India’s untold story in Australia

Let’s look back and explore the centuries old contributions of Indians to the development of Australia. Australia’s multicultural phenomenon is not the recent one. During 19^th and 20^th century people from Britain, Europe, China, India, Egypt and Turkey came to Australia by boats to discover the opportunities or to conduct a business or to start a new life.

British Naval and Merchant Ships had Indian Sailors on board. The nine merchant vessels on the First Fleet were owned or under lease to the English East India Trading Company. There is no doubt that most of the seamen on board were Indians. Even on Captain Cook’s Endeavour in 1788 may have had Indian Sailors. 

Many Indians came to Australia as Hawkers, traders, banana growers, sugar cane farmers. The first Muslim Indian landed in Tasmania in 1813. The first Hindus came as indentured labourer in 1816. The first Sikhs landed in Brisbane in 1844.

The Begum Shaw ship is the second most important ship to enter Australian waters. It was later known as a Sydney Cove ship. It sailed from Calcutta in 1796 with a crew of 42 Indian sailors, known as Lascars, and seven Anglo-Indians. It was shipwrecked in 1797 at what is now Preservation Island, north-east of Tasmania.

The Church of England (now known as the Anglican Church) was the only Christian Minister sent with the First Fleet. He was under the control of the Archbishop of Calcutta.

In 1792, when the Colony was in crisis and on the point of starvation, Governor Phillips successfully turned to India for help in supplying food and other supplies. As a result, the Home Secretary in London ordered that all supplies including animals should be purchased from India if they could not be purchased cheaper elsewhere. This was a momentous decision because after that time most food and animals were purchased from India. And from that time on all horse, cattle and sheep had strong bloodlines going back to India.

Four of the first five Governors of NSW had served in India. This was the first injection of technological transfer that later extended to most branches of the Public Service, including the Judiciary.

Most of the inland exploring and other work performed by cameleers was performed by Indians working with camels imported from India. Credit for their excellent work exploring and opening up the inland of Australia has wrongly been attributed to the Afghans.

In the early days of Settlement the convicts felt sorry for the Indian lascars on ships visiting Sydney. When the “Shar of Hormus” landed in Sydney the convicts gave them cloths and blankets and were severely punished for their charity.