The Sikhs of Woopi -- Part One

From the end of the nineteenth century guest workers were coming to Australia from The Punjab in India to work as itinerant farm labourers. An unusual sight in regional Australia, with their turbans and long beards, they did the dirtiest and most difficult jobs. This was the White Australia era and while they were tolerated because India was also part of the British Empire they were unable to join unions and were paid poorly, sleeping under bridges and in barns. In this program their children and grandchildren tell their story, one man’s father walking as a child from the Murray River up to Ballina. During the Second World War they were able to get regular work in the banana growing industry and came to settle around Woolgoolga in Northern NSW. Their Australian co-workers loved eating their curries and chapatis or “johnny cakes”.