Northwest Adaptations

Abstract

Settlement of the northwest initiated a rapid process of learning which quickly affected the expectations of later colonists and forced changes to the land use and social systems the setters had brought to the northwest including the incorporation of indigenous Australians as shepherds, laborers, and domestic servants. High freight rates marginalized southwest staples brought to the northwest and a search for viable staples resulted in the founding of a lucrative pearlshell industry, known as pearling, supplying the British button making industry.

This industry utilized indigenous Australian and Asian workers as pearling divers within a situation of extremely unequal master–servant relationships initiating a stream of government measures aimed at policing working conditions and collecting revenue. Pearling was an exploitive industry which led to degradation of resources and a continued move further from the initial port of Cossack and into deeper waters. This promoted the founding of new ports and a series of changes to the technology and cost of pearling which resulted in a changeover of pearling divers and pearling masters and an eventual lost of control of the industry to outside interests.