A trade known as blackbirding saw tens of thousands of islanders, sometimes forcibly taken, work in the agricultural industry in what are described as slave-like conditions.
Today Mackay still bears the name of one of the labour traders, and has the largest South Sea Islander population in Australia.
Cutting sugar cane the traditional way, by hand with a knife, is backbreaking work and was once done in Queensland by exploited foreign workers.
Former cane-cutter and retired boxer Doug Mooney is demonstrating how it was done in fields near Mackay.
"You have to look after yourself, keep your body fit. That's why I went professional boxer, it was way easier than this."
Doug Mooney is a descendant of South Sea island indentured labourers.
Tens of thousands of islanders were transported, sometimes forcibly, from Vanuatu, Solomon Islands and New Caledonia to the then-colony of Queensland.
Mackay Regional Council mayor Greg Williamson knows the story of what was called 'Blackbirding' well.
"They've a tremendous work ethic and are tremendous contributors to our society. 150 years since the Primadonna sailed up the Pioneer River and 67 souls got off here in Mackay, it was the start of a slave trade, in was called indentured labour and the kanaka trade, an awful name now, but that's what really built the sugar cane industry."
The city was named after the region's pioneer, a Scottish-born seafarer called captain John Mackay.
"Well correct, he had his finger in all of this as well. Look you have to view history in the context of time and the context of the time was very much the colonialists, the people who were opening up the land, and that is of conjecture as well, the people who were driving European settlement, that's what they did in those days.
Of the 50-60,000 South Sea Islanders who came to Queensland, about a quarter died and were buried in graves along the Queensland coast.
Many are unmarked and largely forgotten until now - like a few rows down the far end of the Mackay cemetery.
"Sam Toby Malo" is a name long unspoken.
Marion Healey and her daughter, Imogen, are from the prominent Fatnowna South Sea Islander family.
Researching their family's past, they discovered a few graves at the Mackay cemetery that led to the rediscovery of a forgotten community history.
"So these are 114 unmarked graves located in the 'Others' section, formerly known as the 'Heathen' section of the Mackay cemetery."
University graduate Imogen Healey has been leading the archival researching about the graves.
Most have now been identified as South Sea islander and will be soon be marked with headstones.
"It opens up more questions than answers. One of the big questions I keep asking myself is, why do these people's stories end here? Mmm ..."
The 50-year-long Blackbirding trade was abolished for Australian independence in 1901.
The White Australia Policy saw most South Sea Islanders deported but a few thousand managed to stay.
Marion Healey says one other thing that remained is 'Mackay'.
"How do we continue to be carrying a name like this? I think there's a time and place where we're definitely going to be asking that question. Is it fair to have a town named after a man that treated us like slaves?"
Mackay mayor Greg Williamson does not agree.
"I don't think so. I don't think we'll go there, go changing the name of Mackay."
As a first step, the South Sea Islanders buried in the Mackay Cemetery will soon have their names back.
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