Person: Abraham (Shahane) Malouf

Name:
Abraham Malouf

Occupation:
Hawker/Storekeeper/Draper

Religion:
Catholic/Orthodox

Birthplace:
Baalbec, Syria/Lebanon

Arrival In Australia:
1892

Years Lived In Brisbane:
1894-1926

Date Of Naturalization:
2/09/1903

Year Of Birth:
1856

Place Of Death:
Brisbane

Date Of Death:
3/05/1926

Residential Address

  • Type of Location: Family residence
    Address: 3 Russell Street South Brisbane

Spouse

  • Marriage Date: 1876/ 1887 and 24/08/1903
    Birthplace of spouse: Syria/Lebanon
    Heritage of spouse: Syrian/Lebanese
    Place of marriage: Zahle, Syria/Lebanon; Brisbane

Story

When Abraham Malouf left his home in Zahle in 1892, it was not for the first time. In 1880, Abraham and his wife, Amari, and their daughter, Sada moved to Alexandria in Egypt where their second child, Elias was born. They did however return to Zahle where Amari died in 1885. Abraham married Mary Ayoub in 1887 and they had two more children. In 1892, Abraham left three of his children, Elias, Malachy and George, with his wife, Mary, and he and his daughter, Sada, then 13 years old, travelled to Sydney.

A short time after landing in Sydney, Abraham and his daughter went to Toowoomba where he worked as a hawker. After a few months, they went to Ipswich to join Abraham’s brother, Calile who had travelled with them from Zahle to Australia. Jonas and Mary Malouf were also in Ipswich at this time. Abraham stayed in Ipswich for about two years working as a hawker, and then moved to Stanley Street, South Brisbane and started his own storekeeping business. As soon as he had settled in Brisbane, Abraham sent for his wife, Mary and three sons. The family continued to live at Stanley Street and their family increased by two: Najeeb (born 1896) and Mary (born 1898).
When he applied for naturalization in 1903, he was still living in Stanley Street and carrying on business as a storekeeper. He planned to settle permanently in Queensland and wanted to buy land on which to build a home for his family. The routine police report in his naturalization application described him as ‘a well-known Syrian storekeeper’.

Although Abraham was naturalized in 1903, in 1910 his name was removed from the electoral roll. As he was a native of ‘Asia Minor’, it was ruled Abraham was excluded from the right to vote. His experience illustrates how for non-Europeans naturalization did not mean full citizenship. As ‘aboriginal natives of Asia’, even naturalized Syrian/Lebanese were denied voting rights and disqualified from social services including the invalid and old-age pensions.
By 1909, the family had moved to 3 Russell Street South Brisbane and this is where Abraham lived until his death in 1926, 34 years after arriving in Australia.

 

References

NAA: A1, 1921/13034, Disabilities of Aliens & Coloured Persons in the Commonwealth and its Territories; Queensland State Archives Item ID 339564, List Showing Restrictions or Disabilities in Queensland Applicable to Aliens, 1943.

Queensland State Archives Item ID6833, Batch file, Abraham Malouf, Naturalization Application.

Telegraph (Brisbane), 8 June 1910, p. 2, viewed 15 June 2019, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article186578980