ABSTRACT
Queensland in the late nineteenth century was a society of paradox, containing within it very diverse cultural and economic elements. This chapter describes the development of indentured labour in Queensland in the second half of the nineteenth century, with special focus upon the sugar industry. Another series of paradoxes present themselves, for the partial destruction of the classical plantation system produced a curious hybrid transitional structure with forms of unionised labour performed by white men. Under the Transportation Acts of 1717 and 1824, the state, in the person of the governor, owned the labour services of transported felons. Unlike the predominant system of gang labour on the coastal plantations, the exigencies of the 'outback' demanded small isolated groups. Unlike the capital intensive pastoral station, the sugar plantation was both capital and labour intensive. As the Aborigines and Pacific Islanders could not provide the necessary number of labourers during the expansionist phase, the planters strove to find other suitable forms.
