In this extraordinary rags to riches story, an illiterate and impoverished Maltese immigrant rises from destitution to become Queensland’s ‘Sugar King’.

A citizen of the British Empire, Paul Zammit arrives in Australia (1912) and is caught in the crossfire of racial and political hostilities, where his Arabic-sounding dialect and swarthy complexion clash with immigration law designed to keep Australia ‘British and white’.

Undertaking an epic journey on foot from Sydney, he secures a convincing reign over the sugar industry of North Queensland. As hard-working pioneers of Bartle Frere, he and his Maltese wife Pauline endure crippling privations and discrimination in pursuit of acceptance and the right to belong.

Raising ten talented children, the family’s musical concerts benefit welfare, migrants, war-time patriotic clubs, the community and Zammit’s ‘eleventh child’, the Roman Catholic Church. Calamitous setbacks with polio and alleged tax evasion contrast starkly with gold mining, a 10-month world tour, King George VI’s coronation, and the Vatican’s conferral of the first Benemerenti Medal in Queensland.
Holding firm to a vision of progress, Paul and Pauline Zammit espouse traditional Maltese values in parallel with fervent loyalty to their new homeland of Australia.

Celebrate our multicultural history and discover the Zammit legacy with author Catherine Smith.