Former South Seas trader Capt Robert Towns began this dubious practice in August 1863 when he imported 67 Islanders from the Solomons, New Hebrides, Torres Strait Islands and New Guinea.

Towns put the Kanakas to work on his Logan River cotton plantation, paid them 10 or 12 shillings a month, then, after six months or a year, returned them to the islands — bringing more Kanakas back.

Capt Robert Towns, 1863 entrepreneur, brought the first New Hebrideans to Queensland for work on his cotton plantation in the Logan district. One of his skippers was accused of kidnapping. Some recruiters dispensed with niceties and simply hauled men on board.

As agriculture expanded, so did demand for cheap "coloured labour". More than 1200 Islanders were pressed into service in 1867 and 900 more during the first four months of 1868.

As profits increased, so did the abuses. Reports filtered through that some recruiters had dispensed with niceties and were simply hauling men on board. One newspaper in 1865 accused one of Towns's skippers of being "a blatant kidnapper" who used leg irons, whips and nooses.

Opposition to "blackbirding" came to a climax in 1884 when the recruiter and the bosun of the Hopeful, a Burns Philp schooner, received death sentences for murdering natives at Sanaroa and other islands.

After protests, the death sentences were commuted to life imprisonment. Four years later, after petitions, the men were released — along with the ship's master, recruiter and crew members who had been convicted on lesser charges.