Bellows, Chinese

A Chinese double-acting piston bellows, made from a hollow wooden chamber—possibly a hollowed log—and used to provide a continuous air blast for a forge or furnace. Description of a similar bellow in Straits Settlement tin mine Daily Telegraph , Saturday 14 October 1893 , p. 6 .

Encomium of Taam Sui Pui by 賴際熙 (Lai Jixi, 1865–1937)

Encomium of Taam Sui Pui by 賴際熙 (Lai Jixi, 1865–1937) 仕沛仁兄先生真贊 卓哉此翁 藹然有容 其志則壯 其氣則雄 操猗頓之術 乘宗愨之風 周歷海 …

Anti-Chinese League letter

The Anti-Chinese League of NSW wrote a follow up letter to the Mayor of Sydney requesting a list of names of all property holders who let their tenements to Chinese. The reply of Mayor John Harris was a polite refusal.

Anna Kyi

Rings, Palmer River goldfields

Palmer River goldfields rings Pictured is one of a set of three gold rings reputedly given by John Ah Chin to his three sons and now in the possession of their descendants. John Ah Chin, according to his marriage certificate came to the Palmer River goldfields from Macao and was …

Cattle and equipment list, Chinese

Cattle and equipment list, Chinese Furniture and household goods 極細枱，又四張 — very small tables, another four 布二張 — two pieces/lengths of cloth 圓枱一張 — one round table 大枱四方二張 — two large square tables 小枱兩張 — two …

Land purchase, Yackandandah

Yackandandah had a strong Chinese community or miners, markets gardeners and storekeepers from its beginning as a gild ruse town until the early 20th century. Though little is known about this today. These two lists are similar but not identical.

NSW: Environment and Heritage

NSW: Environment and Heritage Environment and Heritage is part of the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water.

Gardeners hut, Louth

Louth

On the Darling River, Louth was a market town for sheep properties such as Dunlop Station. Chinese market gardeners often supplying produce for the stations as well as the town. These stations were the centre of the late 19th century shears strikes, a major component of which was the refusal …

Camp, Bendigo

Prescription, James Chung Leong Chinese Medical Herbalist

Prescription, James Chung Leong Chinese Medical Herbalist

Golden Point Camp (East Ballarat)

A major location for many Chinese miners associated with the Ballarat goldfields was the Golden Point camp now East Ballarat. Like all such "camps" it was in fcat a residential area of permanent structure and never exclusively Chinese nor the only location where Chinese people lived. The 1883 Mining lease …

Ng Clan Temple Board

Ng Clan Temple Board presented to a Joss House in 1868. It is not clear which Joss House. Central 忠義昭垂 May loyalty and righteousness shine forth and endure through the generations. Alternative: Loyalty and righteousness, made manifest and hung down through all generations Right 同治戊 …

Portrait of Sir Henry Parkes

Presentation in silk to NSW Governor, 1900

Presentation in silk to NSW Governor Earl Beauchamp, 1900 恭迎 = welcome The leading members of the Chinese community of Sydney often followed colonial practice in making presentations to the Governors. This is a beautiful example in silk preserved and presented back to NSW in 1931 after his exile due …

Register of names relating to exemption from Dictation Tests

NAA: SP726/1, BOOK 1, Register of names relating to exemption from Dictation Tests (1902-1910) The Immigration Restriction Act of 1901 set up a regime under its Dictation Test that required pre-1901 residents of Australia (if the wrong colour) to obtain a Certificate Exempting the Dictation test in …

Queensland Historical Atlas

Queensland Historical Altas has a small but interesting collection of Chinese related material, mostly images as well as some useful thematic essays.

Tableware - Quong Tart

Fujian / Amoy headstones

These headstones identify the birth place of the various men as coming from Amoy/Xiamen or that port's province of Fujian. Without other information it can be assumed that all these men came to the colonies between 1848 and 1852 under contracts. Inverell, NSW IN MEMORIAM AH MOY MAN …

Narrabri

Narrabri

Donald

Donald, Buloke Shire

Georgie's Hut, Buloke Shire

Georgie's Hut is a simple three-roomed, timber-framed, weatherboard clad hut with corrugated iron roofing and was built c.1927-28. The western room's hessian-lined ceiling has deteriorated to expose the timber trusses, which can also be seen in the central and eastern rooms. The walls …

Suitcase - Arthur Gar Lock Chang

Arthur was born in the Zhongshan village of Long Hee from which his father Chang Yet had left to earn money in Australia, sending money and periodically visiting the family. Chang Yet had returned to China in 1933 and in 1936 he arranged for Arthur, then aged 14, to also …

Centenary Medal – Arthur Gar Lock Chang

This medal was awarded to Arthur Gar Lock Chang in 2001 - "For Contribution Made to Australian Society" - and is now in the collection of the Zhongshan History Museum. How the man born Chang Gar Lock (鄭嘉樂) became Arthur Lock - subject of an extensive ASIO file - and later Arthur …

Arthur Gar Lock Chang

Oral history interview NLA

Robe Customs House Maritime Museum

Robe Customs House Maritime Museum This iconic Robe building was erected in 1863 to serve one of the busiest ports on the southern coast of Australia – for several years the customs revenue collected here was second only to Port Adelaide, and some 16,500 Chinese landed here on their way …

Letters / qiaopi (僑批) / silver letters (銀信)

Qiaopi (僑批), or "silver letters" (銀信 - yinxin), were remittance letters sent by overseas Chinese to their families in China, combining personal correspondence with the transfer of money. They formed a vital link between migrant communities abroad and their home villages. Qiaopi (僑批), often translated as "overseas Chinese …

Dictation test passage

Test passage read to Honn Sin and his attempt to write it out. His failure legally made him a prohibited immigrant and thus liable to deportation. Had he been able to write out this passage the test would have been stopped and a passage in another language substituted.

Cairns and District Chinese Association Inc. (CADCAI)

The Cairns and District Chinese Association Inc. (CADCAI) is custodian of one of the nation’s hidden treasures, the Cairns Lit Sung Goong (LSG) Temple collection. This nationally significant collection of over 240 artefacts from the Lit Sung Goong temple which operated in Cairns between 1886 and 1966 is an …

NSW Chinese restrictions certificate

The Colony of NSW reintroduced immigration restrictions in 1881 (those of the 1860s having been rescinded). These new restrictions required those wishing to leave NSW and return to pay 10 for a certificate to be shown on return. This example made out to a man named Ah See also contained …

Queensland State Archives

Queensland State Archives

Albury Chinese Mission

Albury Chinese Mission

Chinese Missions

Chinese Missions - Hay, Albury, Bathurst, Narrandera, Newcastle, Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney. These were dedicated branches of usually Protestant Christian Churches designed to convert members of the Chiense community. The often entailed English classes and separate church buildings.

Naturalization paper receipt

This paper would have been issued to any shipping passenger of Chinese (or non-white) heritage who on purchasing a ticket for Australia was claiming they would be permitted to embark on the grounds of their having been naturalised as a British subject of one of the pre-Federation colonies …

Opium reciept

The document is a license or certificate for a company, probably in Hong Kong, concerning the sale of raw tobacco or opium, dated November 26, in a specified year. The receipt was found in a collection in Albury that dated back until at least the 1920s. Transcription: [Large Header]: 粵 …

Opium receipts

The document is a license or certificate for a company, probably in Hong Kong, concerning the sale of raw tobacco or opium, dated November 26, in a specified year. The receipt was found in a collection in Albury that dated back until at least the 1920s. Transcription: [Large Header]: 粵 …

Albury Library Museum

Albury Library Museum has an interesting collection related to Chinese Australian's of Albury and the surrounding district. Its archives include a number of Chinese language documents, letters and certificates as well as clothing that were found in a brown cardboard trunk which had been stored for many years at …

Gravestone stencil

Transcription and Translation Right Column: 終於民國三十二年 Translation: Died in the 32nd Year of the Republic (1943). Center Column: 賢悼陳公坟墓 Translation: The Tomb of the Virtuous and Lamented Mr. Chen . Left Column: 新會天湖東湖里 …

Gravestone stencil

Rare example of a Gravestone stencil Gravestones throughout Australia are carved with beautiful Chinese characters providing us with the names and in many case the villages of those buried under them. How this carving was done simply involved a member of the Chinese community providing the inscription on a suitable …

Central Tablelands (NSW)

Bathurst, Hill End, Cootamundra, Ootha, Sofala, Maitland Bar, Tambaroora, Stuart Town, Mookerawa, Orange, Wellington, Young

Lee Shear

https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=8760178 https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=7473943

Jackie Tic / Jack Tick

Jack Tick was a long time resisient of the Condobolin area. He was involved in scrub cutting and skin and wool buying before settling down as a market gardener. He was involved in a number of assaults before becoming a well known and remembered figure in Condobolin. Perhaps one of …

Condobolin Cemetery

The Chinese section of Condobolin Cemetery contains 64 burials from 1883 to 1945. It has been well looked after by the local community and some wooden grave markers have survived.

Condobolin Chinatown / Camp

Condobolin Historical Society & Museum

Condobolin and District Historical Museum 35 Bathurst Street Condobolin NSW 2877 Australia (02) 6895 4018 Condobolinmuseum@gmail.com Housed in the previous Shire building and operated by the local Historical Society, with support of the Lachlan Shire Council. The Museum contains many interesting artifacts displayed throughout the building, depicting Condobolin …

Tiy Sang & Co envelope

This business envelope was typical of envelopes and letterheads of the early 20th century. Tiy Sang & Co's building still stands on the corner of Ultimo Rd and Thomas St and at the beginning of the 20th century it was a major banana importer. It was owned by the Wong …

Mandarin Club

Established in the 1960s by Zhongshan -born brothers Keith and Denis Wong, the Mandarin Club was for many years a major focus for Sydney nightlife, not least because it was one of the few venues that stayed open late. In addition to sponsoring international bands and stars, ranging from Sammy …

Cafes & Restaurants

Chinese cafés and cookery have played a role in Australian history since the Gold Rush era. While John Ahloo's establishment on the Ballarat goldfield is most well known thanks to a famous illustration it was in urban areas that the first Chinese "cook shops" became established. At first intended …

Chinese Youth League of Australia

According to the Chinese Youth League itself: The Chinese Youth League (CYL) was first established as the Sydney Chinese Youth Drama Association on 1 July 1939. It was formed by a group of patriotic Australian Chinese Youth gathering regularly in the Shanghai Cafe on Campbell Street, Sydney. Three years later …

Confession of a kidnapper

Page 1 Transcript 南海縣正堂召為：訊供、遵、解事。 咸豐五年十一月二十日。 訊據：梁五，年三十六歲，係南海縣江浦司白蕉鄉人。父、母俱歿，並 …

Confession of a kidnapper

During the so-called Arrow War (aka 2nd Opium War) British forces occupied Canton (Guangdong 廣東) in 1858 and ransacked the Yamen of Governor Yeh . In the process they purloined a large number of documents that eventually found their way into the British National Archives where they are catalogued …

George Soo Hoo Ten

The Sydney Morning Herald , Wednesday 26 September 1934, p . 18 - REV. G. SOO HOO TEN. Rev George Soo Hoo Ten (1848–1934) was a pioneering Chinese Anglican missionary who played a central role in the social and religious life of the Chinese diaspora in Australia for over thirty years. Early …

