Australia-Banaba Relations: the price of shaping a nation
By Stacey King
The prosperity of Australia during the past century was provided by the wealth generated from the nation’s farmlands. One of the major components of this success depended on the subsided use of super-phosphate fertilisers derived from the rich phosphate rock deposits of a small remote Pacific island.
In a period spanning eighty years, Australia was a major shareholder in a joint commercial venture with the governments of the United Kingdom and New Zealand to mine Banaba-Ocean Island. Now only twenty-five years later these historical links seem all but forgotten.
The Banabans call on the Australian government to finally address these issues and recognise their major contribution in shaping Australian history and agricultural industry during the 20th Century.
Adapted from Conference Paper: The Pacific in Australia 2006
This paper was presented at The Pacific in Australia - Australia in the Pacific conference QUT, Carseldine campus, Brisbane, Australia 24 to 27 January 2006 - The Pacific and Australia - Australia in the Pacific; Humanities research - History.
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