Natural-born subjects? Race and British subjecthood in Australia.: An article from: The Australian Journal of Politics and History

This digital document is an article from The Australian Journal of Politics and History, published by University of Queensland Press on March 1, 2005. The length of the article is 5333 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

From the author: From the time of European settlement in Australia until 1948, British subjecthood was the pre-eminent Australian citizenship classification. "Australian citizenship" was only created as a legal category in 1948, and from then until 1984 British subjecthood continued to exist, alongside Australian citizenship, as a kind of parenthetical citizenship status. This article explores the meanings and significance of British subjecthood in Australia, and considers the reasons for its eventual demise. The article argues that the advent of formal (legal) racial equality in Australia for Indigenous people and for immigrant groups (which culminated in 1975 with the passage of the Racial Discrimination Act), was one significant factor that helped to render obsolete the scenario whereby Australian citizens were deemed also to be British subjects.

Citation Details
Title: Natural-born subjects? Race and British subjecthood in Australia.
Author: John Chesterman
Publication:The Australian Journal of Politics and History (Refereed)
Date: March 1, 2005
Publisher: University of Queensland Press
Volume: 51 Issue: 1 Page: 30(10)

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