IRL, I've been doing a lot of research to connect with my historical cultural heritage, and my family history. And my father's family were 'Khsatriyah Rajputs' of one of the most successful 'Lobana/Lavana' clans); directly descended from members of the ruling class of the Ahluwalia Misl's, later the Princely State of Kapurthala's, exclaved Phagwara tehsil. My grandfather still holds significant tracts of farmland there, with our extended familial clan having also acquired and cultivated extensive tracts of land in the south-western territories of the former Sikh Empire, especially across the Dera Ghazi Khan division (facilitated partly by way of having dominated the trading and transportation of goods along the course of the river boat trade before it all had to be abandoned, got confiscated and reassigned to other people by the Pakistani government after Partition). My paternal grandmother's side, that of the Minhas family, were also pioneering trailblazers of the Sikh diaspora; having been among the most successful of all early on IOTL, establishing the town of Paldi, the first and only Sikh settlement in Canada (with Manjit Minhas, and her brother Ravinder, being third cousins once-removed of mine).
This thread, however, relates to the story which I probably would've explored an alternate outcome for, and submitted for the Alternate History Australia collection a couple of years ago, if I'd known about it at that time. Namely, a WI scenario involving the real-life historical efforts of an uncle of my grandfather, who was also purportedly one of the earliest Sikh 'pioneers of the inland', travelling from the Dera Ghazi Khan region to The Kimberley of NW Australia in the mid to late 1880's to join the gold rush at Hall's Creek; from whence he directly sourced the gold for a set of solid 24ct gold karas (the most valuable belongings I have since they came into my possession a year and a half ago, one of which I'm wearing instead of a stainless steel one on account of my being allergic to stainless steel, with their collective scrap metal value currently estimated at c.£20k). Apparently, whilst he arrived in Wyndham in late 1886, as the gold rush itself was petering out, he still decided to settle there for several years, and after managing to successfully acquire some land, was supposed to have started the first decent-sized farming venture in the region.
On it, he implemented Rod-Kohi or 'hill torrent' cultivation to properly harness the 'Bugapani' (seasonal monsoon floodwaters) which were available there, in much the same manner as back in Rajanpur. And its location (in the Gulf Basin region of the lower Ord River, along the border with the Northern Territory) appears to have actually been acknowledged and well known enough to have still been recorded for posterity, and marked down on this historical map of Western Australia, about 15-20yrs later. Though its name on this map, of 'N*gger Hill', should serve as a good illustration of the other nearby European settlers' (who would have presumably been the Duracks, with his own homestead having been situated directly between their Argyle Downs and Ivanhoe Stations- and of whom he had nothing good to say, particularly regarding their treatment of the Aborigines, whatever they themselves might have had to say about it), and Western Australian government's, attitudes towards him and his brief legacy.
Though it could also have been a reflection of his venture's legacy; apparently, he'd established extremely good relations with the local Aboriginal community, employing exclusively from them (as all the agricultural employers in the region did at that time), but offering them reasonable pay (rather than forcing them to work as unpaid indentured laborers at gunpoint, and only providing them with food rations for their labor, like the Duracks were documented to have still been doing up until the late 1960's), and allowing them to build their own houses and live on his estate (most likely adopting a Lambardar-type system, akin to that which would've been familiar to him back in the Punjab). He claimed that, down in Australia, he'd been a Raja in all but name; and it was also heavily implied that he'd had intimate relations with Aborigine women during his time there.