Poster, Chinese God

In a file carefully placed in a folder held in the State Library of NSW (MLDOC 258) is to be found the torn remains of a colourful poster. Half of a bearded face, along with half a face of another beside him, it can be perhaps identified as Lu Ban …

Veterans Memorial, Chinese Australians

The Chinese Australian veterans memorial, located at the north end of Dixon Street in Sydney’s Haymarket Chinatown, tells us two things of importance. Firstly, it highlights the long history of Chinese people in Australia, and secondly, it informs us that this history is about more than growing vegetables or …

Kwong War Chong

The Kwong War Chong at 84 Dixon St, Haymarket, Sydney The buildings at 82 and 84 Dixon St, Haymarket, Sydney were erected in 1910 on land purchased by local businessman Phillip Lee Chun. He then transferred his already established Kwong War Chong & Company into the 84 Dixon Street location.[1 …

Petition - Shark Bay pearlers

At the beginning of 1886 the pearl shell banks of Shark Bay, some 700 km north of Perth, were opened up and Chinese pearlers supposedly from Singapore and Hong Kong, as well as many previously working for others on the pearl luggers were active; described by one newspaper as a …

Shark Bay

Shark Bay

Ah Quan letter

Letter from his nephew to Chin Ah Quan Such letters back and forth between those in Australia and family in the village were very common. Unfortunately, the survival of such letters before the 20th century are extremely rare and this one, although undated, must have been sent before Ah Quan …

Letter to Chin Ah Quan

Found in the deceased estate of Chin Ah Quan who died in Cossack, WA in 1885 - this is one of the earliest surviving remittance related letters in Australia. The Literal Translation preserves the traditional epistolary structures, honorific spaces, and specific fiscal terminology. The Flowing Translation adapts the formal late-Qing …

Anne Atkinson

Anne Atkinson Collection

This extraordinary collection of research material was collected by Dr Anne Atkinson in the 1980s in early 1990s. It comprises nearly 10,000 pages of notes, photocopies and newspapers articles relating to Chinese Western Australians. Anne made the collection while she was working at Murdoch University and the collection was …

Observers - Jimmy the Pat

Jimmy the Pat Characters of Chinese heritage appear in many works of Australian literature, all too often as cooks or gardeners with little personality and less background. They serve, like Ah Wong (see above), as stereotypes rather than character studies. There are many reasons for this ranging from the very …

Ah Wong - a story

Ah Wong meets Mary Poppins Unsurprisingly Chinese Australian characters pop up from time to time in 20th century Australian literature and just as unsurprisingly these are usually stock characters – a cook, a miner, a gambler or a gardener, but rarely a father, husband or son and even less likely a …

Opera performance illustrated

Chinese Opera is one of those cultural forms that is both deeply embedded in its culture and generally perceived by outsiders as a most exotic and relatively inaccessible representation of that culture. Yet for well over 50 years ‘Chinese Opera’ (or ‘Pear Garden’ or ‘Great Drama’ as it was known …

Observations - non-Chinese

Observations - non-Chinese For much of our evidence on Chinese Australian history – especially in the 19th century – reliance is necessarily on European observers and European records. A great deal of this material is patronising at best, and stereotypical or even plain made up at worst. In general, such observation pieces …

Observation - goldfields

Amazing the yokels of Bathurst Much of the history of Chinese Australia seems to be about hostility and racism, or attempts to subvert and overcome these negatives. Yet at an early point in this contested history Chinese people were seen as simply “exotic” arrivals from a foreign land. Before the …

My Chinese

“My Chinese” by Margaret Egerton This fictionalised account of a European Australian woman’s interactions with a group of Chinese Australians in the late 19th century was one of my first discoveries as I began researching Chinese Australian history in the late 20th century. [1] The strong likelihood of …

Rev John Young Wai

John Young Wai (1847?-1930), Presbyterian minister, was born in Canton, China, and came to the Victorian goldfields in 1867. After spending three years mining with no particular success, he devoted his life to the Presbyterian Church. See Australian Dictionary of Biography - John Young Wai (1847–1930)

Vivian Yung Chow

The author, Vivian Yung Chow, was born and raised in Lismore, NSW, the son of a local businessman who had migrated from southern China and settled in the district. Vivian spent some years in Sydney in association with other local writers, contributing to a Sydney literary journal, Readers and Writers …

Neville Jones

The Chinese Question in Australia

The Chinese Question in Australia The presence of people from China in the Australian colonies was nearly always contested by those who arrived from, or were the descendants of those arrivals, from Britain. During the 1850s and 1860s this was particularly the case, as people competed for the lottery that …

Judith Hickson

Nick Hadnutt

Letter to Tet Fong

Underpinning the sojourning enterprise that was central to Chinese Australian history for many generations was the sending of remittances. While with each remittance went always a letter. Yet relatively few of these letters have survived, and even fewer still are those letters from the recipients back to those who were …

Poem, Quarantine Station Sydney

Sydney’s North Head Quarantine Station operated from the 1830s until 1984. During this period, passengers and crew from ships suspected of carrying contagious diseases were required to spend days, weeks, and sometimes months in isolation there. Many of these passengers and crew were Chinese and, like others confined at …

Stanley Hunt

Stanley Hunt tells his story in From Shekki to Sydney: An Autobiography (wild peony, 2010). Born in a south China village to a family with strong links to Australia and schooled in the county capital of Shekki, Stanley came to Australia at a young age and established his life here …

Cooktown Museum

Cooktown Museum - a general local museum with a range of Chinese Australian related aritfacts.

Cooktown History Centre

The Cooktown History Centre, run by the Cooktown & District Historical Society Volunteers, offers a unique insight into the intriguing history of the area with stories. https://www.cooktownhistory.org.au/

Memorial, Cooktown Cemetery

Middle: three large red characters are 敬如在 ( Jìng rú zài ). They are written in seal script which is a highly stylised script used for religious and other formal purposes. Translation "Reverently [worship] as if [they] were present." Right Side: 光緒十三年歲次丁亥 …

Memorial, Cooktown Cemetery

Memorial, Cooktown Cemetery Erected in 1887 as a general memorial to the deceased of the Chinese community. The main inscription is in seal script and reads - 敬如在 - "Reverently [worship] as if [they] were present."

Archive collections

Many archives around Australia have collections directly related to Chinese Australian history. All State Archives National Archives - sites in all capitals Noel Butlin Archive - AAC Archives, BArry McGowan UNE Archives - Golden Threads ANU Archives

Mu Zhang

Burning tower, Maldon

Burning tower, Maldon "In 1853, Henry and John South, brothers of Joseph, emigrated to Australia and settled in Maldon, a gold rush town, in central Victoria. John turned his hand to brickmaking and bricklaying. The gold rush had attracted a significant Chinese population and John constructed an ornamental brick oven …

Maldon

Maldon

Burning tower, Echuca

Burning tower, Echuca

Echuca

Echuca

Burning towers, Cooktown

Burning towers, Cooktown Image from QWE

Burning pit, Darwin Chinese Cemetery

Burning pit, Darwin Chinese Cemetery In a unique variation on the usual burning tower is this pit: "There is a Chinese funerary burner in the middle of this cemetery. Some bricks of the funerary burner are tied up together with a thin piece of metal to make sure the bricks …

Burning tower, Condobolin

Burning tower, Condobolin

Burning tower, Tumut

Burning tower, Tumut

Burning tower, Castlemaine

Burning tower, Castlemaine

Burning tower, Maryborough

Burning tower, Maryborough

Burning tower, Dunolly

Burning tower, Dunolly

Dunolly

Dunolly

Burning tower, Ballarat New Cemetery

Burning tower, Ballarat New Cemetery

Burning tower, Melbourne General Cemetery

Burning tower, Melbourne General Cemetery

Burning tower, Bendigo

Burning tower, Bendigo (aka White Hills) Great to see a burning tower being used still.

Avoca and District Historical Society

The Avoca and District Historical Society is dedicated to preserving, collecting and researching the history of Avoca, Victoria, and the surrounding district.

Anne Young

Burning tower, Avoca

The burning tower at Avoca is one of the few for which we have a date of construction - 1880 - and a direct line between a fire at the cemetery and an order from a local magistrate that such a method be constructed. As a result the following year the burning …

Chinese language newspapers, Trove

Chinese language newspapers on Trove Chinese Times (Melbourne, VIC.:1902-1922) Chinese Republic Times (Sydney, NSW.:1914-1937) Tung Wah Times (Sydney, NSW.: 1901-1936) Tung Wah News (Sydney, NSW.:1898-1902) Index to the Tung Wah Newspaper

Kevin Rains

Sandi Robb

Kaylene Poon

Num Pon Soon building

Num Pon Soon District Society headquarters, Melbourne The Num Pon Soon building was erected in 1860-61 by Lowe Kong Meng , merchant and a prominent member of Melbourne's Chinese community. The building served as a club house for the Sam-Yup Society, providing accommodation and support for Chinese immigrants …

Ah Ming's Store & Residence

Below the Ah Ming store is now a restaurant while above is the Ah Ming store collection

Georgetown

Georgetown

Herberton

Herberton

Ely Finch

Sophie Loy-Wilson

Mei-fen Kuo

Chinese Heritage in Northern Australia Incorporated (CHINA Inc.)

Chinese Heritage in Northern Australia Incorporated (CHINA Inc.)

Gordon Grimwade

Janis Wilton

Kate Bagnall

Chinese Australian Family Historians of Victoria

Chinese Australian Family Historians of Victoria - CAFHOV Statement of Purpose 1. To provide a forum for Chinese Australian family historians and established researchers of Chinese Australia as well as post-graduate students and academics undertaking research into aspects of Chinese Australian history and culture. Each member principally works on a …

Sophie Couchman

Golden Point Joss House Panel

Central Inscription The four large characters, read from right to left, are: 澤及高陽 Literal Translation: "Favors (or blessings) reaching the high sun." Contextual Translation: "Blessings reach the Gao Yang lineage" Cultural Context: This is a poetic expression of gratitude. It signifies that the benevolence or blessings received …

Wall hanging, Charles William White Esq

Wall hanging, Charles William White Esq Presented to Charles William White Esq, Manager of the London Bank Australia Limited, Swanston Street Branch, Melbourne by the shareholders of the Wooragee Gold Mining & Dredging Coy No Liability [picture] : in recognition of his assistance & advice during the formation of the Coy & the kindness …

Yet Sing Laundry

Yet Sing Laundry

Museum of Chinese Australian History

Museum of Chinese Australian History Our mission is to enrich the understanding of Chinese Australians through the presentation and celebration of our history, heritage, and culture.

