Naturalisation / Citizenship

Naturalisation / Citizenship

For most of the colonial period, and indeed until 1949, there was no such thing as Australian citizenship. All people in Australia were legally British subjects. Within the individual colonies, migrants could apply to be naturalised as British subjects, and many Chinese residents did so, especially in the early 1850s.

However, with the onset of the gold rushes, the colonies introduced new restrictions aimed specifically at Chinese migrants. Victoria and New South Wales both imposed bans on the naturalisation of Chinese people in the 1850s and 1860s. These restrictions were later rescinded in the late 1860s, partly because the British government in London had always been uneasy about racially-based exclusions and only tolerated them under strong colonial pressure.

The pattern repeated in the 1880s. Poll taxes, landing restrictions, and fresh limits on naturalisation emerged across the colonies. After 1888, almost all Chinese migrants were barred from naturalisation, with Tasmania being the sole exception for a time. After Federation in 1901, the new Commonwealth simply extended these restrictions nationwide, bringing Tasmania into line.

A notable shift came in 1920. As part of an empire-wide codification of nationality law, the formal legal ban on naturalising people from China, India, and other “non-white” countries was technically removed. In practice, however, the change reflected British imperial concerns — particularly a desire to recognise the wartime service of Indian subjects — rather than any softening of Australian racial policy. Australia continued to refuse almost all Asian applicants as a matter of administrative practice rather than explicit statute.

When Australian citizenship was finally created in 1949, the White Australia policy remained in full force. Naturalisation of non-Europeans was still rare and subject to heavy restrictions. In the early post-war years, non-European migrants were required to wait twelve years before becoming citizens — far longer than European applicants — and approvals were exceedingly limited. Only through the gradual dismantling of the White Australia policy in the late 1950s and 1960s did the naturalisation process finally become equalised.

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