However, he had bigger plans to expand his holdings there, and (presumably wanting to stick it to and outcompete the Duracks) wanted to get in on the pastoralist market himself too. And just after the turn of the century, he decided to travel back to the Punjab, to see his family and share some of his wealth with them (/show off how well he'd done for himself on his own), and accepted their wishes for him to get married in a proper ceremony to a properly selected wife, at around the turn of the century. And he stayed for a year or so, to encourage others from the wider community to travel back to Australia with him and his newly-wed wife, as well as to purchase a sizable herd of dairy cattle (cows and buffaloes), goats and sheep from the wider Punjab region, and try to make the arrangement to get them shipped to Wyndham. And he'd already sourced the seeds to plant and cultivate a bunch of crops from the Punjab (having previously had to make do with crops sourced from the Europeans, along with the native millet and sorghum varieties native to the top end, lending far lower- but still half-decent- yields than the Indian cultivars would have),
But before he returned to Australia, during the time he'd been away, the White Australia Policy, and Immigration Restriction Policy of 1901, had been passed. Since he hadn't been in Australia at the time, even though he had been a resident in Australia before 1900, he still ouldn't apply for a Certificate of Exemption from the Dictation Test (since it could only be applied for before leaving Australia, from within Australia itself). And in part due to lacking a CEDT (attempting to return regardless, only to be stopped and demanded to take the Dictation Test, and failing it), as well as being prohibited from bringing his wife or any other families members with him, he was forced to give up on all his hard work and effort in the Kimberley, and settle for the Chenab Canal Colony instead (where other members of our family had been among the foremost yeoman and capitalist grantees in the Chenab Canal Colony, in the vicinity of Faisalabad)- though he purportedly said that there was no comparison, with the soil quality and water availability in Australia (i.e, the Ord River Valley) having been far superior to those of the Punjab (in the Chenab Canal Colony).
And ultimately, IOTL, all his efforts would ultimately be wiped out with barely a trace later on, with the plot of land he'd once owned first being offered (along with the wider tract of land still inhabited by those Aborigines who'd formerly worked with him) by the pastoral firm of Michael Durack in Australia to the Freeland League in the proposal for the Kimberley Plan, before it was ultimately decided to go ahead with the Ord River Irrigation Scheme, with his 'Parhar Station' (or, in the apparent words of the Duracks, 'N*gger Hill') today lying beneath the waves of Lake Argyle. But it could have been so different, and come to so much more. So then, let's say than in another TL, my great-great uncle had made the journey to British India (mostly areas of present-day Pakistan) and returned back to his land holdings along the Ord River a couple of years earlier than he did IOTL, and that as such, he'd actually been able to bring all of the cultivars and livestock along with him that he'd sourced and made the preparations to bring there with him IOTL, before the White Australia policy came into effect. What do you think could've plausibly been the best-case scenario, regarding his fortunes in Australia? And just how much of an impact do you feel that his continued efforts could've had, on the course of Australian history?
This thread, however, relates to the story which I probably would've explored an alternate outcome for, and submitted for the Alternate History Australia collection a couple of years ago, if I'd known about it at that time. Namely, a WI scenario involving the real-life historical efforts of an uncle of my grandfather, who was also purportedly one of the earliest Sikh 'pioneers of the inland', travelling from the Dera Ghazi Khan region to The Kimberley of NW Australia in the mid to late 1880's to join the gold rush at Hall's Creek; from whence he directly sourced the gold for a set of solid 24ct gold karas (the most valuable belongings I have since they came into my possession a year and a half ago, one of which I'm wearing instead of a stainless steel one on account of my being allergic to stainless steel, with their collective scrap metal value currently estimated at c.£20k). Apparently, whilst he arrived in Wyndham in late 1886, as the gold rush itself was petering out, he still decided to settle there for several years, and after managing to successfully acquire some land, was supposed to have started the first decent-sized farming venture in the region.
On it, he implemented Rod-Kohi or 'hill torrent' cultivation to properly harness the 'Bugapani' (seasonal monsoon floodwaters) which were available there, in much the same manner as back in Rajanpur. And its location (in the Gulf Basin region of the lower Ord River, along the border with the Northern Territory) appears to have actually been acknowledged and well known enough to have still been recorded for posterity, and marked down on this historical map of Western Australia, about 15-20yrs later. Though its name on this map, of 'N*gger Hill', should serve as a good illustration of the other nearby European settlers' (who would have presumably been the Duracks, with his own homestead having been situated directly between their Argyle Downs and Ivanhoe Stations- and of whom he had nothing good to say, particularly regarding their treatment of the Aborigines, whatever they themselves might have had to say about it), and Western Australian government's, attitudes towards him and his brief legacy.