Australian Centre for Gold Rush Collections

The Australian Centre for Gold Rush Collections is Sovereign Hill's research, collections and storage facility in Ballarat. It occupies the former Gold Museum building at 383 Bradshaw Street, Golden Point , adjacent to Sovereign Hill. Unlike a conventional museum with permanent displays, it is a collections centre . Its purpose is …

Temple Board, Golden Point

The main inscription, read right to left , is: 氣 挾 風雲 Translation: “ A spirit that commands the winds and clouds. ” Side inscriptions (marginal text) Right-hand vertical inscription (date): 同治七年歲次戊辰季冬吉日 Translation: “An auspicious day in the last winter …

Armidale

Armidale

Chinese Community Association of Tasmania

Established in 1969, the CCAT is a dynamic organisation vested in the local, educational, and ancestral interests of its members. Through partnerships with similar organisations and participation in major events, CCAT fosters socia l cohesion and cross-cultural understanding. The CCAT hosts a wide range of festivals, public events and …

Wah Shing Laundry, Hobart

Wah Shing Laundry operated for many years in Hobart. The building is now occupied by a Chinese restaurant. Although such laundries as Wah Shing's were not numerous they nevertheless attracted occasional attacks such as a 1908 article that claimed Chinese-run laundries in Hobart were undercutting local women, particularly …

Hobart

Hobart

Aboriginals Protection and Restriction of the Sale of Opium Act, 1897

The Aboriginals Protection and Restriction of the Sale of Opium Act was not only intended to discriminate against and control Indigenous Australians but to also restrict their contact with Chinese Australians. Opium sales were only one of the restrictions with denial of permits to employ Aboriginal people being another. See …

Zhou Xiaoping

Amoy / Xiamen

Amoy / Xiamen was the port of embarkation for over 3,000 men to the Colony of NSW between 1848 and 1853. “Amoy is one of the most ancient emporiums of China, and has been famous through all the dynasties for its great trade. The harbour is indeed excellent, and the …

Chung Kok village hall inscription

Locations of overseas donor to Chung Kok village hall, 1913 花旗大埠 / San Francisco (lit., First Port of the Land of the Flowery Flag) – 25, 波咑呿埠 / Port Darwin – 24, 雪梨埠 / Sydney – 63, 西澳洲埠 / West Australia – 13, 咩喱彬埠 …

Regions in Chinese Australian history

Regions in Chinese Australian history To date, over 185 individual places have been mapped on Scattered Legacy. For the purposes of this database the major cities have been designated as their own regions and separate suburbs or locations within these urban areas are ignored. Outside of these, 25 regions have …

The Chinese Question

The Chinese question, or, Yellow agony by Robert Shapland, Adelaide 1880 This document can be read at the National Library of Australia

Tao Yu

Lowe Kong Meng

Lowe Kong Meng (1831-1888), merchant and Chinese community leader, was born as a British subject in Penang, son of Lowe A Quee, merchant, and his wife Chew Tay. His forbears were natives of Sze Yap near Canton. He was educated at a high school in Penang and at 16 …

Soccer team, Darwin

打連義僑運動會足球隊 (Read from right to left as a traditional banner): 隊球足會動運僑義連打 Darwin Chinese Athletic Association Football Team

Eddie Quong

Eddie Quong (1925–2006) was born in Pine Creek in the Northern Territory, one of thirteen children in a family with deep roots in the Territory’s Chinese community. Shortly after his birth the family moved to Darwin, where they worked a market garden in Parap, before relocating to Queensland …

Chinese Mission Church, Newcastle

Built around 1905 by the Presbyterian Church of NSW the Mission Hall was where members of the Chinese community of Newcastle could learn to read and write English and hold Christian Church services. The first and only Newcastle pastor, the Rev. Kem Yee, conducted services and lessons for many years …

James Fong Kem Yee

The Reverend Fong Kem Yee, was a long-serving Presbyterian missionary to the Chinese community. Born in "Canton" he came to Australia in 1878 initially working as a gold miner. He was baptised at St John’s Presbyterian Church, Ballarat, in 1883 and then trained for mission work. From 1888 …

Taam See Poy

Taam Sze Pui was a respected Queensland businessman who, like many others, arrived in Australia in search of gold and quickly learned how precarious that gamble could be. He recalled hearing rumours that gold had been discovered at Cooktown in inexhaustible quantities and, without verifying the claims, travelling with his …

Way Lee

Yett Soo War Way Lee immigrated to Sydney from Dongguan in 1874 and, by 1878, had established Way Lee & Co., an importing business at 145 Hindley Street in Adelaide that grew into a substantial enterprise with branches in South Australia and New South Wales. Trading in tea, fireworks, porcelain, bric …

Edward (Ned) Chong

Mr. Edward Chong operated a vegetable garden at Hookey's water hole, 4 miles southwest of Oodnadatta in the 1910s. SA State Library: Edward Chong, Oodnadatta [B 50491] • Photograph

Andrew Leon

Andrew Leon was a prominent Chinese Australian businessman and agricultural pioneer who played a significant role in the economic development of North Queensland in the late nineteenth century. Born in China, probably in Zhongshan county, Guangdong, he arrived in Queensland in the mid-1860s after gaining experience in tropical agriculture …

Hap Wah Plantation

The Hap Wah (合華) plantation, financed by local and Hong Kong Chinese, employed 60 Chinese workers and was the first in the Cairns district to produce both cotton and sugar. A commemorative plaque to the plantation and its founder Andrew Leon can be found in the Earlville Shopping Centre …

Queensland's Chinese Past

Our site explores the stories of Chinese people living and working in Queensland, before and after it separated from the colony of New South Wales in December 1859. Queensland's Chinese Past

Camp, Deniliquin

FIRE AT DENILIQUIN. CHINESE CAMP DESTROYED. DENILIQUIN, Monday. A disastrous fire broke out at the Chinese camp at 4 a.m. to-day, destroying between 20 and 30 habitations. The camp forms at the west end of the town a distinct settlement of a little village of weatherboard shanties used …

Fan Tan

Fan Tan (番攤) was a traditional Chinese gambling game widely played in Chinese camps and urban quarters in colonial Australia. It was a game of chance organised around a banker–player system and based on a simple numerical principle: counting in groups of four. Despite frequent condemnation by colonial …

Burning tower, Deniliquin

Burning tower, Deniliquin (replica?) According to Janis Wilton: "The Chinese section no longer has any grave markers. In the 1990s there was a refurbishment of the Chinese section and the erection of a memorial plaque, a replica Chinese burning tower, and markers indicating the area of the cemetery in which …

Deniliquin Cemetery

Deniliquin Cemetery Lacking any remaining grave markers, the record of burials has been used to create a list. That at least some of the burials were returned to China has been recorded (1886). Community members continued to carry out ceremonies until at least the 1930s. Source: John E. P. Bushby …

Deniliquin & District Historical Society Museum

Deniliquin & District Historical Society Museum 3 Macauley Street Deniliquin Entry Fees Entry to the museum is $5 Opening Hours Tuesday, Saturday 10:00 am to 12:00 pm Groups and special viewing by appointment Contacts 0428 359 297 Email Us - denihistorical@gmail.com

Peppin Heritage Centre Museum and Gallery

Deniliquin and District Historical Society, Deniliquin & District Historical Society Museum - MGNSW Edward River Library, has a local history section and is where the Deniliquin Genealogy Group meet weekly Local History Edward River Library (nsw.gov.au) Contacts: Val Hardman 03 5881 3980

Queensland Heritage Register

https://apps.des.qld.gov.au/heritage-register/

Holy Triad Temple, Brisbane

Holy Triad Temple, Brisbane, 1948 Top Horizontal Plaque Transcription: 三聖宮 Translation: Palace of the Three Saints Right Banner: Transcription: 聖德通千里 Translation: "The Sage’s virtue reaches a thousand li (miles)." Left Banner: Transcription: 神恩遍萬方 Translation: "Divine grace pervades ten thousand …

Ballad of Amoy

Ballard of Amoy Transcription Main Text (Right to Left): Title/Header: 墩子紅吱吱 李禧探訪 Lyrics: 墩子紅吱吱 打城倒離，番仔反， 鼓浪嶼做公館， 番仔爬上山， 城內任伊搬。 Side …

Market Garden, Deniliquin

Brewery market garden in flood. Deniliquin, late 1800s See: B. McGowan, Shoulder yokes and moon cakes: The Chinese diaspora in the riverina district of New South Wales, Australia, 1850 to the present, Published 2012 The first Chinese garden of any size was set up in the spring of 1864 by …

Deniliquin

Deniliquin Like many towns of the Riverina, Deniliquin once had a numerous population of Chinese people who worked as scrub cutters, market gardeners and ran stores. Today the main evidence is the record of numerous Chinese burials in the local cemetery - though no grave markers remain. A well preserved burning …

Ipswich Cemetery

Ipswich Cemetery, Chinese Section

Ipswich

Ipswich

Ballad, Amoy/Xiamen

Ballard of Amoy This document dates from perhaps 1900 but claims to be an oral history version of a ballad from the time of the aftermath of the British attack on Amoy during the First Opium War. Translation Title: The Fort is Glowing Red (Collected by Li Xi) The Ballad …

Watch tower letter (Letter)

Watch tower letter (Letter) Full Transcription (Original Chinese) (Note: Text is read from right to left in vertical columns. Punctuation has been added for clarity. [...] indicates characters that are illegible or inferred from context.) [Right Section: The Complaint] 吾兄得知： 昨本村為籌款 建更 …

Memorial, Weldborough Cemetery

Memorial, Weldborough Cemetery Across the top left to right 大清國 (Da Qing Guo) “The Great Qing Empire” Central vertical column 大伯公墓 “Tomb of the Great Elder Uncle (Da Bo Gong)” Many early diaspora communities built a communal grave , cenotaph , or shrine called 大伯公 …

Ashfield and District Historical Society

Ashfield and District Historical Society The Ashfield and District Historical Society (ADHS) celebrates the history and heritage of Ashfield and surrounding suburbs in Sydney’s inner west. In 2023 we celebrated the Society’s 50th anniversary. We collect and curate historical records, undertake research, publish journals and books and promote …

Gallop House, Ashfield

Quong Tart the prominent Chinese Australian merchant and well-known community member of the late 19th century lived with his wife Margaret and family at Gallop House, Ashfield.

Quong Tart

A Note on the name Mei Quong Tart Quong Tart is often referred to as Mei Quong Tart in a effort to provide his full name. However this only manages to mangle two Chinese languages in order to produce a name in English the man himself would no doubt have …

Official honours / Mandarin status

For merchants of the Chinese diaspora " ... by late Qing, purchasing rank was ‘the done thing’, the great highway to upgrading social status, as well as to creating a connection with officialdom that might advance personal affairs." James W. Hayes, Purchase of Degrees, Rank, and Appointment in Late Qing China: Some …

Powerhouse Museum

Powerhouse Museum has a large collection relating to things Chinese and Chinese Australian, though not readily distinguished within the collection. The Powerhouse is one of the few institutions that makes an effort ot provide historical context to its items along with material details.

Plaque, Quong Tart, 1895

Plaque owned by Quong Tart, 1895 This plaque is a formal display of the honour bestowed upon Quong Tart by the Qing Court. Central Column Transcription: 旨 賞 戴 藍 翎 Translation: "By Imperial Decree: Bestowed the honor of wearing the Blue Feather." Right Column Transcription: 光 緒 二 十 …

Board, Quong Tart, 1895

Chinese wooden plaque owned by Quong Tart, 1895 By Imperial Decree: Bestowed the honour of wearing the Blue Feather. Received on the 3rd day of the 4th Month of the 20th Year of Guangxu. [May 7, 1894.] Respectfully received by the Official of the Fifth Rank by Brevet, Moy Quong …

Golden Dragon Museum

The collection is rich in research potential. Embedded within the provenance of the collection are the social, familial and business connections that describe Bendigo’s Chinese Australian communities. These networks extend outwards across Australia and internationally to southern Chinese villages, metropolitan centres like Hong Kong and Shanghai and across the …

Noel Butlin Archives Centre, ANU

Part of the ANU Archives, including the archives of historian Barry McGowan +61 2 6125 2219 archives@anu.edu.au https://archives.anu.edu.au/collections

Queensland Museum

Queensland Museum has a large collection of Chinese Australian history related items, most of it undigitalised. Collection includes Fong On (Atherton), Kwong Sang (Toowoomba), Ravenswood, Albert St Chinatown - both archaeological.

