Sydney’s sugar rush: how the colony’s most powerful profited from Australia’s slave trade
News Source
•Sun, 09 Aug 2026 15:00:18 GMT
📰 What Happened
A new book called ‘Blackbirding, A reckoning with the Australian slave trade’ shows how some of Sydney’s most powerful people profited from slavery. Author Ryan Butta traces how the colony’s elite made money from the capture and sale of Pacific Islanders, known as blackbirding. Between 1860 and 1906, up to 62,000 Pacific Islanders were shipped to Australia to work mainly in the sugar industry.
Emelda Davis, a descendant of blackbirded South Sea Islanders, wrote the foreword. She says Australia has often tried to believe its history is untainted by slavery, unlike Britain and the US. But she argues the evidence of the Australian slave trade hides in plain sight.
🔍 The Backstory
Blackbirding was a form of forced labour. The term comes from the African slave trade and describes the capture and sale of Pacific people. Many Australians have dismissed it as a small event that only happened in part of Queensland to do with sugar cane, but the book says the country has no idea how big it was.
The book’s release was timed with a landmark 2026 deal between Australia and Vanuatu, in which Australia formally acknowledged the legacies of blackbirding for the first time. It is part of a growing effort to face a part of national history that has long been hidden.
🎯 Why It Matters
This history matters because it changes how Australia sees itself. Knowing that slavery also happened here helps people think about fairness and about communities whose stories schools and museums left out.
A new book called ‘Blackbirding, A reckoning with the Australian slave trade’ shows how some of Sydney’s most powerful people profited from slavery. Author Ryan Butta traces how the colony’s elite made money from the capture and sale of Pacific Islanders, known as blackbirding. Between 1860 and 1906, up to 62,000 Pacific Islanders were shipped to Australia to work mainly in the sugar industry.
Emelda Davis, a descendant of blackbirded South Sea Islanders, wrote the foreword. She says Australia has often tried to believe its history is untainted by slavery, unlike Britain and the US. But she argues the evidence of the Australian slave trade hides in plain sight.
Blackbirding was a form of forced labour. The term comes from the African slave trade and describes the capture and sale of Pacific people. Many Australians have dismissed it as a small event that only happened in part of Queensland to do with sugar cane, but the book says the country has no idea how big it was.
The book’s release was timed with a landmark 2026 deal between Australia and Vanuatu, in which Australia formally acknowledged the legacies of blackbirding for the first time. It is part of a growing effort to face a part of national history that has long been hidden.
This history matters because it changes how Australia sees itself. Knowing that slavery also happened here helps people think about fairness and about communities whose stories schools and museums left out.