ABSTRACT
Most Australians know the hot, rocky island of Nauru as a Pacific country to which Australia sends asylum seekers who have come by boat. Nauru and Australia have had a long and uneasy relationship. Australia was the administrating power and main beneficiary of phosphate mining in Nauru between 1920 and 1968, during which time some 34 million tons of phosphate were removed, valued at around A$300 million. Prior to 1940, Australian authorities had believed that the rim around the island would provide sufficient land for the Nauruans to reside on indefinitely. Australia's position oscillated between group relocation, and individual immigration and assimilation into a metropolitan society. The question of resettlement of the Nauruan population was first raised in 1949, when the Australian government stated that the phosphate deposits would be exhausted within 70 years, and all but the coastal strip of Nauru would be ‘worthless’.