Burke Museum, Beechworth

Burke Museum, Beechworth Located on Loch Street next to the Town Hall Gardens, the Burke Museum is open seven days a week, 10:00am to 4:30pm. Entry Adult: $8 Concession: $6 Family (2 adults and up to 3 children): $21 Indigo Shire residents: free Main Hall The heart of …

Queanbeyan Museum

At the Queanbeyan Museum we tell the stories of our region and the people who lived here in the days before Australia became an independent nation, right up until the present day. We open Saturday & Sunday afternoons 1 – 4pm . Admission is FREE – but donations are most welcome 10 Farrer Place …

Chung Wah Association, Perth / 中華會館

Chung Wah Association, Perth is a long running association and hosts many objects of historical value. The Chung Wah Association was established in 1909, and officially registered on July 12, 1910. The Chung Wah Association is the largest Chinese non-profit organisation and the ethnic organisation with the longest history …

Western Australian Museum

The Western Australian Museum has a small collection of Chinese realist objects, Most spectacular is the large banner donated by the Chung Wah Society.

Bathurst District Historical Society

Bathurst District Historical Society The Bathurst District Historical Society Museum, Archives and Bookshop are located in the East Wing of the heritage listed Bathurst Courthouse, designed by Colonial Architect James Barnett. The Courthouse building is in the middle of the CBD of Bathurst and is just one of the many …

Bathurst Historical Society Museum

Operated by the Bathurst District Historical Society The Bathurst District Historical Society Museum, Archives and Bookshop are located in the East Wing of the heritage listed Bathurst Courthouse, designed by Colonial Architect James Barnett. The Courthouse building is in the middle of the CBD of Bathurst and is just one …

Yow Sings Store, Emmaville

Yow Sings Store YOW SING & CO. THE EMMAVILLE CASH AND CARRY Glen Innes Examiner, 29 June 1933, p.6. "a rnotor truck, owned by Yow Sing and Co." Glen Innes Examiner , 24 December 1936, p.4. " "Yow Sing" cup for junior boy athlete" - Emmaville Public School Glen Innes Examiner, 12 …

Yoke, Robe

A hand hewn wooden yoke. Date / period: 20th Cent Place of manufacture: Australia Maker / artist / author: Dimensions: l 1030mm Materials: Wood, fencing wire & steel chain Condition: As original, some borer affection Description: A hand hewn wooden yoke. This is a yoke of European design - not longer part of the Robe …

Yoke, Bathurst

Wooden yoke made in European style mistakenly attributed to Chinese. This yoke is on display in the Bathurst Historical Society Museum and while it doesn’t say it is a ‘Chinese yoke’ it is in the ‘Chinese’ display case along with other objects associated with Chinese people. A number of …

Yee Chong Laundry, William Street Darlinghurst

Yee Chong and Company Chinese Laundry and shops, William Street Darlinghurst, 1916. View of buildings spanning numbers 123 to 129 William Street with tram tracks and wood blocked road surface visible. The terrace building at the far left has the residential chambers run by Mrs W M Donaghey at 129 …

Workers dwelling, Young

Ruins of Chinese worker's dwellings located on Olde Milong. The Chinese single-jian dwelling located on Olde Milong is an important artefact of the Chinese presence in the Young district following the gold rush of the 1860s. The building and a similar nearby structure were evidently constructed as dwellings …

Wing Sang Laundry, Castlereagh Street

Wing Sang Laundry in Castlereagh Street, Sydney in 1916. Two storey sandstone premises with stuccoed windows and ornate parapet with central plaque bearing the date 1875. Wing Sang Chinese laundry is at number 332, and on the left is the Oddfellows Building at 328. Source: City of Sydney Archives

Western Australian Museum

The Western Australian Museum has a small collection of Chinese realist objects, Most spectacular is the large banner donated by the Chung Wah Society.

Ĉinio en traduko (Esperanto = China in Translation)

This project involves the identification and translation of texts from the beginning of the Victorian gold rush to the establishment of relations between Australia and the People’s Republic of China in 1972. Recognising the importance of providing these sources for Anglophone Australians, we will continue to publish translations related …

Memorial, Weldborough Cemetery

A memorial to all Chinese buried in the Weldborough cemetery erected by the Chinese community. By the early 20th century the tin mining villages such as Weldborough had been depopulated but their cemeteries remained. The Chinese community based in Launceston erected this memorial to those buried there and presumably also …

Qing Offical robes, Way Lee

Way Lee's Qing Dynasty Mandarin robe Way Lee was bestowed an official title by the Qing government. In his journey to China in 1887, he was appointed a fourth level Mandarin in recognition of his service to Chinese migrants overseas. Source: Way Lee 100 years on

Letter to a newspaper, Way Lee

Way Lee published an open letter in the South Australian Register in 1900 titled “The Chinese Question from a Chinaman’s point of view”. In 1900, Way Lee published an open letter in the South Australian Register , Thursday 8 November 1900, p.5, entitled “From a Chinaman’s point of …

Water lift

A rare image of a horse power irrigation system on a Chinese market garden. Negative number: 189554 Irrigation method on a farm at Eel Creek built by Wung Choo for irrigating his cabbages. (Description taken from Gympie Times, 25 December 1902)

Watch tower letter

Letter from Hon Way to his sons asking for subscriptions to help build a watch tower in the home village. He emphasises their support is needed to that others will not "laugh at us”. NAA: A1, 1935/7020, Hon Way to Heg Ning and Heg Joong, 3 June 1915.

War Sing Cabinet Maker, Surry Hills

War Sing & Co cabinet maker in Campbell Street Surry Hills, circa 1902.

Chinese Section, Wangaratta Cemetery

Chinese and strangers section at Wangaratta Cemetery There are numerous graves in the Chinese section, plus the Ah Ket family grave in the general section. This heritage is not well researched by the local community. Groom, Jocelyn. Chinese Pioneers of the King Valley , Centre for Continuing Education, Wangaratta, 2001.

Wangaratta

Wangaratta Benevolent Asylum donations Ovens and Murray Advertiser , Saturday 3 February 1894 , p. 7 .

Hawker, vegetables, Queanbeyan

Black and white photograph, dated 1926, depicting a local Chinese market gardener selling produce from the back of a horse drawn wagon. 'Our old Chinaman selling us vegetables Queanbeyan', black and white photograph, dated 1926. Of Broughton Place Queanbeyan, depicting a local Chinese market gardener selling his/her produce from …

Hawkers, vegetable / other

Earning money hawking vegetables and other goods was a common occupation for Chinese men. Two Chinese men in street with baskets alongside a building. Such sights were common around Sydney at the end of the 19th century. State Library of New South Wales, FL3313884

Chinese section, Vaughan Cemetery

The Vaughan Cemetery Chinese Section was established during the great Mount Alexander gold rush of the early 1850s. The cemetery is located on a small hill overlooking one of the richest spots on the goldfield (the junction of Fryers Creek and Loddon River). The cemetery was restored in 1929 using …

Map of Zhongshan, US Consulate

US Consulate Map of Zhongshan , part of a series on the Pearl River Delta. US Consulate HK US Immigration law necessitated detailed interviewing of returnees from China which in turn necessitated detailed information on the districts and villages in China. This map is part of a series on all the …

Tung Wah Coffin Home letter

The letter was written in 1934 by Sydney's Ping Nam (aka Ye Bingnam), a well-known Chinese merchant from the county of Zengcheng to the Tung Wah Coffin Home in Hong Kong. The letter states that seven boxes of bones, containing the remains of 53 people, were being shipped …

Tower House / Diaolou, Zhongshan

Tower built alongside the family home of Cliff Lee whose father ran a fruit & vegetable store in Kogarah, Sydney. It became common in the early 20th century for Overseas Chinese families to build defensive towers known as diao lou (碉樓) or guntowers as protection from bandit attacks. Those in …

Tong King-sing’s Chinese-English Instructor

Tong King-sing’s Chinese-English Instructor produced in Canton 1862. Graeme Lau Gooey This is one of a number of phrasebooks and Chinese/English dictionaries produced and used in Australia and other places around the world where Cantonese speakers found they needed to communicate in English. Rather than a …

Tiy Loy & Co general store, Waterloo

Tiy Loy & Co General Store. Tiy Loy & Co General Store possibly located in Botany Road Waterloo.

Thomas Bak Hap's defence

Thomas Bak Hap defends the Chinese community of Thomas’ Plains (Weldborough), 1883 CHINESE AND ENGLISH CAMPS, THOMAS PLAINS. TO THE EDITOR. Sir, -In a recent issue of your valuable and widely circulated paper I noticed a letter signed by Mr. Grant, referring to an article on the Chinese camp, Thomas …

The English and Chinese Advertiser 英唐招帖

The Chinese Advertiser was the earliest bilingual Chinese-English newspaper in Australia. Early Chinese Newspaper in Australia: Trove Presents a New Perspective on Australian History, Chinese Southern Diaspora Studies, Vol 7, 2014-15, pp 160-165 The Chinese Advertiser was the earliest bilingual Chinese-English newspaper in Australia, first appearing …

The Chinese Times 警東新報

The Chinese Times was Melbourne's first major Chinese newspaper, published in 1902. The Chinese Times was Melbourne’s first major Chinese newspaper, published for the first time on 5 February 1902. For the first three years Thomas Chang Luke (鄭祿 Zheng Lu) was the proprietor and editor until …

China Gift Store

The China Gift Store at No. 233A Rundle Street. "The China Gift Store" at No. 233A Rundle Street which opened in 1923 was owned by Gladys Sym Choon. The store sold Oriental Goods imported from China and agents in Australia. Gladys Sym Choon was a member of the Sym Choon …

Tailing mounds, Ah Hack's claim

Tailing mounds, Ah Hack's claim, Bobs Creek, Mongarlowe. This is an example of a characteristically Chinese type of tailings mound. "Vertically stacked tailing mounds, in particular, are very strong evidence of Chinese mining activities." "... the main ethnically based distinction of any clarity concerned the elongated mounds of water worn …

Sword

A bone handled sword possibly used in processions. While the sword is labeled "Chinese" it is in fact more likely of Japanese manufacture and is one of many mass produced in the late 19th and early 20th century for sale in the tourist market. Two possibilities exist as to how …

Sue Wah Chin Building, Darwin

Sue Wah Chin building (The Stone Houses) on Cavenagh Street, Darwin, This stone building, built in the 1880s, is the only building associated with Darwin's nineteenth century `Chinatown' which still survives. It is also one of only a handful of nineteenth century buildings of any sort that survive in …

Student passport

Long term residents of Australia, although denied naturalisation, were able to apply for their children to study in Australia. Many did so.

Pioneer Cemetery, Stanley

Marking the site of original Stanley cemetery including Chinese burials. Stanley was one of many aluvial goldfields surrounding the Ovens Valley.

