After ‘Anglobalisation’: Anglo-German Relations in Australasia

In August 1906, a tired and hot German walked down the road from Ilfracombe train station to his new job on an outback sheep station. In a letter to his family he wrote:

For the first time I felt the truth of the slur that Australia has trees but no shade. The bundle of my worldly belongings weighed heavily on my back and the way seemed long. The only man I encountered was a Chinese who carried two baskets on a pole across his shoulders … The road seemed exceedingly monotonous to me. Soon I did not even pay any attention to the shrieking white parrots and colourful parakeets.Footnote1

Eventually ‘German Bob’ (as his co-workers would call him) found his way to the corrugated iron shearing sheds where a few days later he began work as a rouseabout. Over several months of itinerant labouring and mining work here and elsewhere, he learned first-hand about Australian workers, their living conditions and their support for the ‘White Australia’ policy.Footnote2 Notwithstanding the widespread suspicion shown towards non-British labourers (including ‘cheap Germans’), German Bob enjoyed his time working in Australia. In fact, years later he wrote that ‘the mateship I met in the places where I worked is one of my life’s finest memories’.