 Immigration to Australia and Queensland in particular began in the 1850s to support the state economy.During the period from the 1860s until the early 20th century, many labourers, known at the time as Kanakas, were brought to Queensland from neighbouring Pacific Island nations to work in the state's sugar cane fields.Some of these people had been kidnapped under a process known as blackbirding or press ganging, and their employment conditions constituted an allegedly-explotative form of indentured labour.