Alluvial goldfields, Stanley

Chinaman Road marks where once an alluvial goldfield was worked by Chinese miners. Originally a wombat hunting ground of the Waywurru people.

Soccer team, Darwin

Darwin Chinese Association Carnival Soccer Team, 1961 Territory Stories Banner reads: Darwin Chinese Athletic Association Football Team

Sing Chong Laundry, Pitt Street Sydney

Sing Chong Laundry in Pitt Street Sydney, circa 1909. Single storey brick building with vaulted parapet, ornate wrought iron awning and canvas blind tied to support post. A workman is using a fire hydrant as a young man looks on. The shops have housed a General Dealer at 350, a …

Settlement Memorial, Croydon

A recognition of the contribution of Chinese settlement to the Croydon Shire. Commissioned by the Croydon Shire, this memorial by Atherton Tableland artist blacksmith, Hans Pehl, is located in a local park alongside a number of other memorials (indigenous / war) recognises that there was a Chinese presence in the region.

See Poy House, Innisfail

See Poy House (1932), the home of Johnstone See Poy, who for more than 50 years was the general manager of Queensland's only Chinese Australian owned and operated large department store, See Poy & Sons. "See Poy House (1932), the home of Johnstone See Poy, who for more than 50 …

Memorial, Sandgate Cemetery

Called a "Joss House", this construction in Sandgate Cemetery Newcastle appears to have been a memorial to the departed. Apparently erected in 1924 this memorial to the Chinese departed no longer exists. It was reported erroneously to be a "Joss House". The Newcastle Sun, 21 October 1924, p.1. A …

Newcastle

Newcastle https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/140606218

Robe Walk Memorial

A Chinese Memorial was built in the 1980s to commemorate the arrival and enduring association Chinese-Australians have with Robe. The Royal Circus and Seawall Historic Site at Robe demonstrate the early development of regional ports and townships in South Australia and the role such places played in supporting the …

QVMAG Banner

A banner donated to the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery, Launceston to commemorate the erection of its temple in 1936.

Quong's Bakery wrapping paper

Wax wrapping paper used by Quong's Bakery. Donna Quong’s father Eddie owned a much-loved bakery in Chinatown. Donna, who worked in the bakery as a youngster, remembers the burns on her arms from putting loaves into the ovens. She spoke of discovering this long-lost piece of …

Queenstown Cemetery

Queenstown New Zealand was a major gold mining region.

Queenstown

Queenstown, New Zealand

Queensland Museum

Queensland Museum has a large collection of Chinese Australian history related items, most of it undigitalised. Collection includes Fong On (Atherton), Kwong Sang (Toowoomba), Ravenswood, Albert St Chinatown - both archaeological.

Powerhouse Museum

The Powerhouse Museum collection hold over 200 items related to Chinese including the Wong Sat firm. The Powerhouse also once hosted the magnificent NSW Migration Heritage Centre , a virtual museum. Now only surviving as a web archive.

Poll tax evaders, Normanton

Queensland’s poll tax prevented many Chinese crossing the border from the Northern Territory. Queensland’s poll tax prevented many Chinese people from crossing the border from the Northern Territory freely. Many nevertheless did so while others were captured and gaoled. Ironically it was the new Commonwealth's 1901 Immigration …

Jack Lew Yet, Market Gardener, Mount Gambier

Mount Gambier Chinese Market Gardener, Jack Lew Yet. 1926 Image courtesy of Mount Gambier Public Library

Phonograph

Gordon Ma's Grandfather brought the phonograph out from China. There is a label 'Sincere Company' in the box. The phonograph was an item sold in the Sincere Department Store in China. Gordon Ma's grandfather brought it out from China. The phonograph was made by Columbia Graphophone Co. It …

Railway, Palmerston to Pine Creek

3000 Chinese labourers were involved in the construction of the Palmerston-Pine Creek Railway. At a fall Cabinet meeting held on Monday afternoon the Government decided to accept the tender of Messrs. Millar Brothers to construct the railway from Palmerston to Pine Greek. The amount of the tender was £605 …

Padlock and key, Robe

A Chinese brass padlock in the form of an animal together with a key (not matching). Date / period: 19th Century. Place of manufacture: China Maker / artist / author: Chinese Dimensions: Lock l 62mm h 52mm Key l 65mm Materials: Brass Condition: As original Description: A Chinese brass padlock in the form …

Robe

Robe

Haymarket, Sydney

Vegetable, fruit, fish and poultry markets in the Haymarket.

Overseas Chinese Hotel, Shekki

From a 1930s postcard showing the Overseas Chinese hotel at the busy river crossing from the Long Du district to Shekki, the Zhongshan capital and embarkation point by ferry to Hong Kong. By the 1930s the city of Shekki (石歧) was a major center for the Chinese disapora with …

Naturalisation notice, Charley Ah Yan

Notice of application for naturalisation of Charley Ah Yan, 1928. Despite having lived in Australia for over 40 years since he was 14, and with strong local support describing Charley as "quite an Australian", the response to the application was "it is contrary to the policy of the government to …

Cootamundra

Cootamundra

NSW Chinese Merchants Society account book

The accounts book of NSW Chinese Merchant Society dated Guangxu 29th year (1903). The NSW Chinese Merchants Society (鳥修威華商會社) was founded in 1903. Its registered office was at 166 George Street, Sydney. The association was initially named '自由社' (Freedom Society) and structured …

NSW Chinese Chamber of Commerce Minute book

Chinese Chamber of Commerce of New South Wales Minute book. This was a commercial association formed by the New South Wales Chinese Empire Reform Association to do charitable work, promote business relations among merchants and mediate disputes in the Chinese community. The Chinese Chamber of Commerce was founded after the …

Naturalisation Certificate, NSW

A rare use of a colonial Naturalisation Certificate to obtain a Certificate Exempting the Dictation Test. Ah Sam was fortunate in being able to obtain naturalisation in the Colony of NSW in 1884 a few years before this became legally impossible for Chinese people. However, this did not mean he …

National Museum Australia

National Museum Australia holds over 400 Chinese related items.

My Life and Work by Taam Sze Pui (aka Tom See Poy)

Rare bilingual autobiography of a Chinese gold seeker turned successful businessman. Taam Sze Pui’s My Life and Work was published in its lovely bi-lingual edition that provides in a remarkably concise manner all the elements of family, village links, poverty, remittances, business and hard work that are the …

Musicians

Three Chinese men holding musical instruments. The image is labled: "Chinese gardeners who keep Irvinebank supplied with fresh fruit and vegetables." 10/7/1908. Nevertheless the most distinguishing feature of these three young looking men is that they are holding musical instruments.

Irvinebank

Irvinebank

Tin Mine, Mount Wells

The Mount Wells tin mine was discovered in late 1881 and was worked by Chinese labourers. "a call made in December last was that money was wanted to pay the Chinese, with whom a contract had been entered into to raise the ' tin.' " Adelaide Observer , 24 March 1883, p.26 …

Mount Wells

Mount Wells tin mine

Memorial Chinese burials, Carlyle Cemetery

Memorial to Chinese burials, Caryle Cemetery erected by the Victorian Chinese Memorial Foundation. In 2019 a monument to the Chinese people buried in the cemetery was donated and installed by the Victorian Chinese Memorial Foundation. This memorial displays the names of all known Chinese buried. Indigo Shire Council, Chinese Section

Mayfield Chinese Dam

Dam built supposedly by Chinese labourers in 1880 in Ootha, NSW. This dam is attributed to the work of Chinese workers, though the evidence for this is not certain. The heritage study report merely stating: "As well as tank sinking, the Chinese worked in gangs ringbarking trees. The Chinese were …

Ootha

"In the early days, the visit of an old Chinese called "Ah Foo" with his covered van and two horses was the main source of vegetable and fruit supplies. The visit was looked upon as one of life's highlights by the Shelley Children. The old hawker continued to …

Masonic Society board, Albury

Large board of the Masonic Society in Chinese and English. After the 1911 revolution in China, many of the various Hung Men or other brotherhood societies reestablished themselves as Chinese Masonic Societies.

Market garden, Darley

Chinese market gardeners in Darley area of Campbelltown, Adelaide. Ah Yeck and Quong Chung are listed as leasing Section 334 Block 1 in Darley (Paradise) from February 1905 to July 1906. This was prime market gardening land on the banks of the River Torrens. (Certificate of Title) CT 289 / 239 …

Market Garden, Toomevara Lane

A surviving Chinese market garden in Kogarah since 1850. Toomevara Lane Chinese Market Gardens is a heritage-listed market garden at Toomevara Lane, Kogarah, Bayside Council, New South Wales, Australia. It is also known as Rockdale Market Gardens and Chinese Market Gardens. It was added to the New South Wales …

Market Garden, Kyeemagh

The site is still under production as a market garden and has some archaeological potential. The Kyeemagh Market Gardens are heritage-listed market gardens at Occupation Road, Kyeemagh, Bayside Council, New South Wales, Australia. It was established from 1892. It is also known as Occupation Road Market Gardens, Chinese Market …

Market Garden, Arncliffe

Arncliffe Market Gardens located in Banksia NSW The market gardens are located on 212 West Botany Street Banksia NSW 2216. The Arncliffe Chinese Market Gardens are of high significance for their association with the Chinese community and their demonstration of a continuous pattern of land usage since the late nineteenth …

Market garden, Normanton

Rare picture of a Chinese market garden, Normanton. Chinese run market gardens were a vital part of most rural towns in a period of poor transportation. They were rarely featured in images however and this is a rare image taken only because of the visiting politician.

Market garden, SE of Oodnadatta

Mr. Ned Chong in his vegetable garden at Hookey's water-hole, 4 miles south west of Oodnadatta.

