the author wrote this letter?
2. What were the arguments presented by the author?
3. What was the author’s intended outcome and how do you think the arguments were considered by the recipient?

Evaluative questions

1. What are the strengths and weaknesses of the author’s arguments?
2. Do you agree with the arguments made by the author?
3. Do the author’s arguments contain bias or aspects you disagree with? Explain why?

Group task

Develop a literal, inferential and evaluative question for your classmate to answer from the source.

Assess their answers to your question and provide feedback to their response. (NSW Government, 2022)

Part B

Access Source 2. Letter to Prime Minister Chifley advocating for Chinese immigrants from the National Archives of Australia

Individual Task

Analyse Source 2 and answer the same literal, inferential and evaluative questions applied in Part A.

Class Discussion

What are the similarities and differences between Source 1 and 2 in the author’s arguments for the Act to be amended?

How did your classmates’ responses differ from yours?

Extension task

Imagine you represent a community that the Immigration Restriction Act negatively impacts. Write a letter to Edmund Barton that outlines these impacts and why the Act should be withdrawn.

2. Survival and scrutiny in the context of the Immigration Restriction Act 1901

SS Clan Ranald.  The Observer, Public Domain

Activity

Part A: Letter

In this activity, you will imagine you are Lucano Orico, a survivor of the SS Clan Ranald shipwreck in 1911. Based on the sources (below), use your imagination to write a 250-to-300-word letter to your family in Manila telling them you are safe, about your ordeal and the conditions of the Immigration Restriction Act 1901.

You might include perspective and narratives regarding:

• What happened aboard the ship and how you survived while others did not.
• Your treatment by the authorities and the public.
• The dictation test you had to undertake and the ideology of the Immigration Restriction Act 1901

Sources

Read the story of the SS Clan Ranald shipwreck. This source from Australian National Maritime Museum provides an overview of the SS Clan Ranald shipwreck event in the context of the White Australia policy.

Analyse the Dictation test and arrangements for survivors of SS Clan Ranald shipwreck. This source from the National Archives of Australia provides insight into surviving crew members first movements, treatment and the dictation test in the immediate aftermath of the shipwreck. Particular mention is made of Lucano Orico

Newspaper article from the Register. Tuesday 2nd of Feb 1909. Appalling Shipwreck. Terrible Calamity in the Gulf. Clan Ranald sunk off Troubridge. This source Trove is indicative of the media coverage at the time. It provides detail into survivor reception in Port Adelaide and first-hand accounts by White and “coloured men” survivors of the shipwreck.

Part B Group discussion

As a whole class or in groups of five share:

• Two aspects of the ordeal that you wrote about in your letter.
• Why did you choose to tell you family that particular aspect and cite (tell us) which sources informed those parts of your letter?

Extension task

What do you wonder about this event or the people involved? Carry out further related independent research and source analysis through searching the topic. Try searching the National Archives of Australia, Trove or Google to find out more.

Or

Read the newspaper article publishing correspondence of Senator E. Pulsford to Alfred Deakin from the National Archives of Australia.

How do the sentiments within Senator Pulsford’s correspondence to Alfred Deakin seek to provide fair treatment for the survivors of the Clan Ranald?