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These arrivals constituted one of the first major influxes of migrants of color to Australia, after the country wholly abandoned its “White Australia policy” that had barred immigrants of non-European ethnic origins, said Anh Nguyen Austen, a historian at Australian Catholic University.

The country’s “White Australia” policy to limit non-British migration to Australia was enshrined in law in 1901 and only finally abolished in 1973.

In the 1900s, a broader range of Indians began migrating and their numbers significantly increased after the White Australia policy - a racist law that limited non-white immigration - was scrapped in 1973.

He adds that there was a "pro-British sentiment built in", particularly amid the backdrop of the White Australia policy that had formalised the restriction of non-white immigration since 1901, while enabling Brits to relocate.

Different approaches to race and migration have also complicated the trans-Tasman relationship as far back as 1901, when New Zealand declined to become Australia’s seventh state in part because of concerns about how what would become the “White Australia” policy would apply to its Polynesian or Indigenous Maori citizens, said Paul Hamer, a researcher at Victoria University of Wellington.