Oodnadatta

Oodnadatta

Market garden, Doctor's Gully, Darwin

Chinese garden at Doctor's Gully, Port Darwin, NT, September 1883. Chinese garden at Doctor's Gully, hospital in background and Peel's Well, Port Darwin, NT, September 1883. The market garden in Doctor's Gully, near Peel's Well in Port Darwin, NT Peel's Well is associated with …

Temora

Temora

Lung Doo (隆都) Society, Honolulu

One of three Long Du / Lung Doo societies established in Sydney, Hawaii and San Francisco. "The greater number of Zhongshan people in Hawaii meant that organizations operating on a sub-county and even village level could also exist. These organizations included the See Dai Doo, Lung Doo Benevolent Society, Yung …

Hawaii

Hawaii

Loong, Bendigo Dragon

Loong is Bendigo’s oldest dragon now housed in the Golden Dragon Museum. "Loong and his regalia form the start of an unbroken chain of three dragons that have been the centerpieces of the Bendigo Easter Festival and Chinese life in the region and across Victoria for over 120 years …

Letter re: Kang Youwei

Kang Youwei was thought to wish to visit Australia and this letter discusses how to use the Dictation Test to prevent that. As it was thought he could speak a number of European languages, this is the first known contemplation of using the Dictation Test in a language it was …

Lee Tong Store, Wyndham Port

The Lee Tong Store was owned by Ah Chee, who left the store to Lee Tong when he died. Only two of the original five Chinese shops remain on the west side of O’Donnell Street, Wyndham. "Charlie Lee Tong Foo arrived in Wyndham in the early 1900s. He had …

Wyndham Port

Wyndham Port

Lee Hang Gong & Co, Darwin

The general store operated by Chinese merchant Lee Hang Gong in Cavenagh Street, Darwin Chinatown. By 1886, Hang Gong and Yam Yan had storekeepers' licences for businesses on Cavenagh Street, and by 1887, they had purchased additional land on Lot 403 Cavenagh Street. Source: Northern Territory Dictionary of Biography https …

Sam Lee's Laundry, Albury

Sam Lee's Laundry, Swift St, Albury Sam Lee's Laundry ran in Corowa and then Albury until 1956 when the owner left behind many documents of a business and personal nature. Many assume "Sam Lee" was the owner's name but it seems to be derived from an American …

Laundry, Castlereagh Street, Sydney

Chinese laundry in Castlereagh Street, Sydney, 1902. Two storey laundry shop with painted sandstone and slate roof with a skylight. Hopper windows on the right are slightly open but lower windows are boarded up. Overhead many electric wires and tram tracks are shown on the wood-blocked street. Source: City …

Banking / Banks

Banking - gold - remittances - Bank of China - Commercial Bank -

Jimmy Win Wah

Jimmy Win Wah was 83 years of age (or 72 according the the year of birth given below) when he died in Mt Gambier. He was 20 when he came to Australia, spent some years at Ballarat and came to Mount Gambier in the 1930s. He became known as the …

Last Chinese (Jimmy Win Wah)

Last Chinese was a common trope - See: Sophie Couchman, ‘Making the “Last Chinaman”: Photography and Chinese as a “vanishing” people in Australia’s rural histories‘ , Australian Historical Studies , vol.42, no.1, 2011, pp.78-91.

Last Chinamen

Postcard of elderly Chinese men living in Harrietville. While most men of the gold rush period returned to China or married and established families, some simply remained in place as aging prospectors or market gardeners. Often, such men were very well-known and became perceived as the "last Chinaman" in …

Lakes District Museum, Arrowtown, NZ

A fine display centred on the Arrowtown gold mining community. A good collection with a strong effort made to see individuals rather than rely on a general “Chinese” identity. Lakes District Museum

Lady Barber

Barbering was a major part of the culture of Chinese people on the goldfields. "There are about one hundred and sixty-six millions of men in China who require to be shaved every day, and in this far off land there are several thousands who could not live in comfort …

Kwong Yee On Cabinet Maker, Surry Hills

Kwong Yee On Cabinet Maker in Goulburn Street, Surry Hills, circa 1909. On the right, at 184 Goulburn Street, is the two storey sandstone premises of Kwong Yee On, a cabinet maker, and to the left, at 150-172, are the warehouses of Hordern and Sons. Between are terraces with …

Kuomintang (KMT, Nationalist Party), Darwin

Kuomingtang Darwin branch meeting in 1932. The Darwin sub-branch of the K.M.T. was established on 5 May 1924 ( Northern Standard , 6 May 1924: 2; Fitzgerald 2007: 128). Selina Hassan was the secretary of the executive committee

Kong Meng Historic Reserve

Kong Meng Historic Reserve is a historic mine site from the late 1800's. Majorca drew thousands of gold-seekers to rushes in 1863 just as diggings around nearby towns declined. Their first surface diggings soon gave way to complex networks of deep mine shafts, with a mass local workforce …

Myrtleford Cemetery

Chinese section, Myrtleford cemetery. Myrtleford was a goldfield and afterwards tobacco and hops were grown by Chinese farmers among others. The original Chinese section was at the back end of the cemetery, but expansion resulted in it ending up in the middle of the cemetery. The original grave markers have …

Myrtleford

Mrytleford was a goldfield and afterwards tobacco and hops were grown by Chinese farmers among others.

Kuomintang (KMT / Nationalist Party) Adelaide

Kuomintang building in Hanley Street, Adelaide. The KMT established branches around Australia and the Pacific to maintain close links with the Chinese diaspora. Unlike Sydney or Melbourne this was not in a purpose built location. This row of stone terrace houses has street level verandahs whose posts are topped with …

Junk (boat)

Junk, a Chinese style boat off Thursday Island. "When we think of the history of ship building in Australia, Chinese junks probably don’t spring to mind. Yet for a period from the 1870s to the early 1900s a fleet of junks operated in northern Queensland. At least some, if …

Thursday Island

“The Chinese presence in Torres Strait predates the establishment of a government settlement on Thursday Island in 1877. Oral tradition tells of Chinese junks visiting islands in search of bêche-de-mer. Chinese men were often employed as engineers, sailors, stewards and cooks on steamers and fishing vessels that …

Temple panels, Harrietville

Decorative panels removed from one of the two Joss House at Harrietville, probably Mill Rd. Joss Houses were gorgeously decorated with colourful carved panelling, altar pieces and embroidery banners. As the Joss Houses were abandoned, local residents often souvenired pieces which eventually found their way into the local museum. Bright …

Joss House Hill Burial Ground (Cemetery)

The burial ground has been in existence since at least 1863. A search of the records at PROV do not list this location as an official cemetery, nor can any reference to it be found in the Government Gazette, or contemporary newspapers. The burial ground also contains the remains of …

Household gods (mislabelled)

Statues or figurines of common household gods mislabelled as coming from a Chinese temple. The two figures are not “deities from a Chinese temple” nor are they from the 1850s goldfields. Rather are popular folk figures known as Lu (right) and Shou — two of the “Fu Lu Shou” (福祿 …

Joe Wah Gow House, Long Tou Wan

Joe Wah Gow House, Long Tou Wan "Towers, or diao lou (碉樓), were designed to provide a family with refuge in case of bandit attack. Of course, not all huaqiao would have been able to build such houses or towers, while others would have simply built a new and …

Long Tou Wan (龍頭環)

“"Long Du (隆 都) is a distinct and easily identifiable qiaoxi- ang. The people of this area speak a dialect separate from the surrounding Cantonese speakers of most of Zhongshan and usually formed their own distinct organizations in the destinations. Long Du was also a qiaoxiang that sent a …

James Dundas Crawford

J. Dundas Crawford was a Chinese speaker sent from Shanghai by the British government to report on the Chinese in the Australian colonies during the Palmer River goldfish in 1877. As the various Australian colonies developed their anti-Chinese immigration attitudes and then laws, their British imperial overseers took a …

J Lew Chinese Laundry

Shops in Commercial Street West, Mount Gambier. 1937 - J Lew Chinese Laundry Mount Gambier Library

Incense Bowl, Hill End

Incense Bowl, Hill End 三聖宮 “Temple of the Three Saints” or “Three Sages Palace”

Incense Bowl, Hill End

Bronze incense bowl, Hill End Museum, from a Joss House. This heavy, well-made incense bowl is inscribed with the names of its donors, its manufacturer and the date it was made - 1904. Now in the Hill End Museum, it was presumably donated to the temple in nearby Tambaroora. While …

Gold mining, illicit

Images of Chinese miners without licences. In the midst of a text on the goldfields around Croydon and Georgetown, appears a montage of photos mixing some specific to Chinese gold miners with some scenic ones and one of a group of Aboriginal people. The images are not referenced in the …

Harry Chan Building, Darwin

Harry Chan Building, Cavenagh Street, Harry Chan Avenue, Darwin. The Chan Building was the eighth and last of the large government office blocks to be built in the centre of Darwin in the 1960s. It was known as Block 8 for the first ten years of its existence and was …

Harrow

Harrow, used by Chinese market gardeners in Wagga Wagga. The gardens were in the lagoon area known as North Wagga Island, although some gardens were located at the Chinese camp in Fitzmaurice Street.

Guan Ti, Cairns

Image of Guan Ti from the Lit Soon Goong Temple, Cairns.

Grave of Sarah Lee Hang Gong

Sarah Lee Hang Gong passed away in 1911 in Darwin. She was buried in Pioneer Cemetery (also known as Palmerston Cemetery).

Goldseeker's box

A rare item from the Robe walk. This wooden cask in the possession of a family long resident near Edenhope on the Robe to the Victorian goldfields walk, is one of the very few verifiable objects remaining from that walk. In the case of the box pictured, the family history …

Edenhope

Once on the route of the Chinese gold seekers from SA to Victoria.

Golden Gully and Archway

Golden Gully and Archway is a deeply incised man-induced braided channel system. The Gully banks contain shafts and drives that demonstrate the mining techniques used by European and Chinese miners to reach gold deposits. Golden Gully and Archway is a deeply incised man induced braided channel system. The Gully …

Map, Golden Gate

Golden Gate gold mining community sustained by Chinese market gardeners. Golden Gate was a small gold mining community sustained by Chinese market gardeners. "A noticeable feature is the number of Chinese stores. There are even Chinese butchers, and these are gradually gaining an ascendancy over the European butchers. Seems extraordinary …

Golden Gate

Golden Gate gold mining community sustained by Chinese market gardeners. Golden Gate was a small gold mining community sustained by Chinese market gardeners. "A noticeable feature is the number of Chinese stores. There are even Chinese butchers, and these are gradually gaining an ascendancy over the European butchers. Seems extraordinary …

Water Race (gold mining), Windeyer

An aqueduct wall built by Chinese gold miners near the banks of the Meroo River between 1855 and 1865. Gold was discovered in the district of Windeyer around 1850, and by 1858 there was a considerable Chinese presence in the district. This wall was built between 145 and 130 years …

Embroidery, Gladys Sym Choon

This embroidery belonged to Gladys Sym Choon who owned "The China Gift Store" at No. 233A Rundle Street, Adelaide. This embroidery belonged to Gladys Sym Choon who owned "The China Gift Store" at No. 233A Rundle Street, which opened in 1923 selling Oriental Goods imported from China and agents in …

Gilded frieze, Georgetown

Gilded frieze, Georgetown. This is most likley a section from the altar of the Georgetown Joss House erected in 1905 and destroyed by a flood after 1957. It shows a range of mythological animals and would have been part of a much larger carved and gilded piece.

Memorial, Beechworth Cemetery

Memorial, Beechworth Cemetery Right Column: Transcription: 光緒九年二月吉日置立 Translation: "Established/Erected on an Auspicious Day in the 2nd Month of the 9th Year of Guangxu ." Western Date: This corresponds to the period around March 1883 . Center Column: Transcription: 中華國各 …

Memorial, Beechworth Cemetery

A general memorial commemorating all Chinese people buried in the Beechworth cemetery.

