Appearances can be deceptive
Some points from
Muslim in Australia: A Historia Perspective by Aisha Stacey
*a map of the Sea of Java by Muhammad Ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi circa 820 CE shows Cape York Peninsula, a V shaped Gulf of Carpentaria and a curved Arnhem Land. A later map, by Abu Isak Al-Farisi Istakhari 934 CE, also includes an outline of the northern coast of Australia. Muslims appear to have been aware of the great southern land approximately 900 years before colonial settlement.
*The first evidence of Muslims in Australia comes in the 17th century from the Macassan and Bugis traders from Sulawesi, in what is now known as Indonesia. They visited the coast of northern Australia for hundreds of years prior to British colonial settlement
* Muslims residing in Australia is portrayed as a relatively new occurrence, however, at that time they WERE among the sailors, convicts and settlers arriving in Australia from all parts of the British Empire.
* The Aboriginal people in the northern part of the continent, now known as Australia, formed bonds with Muslims from Indonesia and the Malay Peninsula as early as the 1600’s. However, the first significant Muslim community in colonial Australia was that of the Afghan cameleers.
*Zachariah Matthews, in his essay on Islam in Australia, states that the journals, diaries and reports of the early European explorers speak very highly of the Afghans and their strict adherence to the religion of Islam. They write of their excellent character, reliability, stamina and life-saving skills. He asserts that many of the explorers gladly acknowledged the debt owed to their camel-handlers.
*According to Bilal Cleland, in his History of Islam in Australia, Afghan Muslims participated in all the major explorations since 1860, including the last exploration of the interior, the Madigan expedition across the Simpson Desert in 1939. Apart from these heroic achievements, the cameleers were responsible for carting supplies, mail and even water to remote settlements. They had an important role in the development of infrastructure, such as the overland telegraph line between Adelaide and Darwin and the rail link between Port Augusta and Alice Springs, which became known as the Ghan.
*Although all cameleers in Australia were known as Afghans, they actually came from many different countries including Afghanistan, the area that is now known as Pakistan, Kashmir, Egypt, Persia, and Turkey. The cameleers were culturally and linguistically different. However, they were united by the religion of Islam.
*According to research carried out by Museum Victoria, at first the cameleers sheltered in small camps but little by little, they added elements from their homelands and religion. The camps became makeshift villages with mosques and religious teachers, halal butchers, vegetable gardens and date groves. These settlements sprung up on the outer edge of outback towns such as Broken Hill, Marree, Oodnadatta, Coolgardie and Bourke. The cameleers from these Ghan towns, as they were called, developed cross-cultural alliances with Aboriginal communities; relationships were formed and intermarriages were common. Even today, there are Aboriginal people with surnames such as Mahomed, Khan and Sultan.
*The first mosque in Australia was built to meet the needs of the Afghan cameleers. It was built at Marree in northern South Australia in 1861. Many of the outback settlements often referred to as Ghan towns had at least one mosque usually constructed from corrugated iron. The settlement’s social life was centred on the mosque; it provided a focal point for the cameleers as they moved from one Ghan town to the next. The first major mosque still in use was built in Adelaide in 1890. Another was built in Broken Hill (New South Wales) in 1891.
*The Broken Hill City Council’s Migration Heritage Centre describes Abdul Wade as the most successful of all the Afghan cameleers. He arrived in Australia in 1879, and by 1893 he had moved to Bourke and began importing camels and recruiting Afghan cameleers for the recently formed Bourke Camel Carrying Company. Dost Mahomet was another prominent Afghan camel driver who worked at Broken Hill. His grave lies three kilometres from Menindee, on the road to Broken Hill. He is thought to be the first Muslim to be buried on Australian soil.
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