Person: Calile (Shaheen) Malouf

Residential Address

Spouse

Story

In November 1892, Calile Shaheen Malouf, his wife Ada (nee) Trad and their two young sons arrived in Brisbane from Zahle. Slamen was three years old and Michael nine months. The family lived at Ipswich for three years and then settled in Brisbane. In 1899, Calile applied to become a British subject stating his intention to reside permanently in Queensland; his desire to buy freehold land and to provide for the future maintenance of himself and his family; and his allegiance to the British Crown as his reasons for doing so. He was 36 years old, lived with his family at Stanley Street, South Brisbane and was occupied as a general merchant and importer. In addition to the two sons who had arrived with him, his family now included two Australian-born children. It is obvious from his application Calile had decided to stay permanently in Australia.

Due to a reluctance to grant naturalization to non-Europeans even if they met the legislative criteria, his application did not progress. In February 1901, he again applied for naturalization. Now 38 years old, he still lived in South Brisbane, was a storekeeper and keen to own property in his own name. An accompanying letter from Stewart and Hemmant (Queen and Adelaide Streets, Brisbane) stated they had known Calile for five years and in their business dealings with him had ‘always found him honest, upright, straightforward, and a man to be thoroughly depended upon in every respect’. This application was stalled due to the expectation naturalization would soon be a Commonwealth government responsibility.

In March 1901, Calile made a fresh application for naturalization and respectfully requested this current application be ‘granted with as little delay as possible’. The urgency was due to the fact he was negotiating to buy free hold property in Stanley Street for £600 cash and could not get a title to the land unless he was a naturalized British subject. The application was again delayed, this time pending proof of marriage. Details of Calile’s marriage to Ada Farash Tradd at Zahle, Syria on the 13th of April 1884, noting the couple  arrived in Queensland together on the 12th of November 1892, were still together and now had five children, were provided by Abraham Malouf and Nader Keamie and witnessed by a Justice of the Peace.

This was not enough. In the absence of a Certificate of Marriage, a Statutory Declaration was required. So, Stewart and Hemmant (16 August 1901) forwarded a hand written declaration ‘signed by three of the applicant’s countrymen’ and witnessed by a Justice of the Peace. The three signatories were Abraham Malouf, Saleem Mahboop and Eli Dyer. The Declaration was not accepted as it was ‘not in the proper form’ and ‘incomplete as to details’. Consequently, on the 22nd of August 1901, Morris and Fletcher Solicitors, forwarded a Statutory Declaration by Abraham Malouf, Saleem Mahboop, Nader Keamie, Eli Dyer and Katoora Dyer providing evidence of marriage and of the couple living together since their arrival in Queensland.

Morris and Fletcher (solicitors) were told the Government now charged a fee of £10 for ‘each Certificate of Naturalization of an Asiatic Alien’ and subsequently, on the 3rd of September 1901, on behalf of their client, they forwarded a cheque for that amount. In September 1901, two years and three months after his initial application, Calile was finally granted naturalization.

When Calile died in March 1939, he had been in the drapery business in Queensland for approximately 47 years. Extremely successful, the firm he founded, Calile Malouf and Sons, epitomised a thriving family business. At the time of his death, and despite the terrible depression experienced in the 1930s, Calile Malouf and Sons were operating two large stores, a tribute to Calile’s ‘business ability and character’.

References

Queensland Times (Ipswich), 20 March 1939, p.2, viewed 24 June 2020, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article39015363; Queensland State Archives Item ID847573, Correspondence – inwards, Calile Malouf , Naturalization Application; Queensland State Archives Item ID841184, Register – naturalisations; Queensland State Archives Item ID847573, Correspondence – inwards, Calile Malouf , Naturalization Application
Telegraph (Brisbane), 20 March 1939, p.6, viewed 26 August 2020, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article184340031