Published on 31st August, 2001

Afghan Muslims and the Camel Strings

By Ibrahim Underwood

In Queensland, the Afghan settlements developed in Normanton, Townsville, Duchess, and Cloncurry.  Afghans also were instrumental in several Queensland exploratory expeditions, such as Burke and Wills; they were essential in the construction of the Queensland Border Fence, and the early patrolling of the Rabbit Proof Fence. 

Camel strings had spread into Queensland into the Channel Country from Birdsville in the 1870’s, and later among the areas of Cloncurry, Mt Isa, Duchess, Dajarra, Boulia, north to Burketown, Normanton; north east to Cooktown, Cairns, Chillagoe, the Herberton district, and Mungana.  Heading east from the copper mining areas, camel strings worked through Richmond, Hughenden to Townsville and Mackay.  Camel strings also carted among the pastoral properties of south-western Queensland, east from the Birdsville track to Charleville, and northward from Broken Hill and Bourke to Cunnamulla, Eulo, Thargomindah, Digtree, Narylico Station, and Charleville.

The copper boom, that occurred in western Queensland later last century, led to Cloncurry developing one of the larger Afghan settlements or Ghan towns, in Australia, and was home to the first documented mosque, in Queensland.  With the arrival of the railhead in Cloncurry in 1908, and the racial legislation after 1901, Afghan cameleers were forced to move into the north-western regions of Queensland for work. Soon, the Cloncurry Ghan town consisted of only a handful of Afghans working the few mines that were too difficult for horse carts to reach. When in 1947, Mahomet Drim the last of the Cloncurry Afghans died, the Ghan town was empty, the mosque closed.

The Federal White Australia Policy

The discriminatory legislation of the Federal White Australia and the decline of the camel industry due to the spreading of the railway and the introduction of automobiles meant Afghans found it difficult to find work. Many of the Afghans returned home. Those that stayed found alternative employment, but because they could not bring brides from overseas, had to find local wives (if they married). The decline in Afghan numbers and the inability of the European and Aboriginal wives, mostly uneducated in Islam, to raise the children with an Islamic identity, meant that the coherence and strength of the local Muslim community was gradually weakened.

“For most part, the men were seldom at home.  Often it was left to women, themselves barely informed about Islam, to try to pass on the teachings and values of Islam to the next generation.  Any hopes for regeneration through further Asian immigration were dashed by Australia’s discriminatory immigration policies.  By 1921, there were fewer than 3000 Muslims resident in Australia.  The overwhelmingly disproportion of males to females meant that the maintenance of Islamic identity in Australia became harder.  Alienated both religiously and racially from the dominant white Anglo-Celtic society, many of this second generation followed no faith.  This slow degeneration was to continue for another thirty years.”

None of the following generations of Afghan descendents are Muslim, though for many:

  “Tiny shreds of old superstitions and phrases of old Pushtu and Arabic words have sometimes lingered”.

The assimilation of the Afghans into European and Aboriginal Australia today symbolise to many Australian Muslims the dangers a non-Muslim environment poses, and the dire importance of maintaining their distinctive Islamic identity. The Afghan presence in Queensland disappeared until after the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, a number of Afghan families in the last few decades moving to Brisbane.

Muslim migration in the 1970's, 1980's and 1990's:

The Holland Park mosque in Brisbane was the former site of a mosque built by Indian and Afghan Muslims in 1908, and for many decades was the sole mosque throughout the southern regions of Queensland. In the last few decades the Muslim population in Queensland has increased to around six to seven thousands people, and resulting in the construction of several mosques in Brisbane. The migrants generally settled in the southern suburbs of Brisbane, meaning most of the newer mosques were built in this region. In addition, mosques were built in Rochedale and on the Gold Coast. The bulk of the migrants came from Pakistan, Fiji, Lebanon, Turkey, Egypt and from Eastern Europe, Southeast Asia, and Iran. Currently, 70% of Queensland Muslims live in Brisbane and 10% on the Gold Coast. In addition to this regular migration, refugee groups have settled in Brisbane, including Afghans, Somalis and Bosnians.

Historiography and other aspects of Muslims in Queensland:

Much research awaits students of this field of Queensland history. Afghan graves would exist along the Queensland camel routes, unidentifiable save for their north-south alignment. A detailed list of former Muslim settlements and sites, and a bibliography of material is required. A final note, many Europeans used confusing terms for Muslims, such as Afghans, Mullahs, Hindoos, Filipinos, Manilamen, Malays, Javanese, Javamen, Koepangers, Syrians and Turks.  This makes it difficult to determine often the ethnic origin of early Muslims, and whether even if they are Muslim.

Much work needs to be done on developing a full and detailed account of Muslim settlement in Queensland, a significant but grossly neglected aspect of Queensland history.
 
Conclusion:

For most of the European period of history of Queensland, the majority of the Muslim population has lived in the northwest regions of the state. Only until the 1970’s did Brisbane become the centre for the majority of Queensland Muslims, with immigration from Europe, the Middle East, Asia and Africa. While the Mareeba and Brisbane/Holland Park mosques are the oldest continually used mosques in Queensland, they are not the oldest mosques in the state and are representative of Muslim history in Queensland. From the important and moderately strong positions that the Afghan and Malay communities held last century, the Muslim community went into decline after 1901. The Afghan and Malay Muslim presence in Queensland continued to decline, and the Muslim community was only maintained by Albanians in north Queensland and the much smaller community centred around the Brisbane Mosque.

References Available

Flinders Ranges Research
Cloncurry, Queeensland, Australia