Includes bibliographical references and index.

Preface -- List of Figures -- 1 As Absurd as It Is Unique -- An Introduction -- 2 Avoid Stigmatising Them by Name as Being Unfit for Civilised Life -- The Historical and Ideological Background up to 1901 -- 3 To Place Its Sufficiency beyond Doubt -- Crafting the Dictation Test 1901 - 1909 -- 4 On Account of the Elasticity Which It Permits -- Evolution of the administration of the Dictation Test -- 5 A Man Would Need to Live for Three Generations -- Chinese exceptionalism -- 6 Is the Applicant of European (White) Race or Descent? -- Defining the Desirable -- 7 The Humanity of Australia Itself Will in Time Revolt -- Passing of the Test and Fading of the Project -- 8 Heads-I-Win-Tails-You-Lose -- Has Australia Passed the Test? -- Bibliography -- Index.

The last person to 'pass' White Australia's Dictation Test did so in 1907 by submitting a watercolour entitled 'Advance Australia Fair. For the next 50 years of its existence the thereafter more carefully trained officials ensured no one ever passed again. Here is detailed how the White Australia Policy came to have a fake test of dictation at the heart of its administration. Beginning as an inspired piece of hypocrisy designed to preserve the semblance of imperial equality, in the hands of the early Commonwealth of Australia this 'education test' quickly evolved into a test it was impossible to pass.

Description based on print version record.