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=**__The White Australia Policy__**=

The start of the __White Australian Policy__ can go back to the 1850’s. White miners anger towards the Chinese diggers resulted in violence on the Buckland River in Victoria, and at Lambing Flat (Now Young) in New South Wales. The governments of these two colonies introduced many restrictions on the Chinese immigration.

The __White Australia Policy__ is a term used to describe a collection of laws, intended to restrict non-white immigration to Australia, and to promote the European immigration, from 1901 to 1973. However, the policy started changing some decades earlier than this, with reforms starting in the 1940’s. From 1973 onwards, the white Australian policy had ended, and in 1975 the Racial Discrimination Act made racially based selection criteria illegal.

After the outbreak of hostilities with the country Japan, Prime Minister John Curtin reinforced the philosophy of the __White Australian Policy__ saying “This country shall remain forever, the home of the descendents of those people who came here in peace, in order to establish in the South Seas an outpost of the British race”.

In the March 1966 announcement there was the watershed in abolishing the __White Australian Policy__, and non-European migration began to increase. Yearly non-European settler arrivals rose from 761 in 1966 to 2, 696 in 1971, while yearly pat-European settler arrivals rose higher from 1, 498 to 6, 054.

During World War II, many non-white refugees entered Australia. Most left voluntarily at the end of the war, but many had married Australians and wanted to stay. Arthur Calwell, the first immigration minister, sought to deport them, arousing much protest. Minister Holt's decision in 1949 to allow 800 non-European refugees to stay, and Japanese war brides to be admitted, was the first step towards a non-discriminatory immigration policy.

In 1901, the new federal government passed an Act ending the employment of Pacific Islanders. The Immigration //Restriction Act 1901// received royal assent on 23 December 1901. It was described as an Act 'to place certain restrictions on immigration and to provide for the removal from the Commonwealth of prohibited immigrants'.

It prohibited from immigration those considered to be insane, anyone likely to become a charge upon the public or upon any public or charitable institution, and any person suffering from an infectious or contagious disease 'of a loathsome or dangerous character'. It also prohibited prostitutes, criminals, and anyone under a contract or agreement to perform manual labour within Australia (with some limited exceptions). By Brenna and Jessica.