A forgotten piece of Australia's islander history is being demolished to build a car park

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Historic stone walls built by South Sea Islander labourers more than a century ago are being demolished in northern New South Wales to make way for a hospital car park

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Tweed Valley South Sea Islanders with one of the walls on the hospital site before construction began.“[The walls] are important to us … sorry, I’m going to cry,” Louise Togo, secretary of the Tweed Valley South Sea Islander Association, told SBS News. “In truth, we don’t know enough about the northern NSW South Sea Islanders because there’s been no dedicated research done,” the emeritus professor from the University of Queensland said.

“The impacted walls have been appropriately catalogued and independent Ground Penetrating Radar surveying has been completed. The results have not revealed any features consistent with burials,” the department said in a statement. The history of South Sea Islanders in Australia is largely untold, which includes their mass deportation after federation in 1901, though many remained, passing as Australian Indigenous people.

Known as “sugar slaves”, about a quarter died in Australia in what was known as the “blackbirding” trade.About 200 islanders are recorded as working in the Tweed area from the 1890s, moving from colonial Queensland to New South Wales where they were offered better conditions and often equal pay with Europeans.

 

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ForegroundNews 🤦🏼‍♀️for goodness sake

The tyranny of the private car owner. Be a lot cheaper to establish a frequent bus service to the hospital.

Yet another philistine decision by a tory government . Straight out of yes minister!

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