Market garden, Gay family, Guildford

Market Garden in Guildford belonged to the Gay family which operated between 1920s-1950s. Gay family - In the early 1920s George Louis Gay (1870-1946) bought 23 acres of scrubland at Guildford, six kilometres south of Parramatta, to create a market garden which operated up until 1950. The market garden …

Gate, Chinatown Sydney

Gate, Chinatown Sydney Looking south along Dixon Street pedestrian mall from near the corner of Goulburn Street in Chinatown. View showing crowds of pedestrians at re-opening of Dixon Street after closure and beautification. Dragon entrance gateway with Chinese characters and the words Understand Virtue and Trust. Nine Dragons Restaurant …

Poll taxes

Poll taxes Poll taxes occupy a significant place in the history of Chinese migration to Australia, but what exactly they were and how they functioned is not always clearly understood. A poll tax is simply a head tax, a fixed amount charged to each person entering a colony. In nineteenth …

Gaol, Normanton

Normanton gaol where many Chinese men who attempted to cross into Queensland were kept. Under South Australia the Northern Territory had a relatively large Chinese population. However after 1888 Queensland had enacted a poll tax similar to those in other colonies. This meant that Chinese people could not cross into …

Furniture shop, Adelaide

Furniture shop in Adelaide. "These city buildings are undergoing changes. The furniture factory which is being demolished is to replaced by a garage. The building on the corner is to be painted and renovated. [On back of photograph] 'Acre 71 / South east corner of Hindley and Morphett Streets / July 15 …

Fong Lee Jang & Co Haymarket

Fong Lee Jang and Company in Castlereagh Street Haymarket, 1916 Three storey sandstone building with parapet, originally the Freemasons Hotel at number 356, with the Chinese business name Fong Lee Jang and Company. Street off to the right is Campbell Street Source: City of Sydney Archives

Racism / discrimination

Racism and discrimination have taken many forms throughout Chinese–Australian history, and were, for long periods, an everyday reality. The modern term racism only emerged in the early twentieth century, when societies began to reflect more consciously on the nature and consequences of prejudice. Well before then, Chinese people in …

Fang Cheong Loong & Co, Darwin

Fang Cheong Loong & Company at the end of Cavenagh Street Darwin owned by Chin Toy. Although illiterate, Chin Toy left home when he was about 18 to find work in Hong Kong where he spent two years in a tailoring apprenticeship. After befriending a businessman there, he accompanied him to …

Bones return appeal

The return of the bones of the deceased had strong religious significance.

Exhumation request

From the beginning of the Chinese diaspora, it was considered of great importance that the bones of the dead be returned to their villages of origin. This 1862 request is one of the earliest indications of this practice. In the early 1860s, representatives of three Pearl River Delta counties approached …

Encyclopedia of Australia

An example of the capacity of white Australians to imagine their history and heritage as white, regardless of their actual history and heritage. The Australian Encyclopaedia, published by Angus and Robertson in 1925 is remarkable for its entry under Chinese . This entry merely says: See Immigration Restriction . Under that heading …

Dragon boat festival, Sydney

Dragon boat festival being held in Sydney. Dragon boat festival held in Penrith Valley in 2003. The event took place at the International Regatta Centre, a venue for the 2000 Sydney Olympic rowing and canoeing events.

Dragon Ball, Trocadero Ballroom

The dragon ball held at the Trocadero Ballroom in 1957. The Dragon Ball was organised by a group called the Young Chinese Relief Movement, which originally started to raise funds for the war victims in China in 1933-34. It was held annually to raise money for charitable causes in …

Dong Guan / Zengcheng societies buildings

Right Column — 增城聯福 Mandarin: Zēngchéng Liánfútáng Cantonese: Jang-sing Lyun-fuk Tong English: Lianfu Hall of Zengcheng Centre Column — 東聯義堂會 Mandarin: Dōnglián Yìtáng Huìsuǒ Cantonese: Dung-lyun Yi-tong Wui-so English: Donglian Yitang Meeting Hall / Association Hal Left Column — 東莞公 …

Dep collection, Broome

The family collection of the Dep family, Broome, includes, family photos from China, tools, pearl divers gear, China figurines, remittance cheques, Certificate of Exemption paperwork, receipts (Chinese), a rent book from 1928, property lists, a box of dried noodles (555), an image of Margret Ah Dep's grave at Onslow …

Death Certificate, Ah Young

Ah Young died of consumption, a common cause of death on the early goldfields of Victoria. His death certificate, filled in by his brother Ah Pow is unusually detailed. Ah Young, a miner aged 35, died 4th of September 1863 of consumption, brought on by exposure to wet and cold …

State Library collections

All the State Libraries of Australia hold valuable collections, many of which date back to their 19th-century foundations. Their holdings include objects and photographs of relevance to Chinese Australian history, although these materials are often not well categorised. As a result, any search using “Chinese” will usually produce a …

Colonial Bank of New Zealand sign

Right column 溢兑香港银两 “Exchanges Hong Kong silver.” (i.e., We cash/convert Hong Kong dollars/silver taels) Middle column 收买金沙价极相宜 “Buys gold dust at extremely fair prices.” (“Gold dust purchased at very favourable rates.”) Left column 色存 …

Colonial Bank of New Zealand sign

Bank sign employing Chinese characters to advertise remittances to Hong Kong. Otago Provincial Government invited Chinese miners to come to the Otago goldfields. They created a separate settlement in Arrowtown, remaining until 1928. Arrowtown was a gold mining community composed mainly of Chinese miners. The Colonial Bank of New Zealand …

Clermont medal

Coin minted by the Clermont Anti-Chinese league, 1887 This medal was minted by the Clermont Anti-Chinese league for the Queen's Jubilee in 1887. Mr. O'Shea, "proposed to distribute Jubilee medals to the children of Clermont, the medals bearing on one side a medallion portrait of Her …

City Mission Hall Chinese School

City Mission Hall Chinese School This mission school reportedly began in the early 1880 through the efforts of a Miss Sarah Lavis, who was a member of the Flinders-Street Baptist Church, Adelaide. Sources: A School for Chinese in Adelaide,, 1882-1924 in R.C. Petersen, History of Education Review …

Church, Narrandera

Chinese Church, Chinese camp, Narrandera. "Many Chinese were Christian converts. In the 1890s a number of Chinese churches (or missions) and Sunday schools, were established in the larger towns such as Narrandera, Albury, Wagga, Tumut and Hay. Where separate Chinese churches or missions did not exist, the converts attended the …

Chung Lee Furniture Factory, Darlinghurst

Chung Lee Furniture Factory in Crown Street Darlinghurst, 1901.

Chinese Women's Relief Fund

The New South Wales Chinese Women’s Relief fund was formed in 1937 and was, according to its President Mrs J. A. Chuey, the first time ‘Chinese ladies have emerged from the privacy of their homes’ into the public. In the 1930s war waged in China as the then Japanese …

Chinese Protector's Office, Beechworth

The Colony of Victoria was unique in setting up a "Chinese Protector" in major goldfields. The experiment was largely a failure as the "protectors" either saw their job as harassing the Chinese into paying the various discriminatory levies or, as with Foster, their attempts to "protect" found that their authority …

Chinese New Year procession, Darwin

Chinese New Year procession in Darwin, 1923.

Australia China relations

The political and economic relationship between Australia and China has always shaped not only the lived experience of Chinese people in Australia but also the way their history has been perceived, recorded, and interpreted. In the earliest period, when China was regarded by Europeans as distant, exotic, and largely unknown …

Lunar / Chinese New Year

Chinese New Year / Luna New Year The Lunar New Year—traditionally the most significant festival in Chinese culture—has long been celebrated in Australia. In the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries these celebrations were centred within Chinese communities and were commonly referred to by European Australians as “Chinese New Year …

Chinese New Year Festival Sydney

Chinese New Year Festival has been held annually by the City of Sydney Council.

Chinese Mission Church, Melbourne

Chinese Mission Church, Little Bourke Street, built in 1872 by the Wesleyan Methodists.

Chinese Masonic Hall, Sydney

The Chinese Masonic Society building at 18 Mary Street in Surry Hills, Sydney. The Chinese Masonic Society building at 18 Mary Street in Surry Hills, Sydney, was constructed in 1911. The Chinese Masonic Society grew out of the Yee Hing Company (also known as the Hung League), an anti-Manchu …

Chinese Garden of Friendship

The Chinese Garden of Friendship was built to symbolise the friendship between Sydney and its sister city, Guangzhou, to mark Australia’s bicentenary in 1988.

Chinese Australian Herald 廣益華報

The Chinese Australian Herald 廣益華報 was the first major Chinese language Newspaper in Australia. The Chinese Australian Herald 廣益華報 (Guangyi huabao) was the first major Chinese language newspaper in Australia. Published in Sydney, it first appeared on 1 September 1894. The Chinese Australian Herald …

Normanton Chinatown

Not large enough or concentrated enough to be called a Chinatown, Normanton had a cultural precinct where most Chinese people lived. The maps show the location of families and market gardens over a period of time. Families included the Ah Sing's and the Ah Foo's. Sandi Robb, North …

Georgetown Chinatown

Not large enough or concentrated enough to be called a Chinatown, Georgetown had a cultural precinct where most Chinese people lived. A Chinatown developed in Georgetown, on the outskirts of town, and very quickly grew to provide opium shops, boarding houses, stores, a butcher and bakers. Men provided services as …

Darwin Chinatown

Chinatown in Cavanagh Street, Darwin The Australian city of Darwin was home to a Chinatown when "... 186 Chinese workers arrived in 1874 by ship from Singapore, until World War II."[1] In Darwin, the Chinese faced racial discrimination much more compared to the rest of Australia. Darwin's Chinatown was …

Croydon Chinatown

Just outside the modern Croydon settlement can be seen the main residential area of its earlier Chinese population which includes shops, a Joss House, pig oven and a caretakers hut. Most Chinatowns or Chinese camps have disappeared under modern developments, so the site at Croydon while largely destroyed is nevertheless …

Chinaman's Dam Reserve, Young

The garden was developed in recognition of the contribution of the Chinese community to the settlement of Young in the 1860s and the ongoing contribution of the Chinese people to Australia as a nation. That the association of this dam with Chinese people only dates from the late 19th century …

The Tiger’s Mouth

A blog by historian Dr Kate Bagnall focused on: “legal histories of nationality and citizenship; histories of women, children and the family; Chinese communities in the Tasman world; the White Australia policy and colonial Chinese restriction policies; transnational lives and qiaoxiang ties; Chinese Australasian documentary heritage.” The Tiger’s Mouth

Museum of Chinese Australian History, Melbourne

The Chinese Museum is a significant repository of artefacts, which mainly comprise objects, textiles, documents and images, related to the history of Chinese people in Australia and their descendants. Its main collection covers various themes, including the Gold Rush, Chinese Families, Community and Identity, and Chinese Traditions and Creative Arts …

Golden Dragon Museum

The collection is rich in research potential. Embedded within the provenance of the collection are the social, familial and business connections that describe Bendigo’s Chinese Australian communities. These networks extend outwards across Australia and internationally to southern Chinese villages, metropolitan centres like Hong Kong and Shanghai and across the …

Naturalisation / Citizenship

Naturalisation / Citizenship For most of the colonial period, and indeed until 1949, there was no such thing as Australian citizenship. All people in Australia were legally British subjects. Within the individual colonies, migrants could apply to be naturalised as British subjects, and many Chinese residents did so, especially in the …

Naturalisation, Chin Toy

Naturalisation letter of Chin Toy (1863-1947) It was on 27 October 1884 that Chin Toy, or Ching Toy as his Letter of Naturalization shows, at the age of 20 years and after spending a period of 18 months as a resident of South Australia was granted naturalization. On a …

Chin Ah Quan store, Cossack

Chin Ah Quan store, Cossack. Ah Quan ran a small store at Cossack and when he died in May 1885 without relatives or a will his estate was assessed by the Government Resident at Roebourne. Legal documents referring to him as “Ah Quan a Chinaman", though his real name was …

Cossack

Cossack was a port through which many Chinese workers were imported under contract from Singapore. As in an earlier period in the eastern colonies the cessation of convict transportation (1868) lead to a search for alternative cheap labour. The reference below to "ticket-men" is telling.

