Fr William Bonett

Fr William Bonett (1884-1928) is a Maltese priest who worked with Maltese migrants in Sydney, Australia

Fr William Bonett is best remembered for his role in helping release Maltese migrants who found themselves involved like footballs in the political arena of the early 20th century. Their only crime was to arrive in Australia in 1916 at the height of the First World War, when local unions and interested political parties were running a hot campaign against coloured migrants who were believed to be taking the place of their soldier boys fighting in Gallipoli at the time.

Maltese of New Caledonia

The story of how these migrants were kept for several months on the Gange, the French vessel that brought them to Australia has been told several times. Briefly, the fare-paying Maltese migrants, consisting of 214 persons, coming mainly from the Island of Gozo and travelling as British subjects with a British passport, were forbidden to land in Australia and were taken to Noumea.

Historian Barry York has documented the incident: The boatload of agricultural labourers were turned away at their intended port of disembarkation, Sydney, after having failed the dictation test while their boat was offshore at Melbourne.

The method used by the Hughes' federal government was to have the test administered to the Maltese in the Dutch language. On failing the Dutch dictation test, the Maltese became prohibited immigrants, unable to disembark anywhere within the Commonwealth of Australia, and liable to six months imprisonment and deportation should they somehow make it to shore. It was rare indeed, by 1916, that such a large group - regardless of nationality - should have been excluded.

As mentioned earlier, the Immigration Act proved highly effective in deterring Asian immigrants during the first five years of its implementation. A penalty of one hundred pounds for each prohibited immigrant was imposed on the masters, agents, charterers and owners of ships that brought such persons to Australia. Thus, after a few years of harsh experience, shipping companies dissuaded persons who stood a chance of being excluded at an Australian port from proceeding with their intended voyage. The French shipping company Messageries Maritimes clearly had no idea that the Maltese on the Gange would be declared prohibited immigrants and excluded from Australia.

It was Fr William Bonett who, through his unceasing activity and personal appeals to the Prime Minister Billy Hughes and the Governor General of Australia (the Right Hon. Ronald Crawford Munro-Ferguson), eventually succeeded in obtaining permission for them to land in Sydney and settle in Australia.

Fr Lawrence E Attard writes: There is no doubt whatsoever that the intervention of Fr Bonett on behalf of his countrymen was decisive in procuring a final positive outcome however belated that was.

Sources

• Assistance from Mark Caruana, Fr Pupull Cassar from the Leichhardt parish and Fr Lawrence E Attard.
• Frank Zammit, Il-Ballata tal-Maltin ta’ New Caledonia
• A.W. Agius, Maltese Settlement in Australia II
• Lawrence E Attard, Profiles in Maltese Migration, p.99
• Dr Barry York, The Maltese of New Caledonia 1916

External link

• Malta Migration