The ages of travelers recorded in the data, falls largely between the ages of thirty and fifty, with a small number of outliers on either side. We can see from the numbers that most of those travelling in and out of Australia at the time were adults, mostly of middle age. We know from the records that many had families ‘back home’ in their countries of origin. The predominantly male travelers were returning to wives and children across the seas, either to visit, or see to the livelihood of their relatives.
From the 284 data sets obtained, it was found that the most represented nationality, requiring an exemption document was Chinese, at 88% of all the travelers. The remainder was 9.8% Indian and 1.1% Syrian. The other, at 0.7% comprised of one Japanese person and one identified as Assyrian. Despite the data set reportedly recording nationality of the travelers, Assyria (an ethnic minority who have lived mostly in what is now known as Iraq for thousands of years) was not seen as a nationality or country at the beginning of the twentieth century. During the early twentieth century, this land was under control of the Ottoman Empire, and later under the control of the British after World War I. The fact that ‘Assyrian’ has been recorded as a nationality is probably an example of human error. Whoever recorded the information would not likely have known any better. It is possible that the traveler referred to themselves as ‘Assyrian’, (as they likely felt more ties to their ethnic group than to the country/nationality) the way that, for instance, an Iraqi Kurd may describe themselves as coming from Kurdistan.
References
Mantilla, Y. 2016, “ISIS’ crimes against humanity and the Assyrian people: religious totalitarianism and the protection of fundamental human rights”, ILSA Journal of International & Comparative Law, vol. 23, no. 1, pp. 77.