Though it could also have been a reflection of his venture's legacy; apparently, he'd established extremely good relations with the local Aboriginal community, employing exclusively from them (as all the agricultural employers in the region did at that time), but offering them reasonable pay (rather than forcing them to work as unpaid indentured laborers at gunpoint, and only providing them with food rations for their labor, like the Duracks were documented to have still been doing up until the late 1960's), and allowing them to build their own houses and live on his estate (most likely adopting a Lambardar-type system, akin to that which would've been familiar to him back in the Punjab). He claimed that, down in Australia, he'd been a Raja in all but name; and it was also heavily implied that he'd had intimate relations with Aborigine women during his time there.
However, he had bigger plans to expand his holdings there, and (presumably wanting to stick it to and outcompete the Duracks) wanted to get in on the pastoralist market himself too. And just after the turn of the century, he decided to travel back to the Punjab, to see his family and share some of his wealth with them (/show off how well he'd done for himself on his own), and accepted their wishes for him to get married in a proper ceremony to a properly selected wife, at around the turn of the century. And he stayed for a year or so, to encourage others from the wider community to travel back to Australia with him and his newly-wed wife, as well as to purchase a sizable herd of dairy cattle (cows and buffaloes), goats and sheep from the wider Punjab region, and try to make the arrangement to get them shipped to Wyndham. And he'd already sourced the seeds to plant and cultivate a bunch of crops from the Punjab (having previously had to make do with crops sourced from the Europeans, along with the native millet and sorghum varieties native to the top end, lending far lower- but still half-decent- yields than the Indian cultivars would have),
But before he returned to Australia, during the time he'd been away, the White Australia Policy, and Immigration Restriction Policy of 1901, had been passed. Since he hadn't been in Australia at the time, even though he had been a resident in Australia before 1900, he still ouldn't apply for a Certificate of Exemption from the Dictation Test (since it could only be applied for before leaving Australia, from within Australia itself). And in part due to lacking a CEDT (attempting to return regardless, only to be stopped and demanded to take the Dictation Test, and failing it), as well as being prohibited from bringing his wife or any other families members with him, he was forced to give up on all his hard work and effort in the Kimberley, and settle for the Chenab Canal Colony instead (where other members of our family had been among the foremost yeoman and capitalist grantees in the Chenab Canal Colony, in the vicinity of Faisalabad)- though he purportedly said that there was no comparison, with the soil quality and water availability in Australia (i.e, the Ord River Valley) having been far superior to those of the Punjab (in the Chenab Canal Colony).
And ultimately, IOTL, all his efforts would ultimately be wiped out with barely a trace later on, with the plot of land he'd once owned first being offered (along with the wider tract of land still inhabited by those Aborigines who'd formerly worked with him) by the pastoral firm of Michael Durack in Australia to the Freeland League in the proposal for the Kimberley Plan, before it was ultimately decided to go ahead with the Ord River Irrigation Scheme, with his 'Parhar Station' (or, in the apparent words of the Duracks, 'N*gger Hill') today lying beneath the waves of Lake Argyle. But it could have been so different, and come to so much more. So then, let's say than in another TL, my great-great uncle had made the journey to British India (mostly areas of present-day Pakistan) and returned back to his land holdings along the Ord River a couple of years earlier than he did IOTL, and that as such, he'd actually been able to bring all of the cultivars and livestock along with him that he'd sourced and made the preparations to bring there with him IOTL, before the White Australia policy came into effect. What do you think could've plausibly been the best-case scenario, regarding his fortunes in Australia? And just how much of an impact do you feel that his continued efforts could've had, on the course of Australian history?