South Sea Islander timeline

Year	Legislation	Purpose
1868	Polynesian Labourers Act	Created to enable people to carry on their operations in tropical and semi-tropical agriculture, to secure proper treatment and protection for labourers, and security for the employer that the immigrant would fulfil their agreement. To ensure employers notified the government of the number of indentured labourers and guarantee they were returned to their homeland after the term of the indenture (three years). To provide for a government representative on each recruitment vessel to ensure that recruits were aware of the terms of the indenture.
1872	Pacific Islanders Protection Act 1872 and 1875	Created to provide further protection for South Sea Islanders against kidnapping. Labourers and vessels carrying labourers required to have licenses, with fines issued or court action for non-compliance.
1880	Pacific Island Labourers Act	Repealed the Act of 1868. Created to regulate and control the treatment of labourers, limit the age of recruits and return labourers to their rightful islands. To provide for medical treatments, rations and dress allowance.​
1884	Pacific Island Labourers Act	Amendment to the 1880 Act. Created to apply further restrictions on labourers so that they could only work in unskilled agricultural work, specifically the cultivation of sugar-cane, cotton, tea, coffee, rice, spices, or other tropical or semi-tropical productions or fruits. To make illegal the supply of fire arms to South Sea Islanders.
1887	Pacific Island Labourers Act 1880 Amendment Act	Amended the definition of Pacific Islanders in the Act.
1901	Immigration Restriction Act 1901	The newly formed government of the Commonwealth of Australia enacted this legislation. Created to place restrictions on immigration by applying a dictation test. The intention of the test was to restrict entry to Australia of all non-European immigrants, such as Asians and South Sea Islanders. The Act provided for the removal of prohibited immigrants, such as South Sea Islanders.
1901	Post and Telegraph Act	Section 15 of the act provided that ships carrying Australian mail, and therefore being subsidised by the Federal government, were to only employ ‘white’ labour.
1901–1906	Pacific Islands Labourers Act	Modelled on the Queensland Pacific Island Labourers Act 1884. Created and enacted by the Commonwealth of Australia. Provided for the regulation, restriction and prohibition of labourers from the Pacific Islands. Provided for the deportation of Pacific Islanders from Australia. Exemptions were Pacific Islanders who were brought to Queensland before 1 September 1879.