Naturalisation notice, Tommy Ah Gow

Naturalisation notice

Image Courtesy of: Cairns Post, 18 January 1921, p.1.

"The 1903 Naturalization Act is also usually cited as instrumental in denying citizenship to those not welcome within a White Australia with its specific denial of naturalisation for ‘an aboriginal native of Asia, Africa, or the Islands of the Pacific’. However, this legal limitation did not last long and was removed by a 1920 reform designed to bring Australia’s naturalisation laws into line with that of the British Empire as a whole. While this change meant that it was legally possible for anyone regardless of race or nationality to apply for and be granted naturalization, it was sufficient for it to be declared ‘simply not policy’ for no one to achieve this."

Michael Williams, Australia’s Dictation Test - The test it was a crime to fail (Brill, 2021), p.117.

This change meant that legally there was no bar to people such as Tommy Ah Gow becoming naturalised as a British subject. After 34 years in Australia, aged over 60 and having fathered many children who were British subjects by birth he made the attempt. However, the White Australia policy was still in effect and like entry to Australia itself discretionary powers meant that the likely response to Tommy, as it was to a handful of others who applied for this status was: "... it is not the policy of the government to naturalise natives of Asia." [NAA: A1 1927/22167, Tommy Ah WAR]

Tommy Ah Gow's attempt at naturalisation: Cairns Post, 18 January 1921, p.1.

CEDT Tommy Ah Gow

Con Gao, Dry River Junction, Herberton: Cairns Post, 8 February 1921, p.1

For a similar case of John Booshang see:

A1 1923/6086: Booshang - https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=43108

Tommy Ah Gow

Image Courtesy of: NAA: J2483, 144/74, CEDT, Tommy Ah Gow, 1914