Gurdwaras in Oceania (Paperback)

High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! The first Sikhs to come to Oceania arrived in Australia and Fiji in the mid to late 19th and early 20th centuries. They came to both nations as labourers to work on the cane fields, although some came to Australia as cameleers, with some going to Fiji to work in the police forces. Despite their early arrival it was only in 1922 that the first Sikh gurdwara (place of worship) was built in region. The Gurdwara Sahib Samabula was located at Samabula part of the greater Suva metropolitan area in Fiji. In Australia the first gurdwara, the First Sikh Temple in Woolgoolga would be built only in 1968, the time lag due mainly to the enactment of the restrictive White Australia Policy which came into effect in 1901.