Our History

Fiji was ceded to Great Britain on the 10th of October 1874. Charles Gordon was the first Governor of Fiji. He brought the Colonial Sugar Refining Company of Australia to develop the Fijian Sugar Industry. First they tried the local and labour from China and Solomon Islands it was unsuccessful. Gordon who had seen the Indentured Indians work in Mauritius, Trinidad & Tobago decided to recruit and transport young Indian men, women and children to work in Fiji.

From 1879 to 1917 some 60,500 Indians were transported to Fiji as Indentured workers. Some Indentured Indians (40%) returned to India but some (60%) were retained to save the collapse of the Fijian Sugar Industry. Hence my great great grandfather(ANTU) never ever made it back to India.

Finally, when the indenture system ended, he ventured and settled on the banks of the mid upper Ba River Valley with his other Indentured mates and their extended families. They occupied large areas of mountainous and flat land. They ventured into cash crop and animal husbandry. Four generations of ANTU family still live on the same land, where ANTU is still laid to rest. Their large family house has been transformed into what is the "Outback Hotel" by one of his great great grandson, to remind us of the hard work in Fiji by his ancestors.