St Petersburg International Conference of Afghan Studies

36 Санкт-Петербургская международная конференция по афганистике Секция 1. Историография и источниковедение Афганистана... shipped from British India. They were accompanied by more than 2,000 cameleers. Camels and cameleers, carrying thousands of tons of cargo andmail, played an important role in the exploration of Australia, the laying of the Overland Telegraph Line and construction of the railway between the south and the north. The sign of recognition by the Australian authorities and the people ofAustralia of their contribution to the development of the country is a bronze monument at the Alice Springs railway station portraying an Afghan riding a camel. All cameleers were called Afghans, but not all of them were Afghans from the northwest of India andAfghanistan. Among them there were also the people of Punjab, Baluchistan, Sind, Rajasthan and even Egypt and Iran. What they had in common was their Muslim faith, hailing from the desert regions and being young and able to deal with camels. The cameleers with their camels sailed alone or in groups to Melbourne or Sydney from the ports of western India (Bombay, Karachi, etc.). Theywere a kind of labour migrants. Many of them, leaving families in their homeland, sent them their salaries and returned to them after a three-year contract. They settled in improvised villages, separately from Europeans and the aborigines, that sprang up as they moved along to the north of the continent,. They built special quarters (Afghan or Ghantowns), where they lived in accordance with their own laws. They built primitive mosques from raw brick and used them as their community centres. The first Australian mosque was constructed in 1861 in the town of Murray (which was nicknamed “LittleAfghanistan”) in the north of SouthAustralia 1 Over time, Muslim graveyards also appeared alongside mosques. It was the Afghan cameleers who first brought Islam to Australia. Their relationship with the white population was not easy. There were conflicts with sheep farmers over pastures, waterholes and wells. Not all white people treated Muslims well. Over time, successful entrepreneurs began to appear among the Afghan immigrants. They established shipment companies and recruited cameleers in the northwest of British India. Some of them became Australian citizens, married white women, sent children to study in local schools and tried (not always successfully) to integrate into the society of whites. In the early 20 th century the era of Afghan cameleers was coming to an end. Railways and roads undermined the role of camels as means of transportation. The need for them was decreasing. There were even fewer new cameleers. They began to go home. In 1901, theAustralian Parliament adopted the “Immigration Restriction Act 1”, which banned the entry of Asians. The Afghans who lived inAustralia were obligated to pass the English language test. All those who did not have theAustralian citizenship (that was the bulk of them), left or were deported by the authorities. When they were leaving, the Afghans released their camels. They bred in huge numbers in central Australia where they had no natural enemies. Now the number of wild Australian camels is estimated at 135–750 thousand heads. The authorities and sheep farmers who believe that camels by destroying pastures, devastating watering places, breaking fences and artesian wells damage the environment and 1 Australian Bureau of Statistics. 31 October 2012. “Marree” state suburb.