Leprosy, Labour and the ‘low Wage Line’

Abstract

The Aboriginal pastoral workers’ strike of 1946–49 and the subsequent establishment of Aboriginal mining cooperatives caused significant disruptions to the supply of essential Aboriginal labour to the Pilbara pastoral industry. As a result, wages and conditions for Aboriginal workers improved substantially on stations in the area affected. These effects were, however, limited by a section of Western Australia’s Native Welfare Act which, in order to prevent the spread of leprosy, prohibited Aboriginal people from travelling from north to south across the twentieth parallel. The legislation was used, I argue, to prevent the spread of industrial action among Aboriginal workers on stations north of the so-called ‘leper line’.This article has been peer-reviewed.