Stories of early Muslim settlers in Australia are closely bound up with the history of the nation itself, according to a new online biographical feature launched at the National Archives of Australia today.

‘Muslims were visiting Australia long before white settlement. By the 1700s Macassans from Indonesia were sailing our northern shores, fishing for trepang and trading for pearls with the local Aboriginal people,’ says Ross Gibbs, Director-General of the National Archives.

However, the first Muslims to settle in Australia arrived as camel drivers in the mid-1800s. Generally known as ‘Afghans’, they came from India as well as Afghanistan.

Using hundreds of records from its collection, the National Archives has compiled a broad-ranging collective biography which provides a glimpse into the times, the challenges early Muslims faced and the enormous contribution they made to the nation.

The 100-page feature Uncommon Lives: Muslim Journeys website, which was produced with support from the Department of Immigration and Citizenship, was launched by Senator Gary Humphries today.

‘The site features a range of stories that reveal the human face of Muslims in Australia,’ said Mr Gibbs. 

Award-winning author Hanifa Deen whose Muslim grandfathers both came to Australia as hawkers from India in the 1890s, was a guest speaker at the launch and at a public lecture in the evening.  In conjunction with National Archives staff, Ms Deen played a key role in researching and writing Muslim Journeys. Using letters, photographs, government applications, court transcripts and other records held by the National Archives, she uncovered a ‘goldmine’ of material and ‘a cast of Muslim characters’.

They include Afghan Mahomet Allum who arrived in Australia as a young man in the 1880s. He weathered the challenges of working on the land and eventually went on to gain great admiration as a herbalist and philanthropist.

Mahomet Allum started out as a cameleer on the Western Australian goldfields, tried his hand at mining and eventually settled in Adelaide as a herbalist. While he initially attracted the condemnation of the medical profession, by 1935 he claimed 30,000 satisfied patients and had become a rich man. He chose to share his wealth, treating the poor for free and supporting worthy causes.

When Mahomet Allum died in 1964, a mile-long procession followed his funeral entourage from the mosque to the Centennial Park cemetery in Adelaide.

Other online stories include Sumatran-born pearl diver Samsudin bin Katib who was recruited as a commando in Australia’s ‘Z’ special unit during World War II and served behind enemy lines. Kosova-born Albanian Assim Ethemi provides another aspect of Muslims in Australia. He arrived as a displaced person in 1949 after spending five years in refugee camps.

Attending the launch as a ‘living archive’ was Ibrahim Dellal, a Turkish Cypriot who arrived in Australia in 1950 at the age of 18 and who became known and loved as a community leader and philanthropist. His cheerful enthusiasm helped establish mosques, Turkish schools, newspapers and community organisations.

‘As a nation we owe a great deal to our Muslim settlers,’ said Ross Gibbs. ‘It was their skills that enabled inland exploration of Australia, the establishment of the Western Australian goldfields and the expansion of the country’s manufacturing industry.’

‘In 1860 two Muslim camel drivers arrived in Melbourne to join the Burke and Wills expedition. Between the late 1880s and the 1920s the number of cameleers in Australia was estimated at somewhere between 2000 and 6000.’

In the late nineteenth century, Malay Muslims were brought to Australia as divers and crewmen for the pearlshell industry in Broome, Darwin and Thursday Island.

By the 1920s and 1930s Muslims from Albania had settled in Australia, taking on back-breaking jobs such as land clearing and cane cutting in rural areas. In the late 1940s Turkish-Cypriot Muslims first settled in Australia. They were able to support later immigrants from Turkey who arrived in 1968 to meet Australia’s growing need for more workers in its manufacturing industries.

As a result of the civil war in Lebanon in 1975, many Lebanese Muslims arrived in Australia. In Melbourne, through the efforts of Sheikh Fehmi, who also features on the website, the Lebanese were well represented in the early Islamic Society of Victoria and in the Australian Federation of Islamic Councils. Sheikh Fehmi is the current Mufti of Australia and Australia’s longest-serving imam.

‘The rich heritage of Muslim immigrants to Australia is sometimes forgotten,’ said Mr Gibbs.  ‘I am proud that the National Archives of Australia, working with the Department of Immigration and Citizenship, has captured some fascinating aspects of the Muslim community’s contribution to our nation over more than 100 years.’

Muslim Journeys can be seen at uncommonlives.naa.gov.au.