Indian Ocean Coast (WA)

Indian Ocean Coast (WA)

Character reference, Sym Choon

Character reference to accompany Sym Choon's application for the certificate of exemption of dictation test (CEDT) in 1921. In 1921, John Sym Choon took his children Gladys and Gordon on a business trip to China. A character reference for Sym Choon and his daughter Gladys Sym Choon from Fred …

Kuomintang (KMT / Nationalist Party) Registration, Ah Ming

Republic of China consul registration card of Yu Ah Ming. The Republic of China regarded overseas Chinese people, even when born overseas, as China citizens. China consuls attempted to maintain a register of such people in Australia.

Lease, market garden Adelaide

Certificate of the land leased by Soo War Way and Yee Sing in Section 269 of Adelaide "Soo War Way and Yee Sing are related to land in Section 269 of Adelaide, there is mention of it in a book named “The Paddocks Beneath: A History of Burnside from the …

Lease, market garden Knoxville

Certificate of land owned by William Philipp Hill in Knoxville (now Glenunga) leased to Chinese market gardeners. In a book named “The Paddocks Beneath: A History of Burnside from the Beginning”, page 147 mentions William Hill leasing his land in Knoxville (now Glenunga) to Chinese market gardeners. The photo is …

Knoxville

Knoxville / Glenunga

Centenary procession, Albury

Albury’s Hume and Hovell Centenary celebrations invited Chinese representatives from Bendigo and Ballarat. Howard C. Jones, Unwelcome strangers: the early Chinese experience in Albury-Wodonga , Albury, N.S.W Howard C. Jones, 2017, p.ii.

Yackandandah Cemetery

Yackandandah Cemetery This former gold mining town has a handful of markers left in its Chinese Section. Some further names are also recorded as burials.

Yackandandah

Yackandandah was part of the Ovens Goldfields despite being close to Beechworth.

Warwick Cemetery

Warwick Cemetery Chinese Section contains only a handful of gravestones. Most rural cemeteries contained a seperate section variously labeled Chinese / Alien / Pagan. Most markers were of wood and have long disappeared. The Chinese Section in Warwick contains a number of late 19th century headstones with at least two identified as …

Warwick

Warwick

Upper Bingara Cemetery

Upper Bingara Chinese Cemetery

Upper Bingara

Upper Bingara

Narrandera Cemetery

Chinese Section. Narrandera cemetery

Chiltern Cemetery

A small number of headstones with an unusual group of graves perhaps done by descendants.

Buckland Cemetery

Buckland Valley cemetery Chinese section. The Buckland Riots are well known and today the Buckland Valley has little remaining from its gold fields past. A small cemetery with a few Chinese graves remain, and more recently, a general memorial from the Chinese community of Melbourne.

Beechworth Cemetery

Beechworth Cemetery contains the largest number of surviving Chinese headstones. Beechworth was a major goldfield and had a significant population of Chinese miners over a long period of time. Like Bendigo and Ballarat, the Chinese community often participated in many community activities including processions and donating to the local hospital.

Memorial, Moorina Cemetery

Grave of the Great Elder of the Great Qing Empire. Erected in the 32nd year of Emperor Guangxu (1906), in the cyclical year Bing-wu. Centre column 大清國 Great Qing Empire 大伯公塚 Grave of the Great Elder Right column 光緒三十二年 …

Memorial, Moorina Cemetery

General memorial to Chinese people buried in Moorina Cemetery. By the early 20th century, the tin mining villages such as Moorina had been depopulated but their cemeteries remained. The Chinese community based in Launceston erected this memorial to those buried there and presumably also conducted regular ceremonies during the annual …

CEDTs - Certificate Exempting Dictation Test

Over 10,000 CEDTs issued in Sydney, now in the NAA, NSW. This is a large collection of boxes, some 35 metres in shelf length as archivists record such matters. The 245 boxes in total contain a carefully numbered collection of over 10,000 CEDTs or ‘Certificates Exempting From Dictation …

CEDT approval, Sym Choon

Sym Choon’s letter authorising an exemption from the dictation test, 1921. This is a letter exempting Sym Choon from the Immigration Restriction Act’s dictation test and authorising him to re-enter Australia after a visit overseas on 1921. As the twentieth century progressed, the administration of the Dictation …

Canton Lead, Ararat

A sculpture to commemorate the discovery of Canton Lead by the early Chinese gold miners. The sculpture, in memory of the early Chinese diggers, was erected as an Australian Bicentennial Project. Unveiled in 1988 it incorporates the plaque erected at the site of the Canton Lead mine by the Ararat …

Cairns Chinatown

Cairns Chinatown was the largest and longest running Chinese community outside Brisbane from the 1880s until the mid 1940s. "Grafton Street, Cairns was the historical site for Cairns Chinatown - the largest and longest running Chinese community outside Brisbane from the 1880s until the mid 1940s. Supporting a diverse population of …

Burning Towers, Carlyle Cemetery

Two substantial burning towers at Carlyle cemetery, Wahgunyah. There were two burning towers erected in 1897 of which one original remains. In the 1970s, the other was re-erected by the Rutherglen Lions Club. Forty known Chinese people were buried alongside these towers from 1881 to 1928. The existing memorial …

Burning Towers, Beechworth

Twin burning towers at Beechworth cemetery built in 1887 and restored 1967.

Burning Tower, Weldborough

Weldborough is a former tin mining village with Chinese burials and a burning tower for funeral practices. Many Chinese people lived in North-East Tasmania mining for tin in villages such as Weldborough. As in other locations in Australia, a burning tower was erected to facilitate such funerary practices as …

Burning Tower, Moorina

Moorina was a tin mining village with many Chinese miners, and hence burials and an associated burning tower. This is one of numerous burning towers in Australia that are to be found in the Chinese sections of cemeteries. It is only one of two remaining in Tasmania and is unique …

Moorina

Moorina was a tin mining village with many Chinese miners, and hence burials and an associated burning tower.

Burning Tower, Albury

Like so many still existing burning towers little is known about the date of building or its specific usage. For the best account of see the Avoca burning tower .

Burning Tower, Wagga

A brick tower, restored after vandalism in the 1990s. Wagga General cemetery has a restored site for its Chinese section along with 25 headstones of mostly Sunhui people.

Burketown Cemetery

There are many Chinese burials at Burketown Cemetery. Burketown Cemetery records begin recording Chinese burials in 1890 and these continue through to the present day with many families of mixed heritage carrying the names of their Chinese ancestor. Also buried in the same cemetery is Constable Richard Alford who was …

Bronze incense bowl

Bronze incense holder incense holder found at Castlemaine and probably from a Joss House. "Found at Forest Creek Goldfields, Castlemaine, Victoria." Chinese Museum, Melbourne

Burial Register, Burketown

Burketown began recording burials from 1866, but the first Chinese names only appear in the early 1890s when several relatively young men are recorded - Young Ah Tim aged 35, Jimmy Ah Gow, also 35, Cong Ching, 27, Tommy Ah Bow, 32 and Yept Gin, aged only 20. While some could …

Burketown

Burketown

Burning Tower, Nyngan Cemetery

The burner is of brick construction with a square footprint of 2100mm, it stands 2150mm high and has a stepped roof of nine brick courses. On the north side an opening has been created by leaving out six horizontally arranged bricks. The opening allows access to a metal grated area …

Buckland Riot Memorial

The memorial stele commemorates the Chinese who were killed during the riot in the Buckland Valley when thousands of Chinese miners were attacked and driven from the goldfields. The large community of Chinese (it was estimated to number 3000 at its peak in 1857) led to an anti-Chinese riot …

Brickmaking kiln

Small kiln located on a market garden. "The archaeological site of the Chinese Kiln and Market Garden, Bendigo North, contains the partially demolished remains of a Chinese cross-draught brick kiln and artefacts associated with the use of the kiln between 1859 and the 1880s." "Newspaper records indicate that the …

Bowmans Forest Cemetery

Bowmans Forest

Bowman’s Forest

Bilingual mining license notice, NZ

According to the authority of the Queen’s Government, in the year 1877 the Parliament passed a law titled The Mines Act, 1877. It states that all persons without a miner’s right, lease, or mining permit who dig, wash, or extract gold from the ground on Crown land shall …

Bilingual mining license notice, NZ

Translation into Chinese of mining license requirement and penalties. Mining licenses were common as was the need to ensure people understood what was required. The English is of the original Act rather than a translation of the Chinese.

Arrowtown

Arrowtown

New Zealand

New Zealand

Hippodrome Advertising

HAYMARKET HIPPODROME Hay-street, near George-street 戰爭旗色 With the Colours This theatre is located near the corner of Hay Street and George Street in Sydney. It is now presenting the play “With the Colours”, a marvellous performance that amazes and delights audiences. Spectators from all around …

Belmore Market

Belmore Market next to Belmore Park was the fresh produce market in the 1890s before it was relocated to Paddy's Market. The new Paddy's Market was built between 1908-1914, located near Darling Harbour and the railway. Many Chinese market gardeners and merchants sold their products or worked …

Baths, Amherst

While this is what the sign says there is little evidence of a bath house Chinese or otherwise and it is more likely this is a made up explanation for a site that has no ready explanation.

Amherst

Amherst

Basket, gold mine Brindabella

Cane basket with cane handles, used for carrying light items. Found at an old goldmine at Brindabella, near Queanbeyan. It is unknown if this basket was used by Chinese miners, but it has been attributed to this by the museum. An example of association: gold mine + woven basket = Chinese.

Queanbeyan

Queanbeyan

Band, Emmaville

"At Emmaville, a small tin-mining town about 20 miles north of Deepwater N.S.W. The bandsmen never fail to attract an audience.” —Photo: B. R. Tooth. Sydney Mail, 13 February 1924, p.19.

ASIO, denial of permanent residency

ASIO often spied on the Chinese community in the Cold War era and used its powers to deny people residence or citizenship for affiliation with pro-China organisations. “This action might have a beneficial effect within the local Chinese community” See also: Cottle, Drew & Keys, Angela. (2007). Red‐hunting in …

Altar, Rockhampton

Joss House altar removed from Lion Creek Temple and now in Rockhampton Chinese Association. This is a beautifully preserved Joss House altar that was removed from the Lion Creek Temple and is now in the Rockhampton Chinese Association. The only comparable example is that in the QVMAG Launceston.

Alma Mary Chong (Wang)

Alma Mary Chong (Wang) Sydney University graduate For a full biography see: Alma Mary Wang (1908–1982) by Patrick Bourke and Julia T. Martínez

Alec Fong Lim monument

The plaque with bas relief sculpture commemorates the official opening of Lake Alexander which was named in honour of Alec Fong Lim AM, former Mayor of Darwin from 1984 to 1990.

Safe, Anthony Hordern

Safe purchased from Anthony Hordern in Sydney and transported to the Zhongshan village of the Lee family. This safe was found in 1999 helping hold open a door in an modest house located in an average village in the district of Liang Du of Zhongshan County , southern China. The safe …

Donations, hospitals

A distinctive form of philanthropy undertaken by the Chinese communities in Australia was the donation of funds to local hospitals. These contributions, frequently listed in newspapers, took the form of both individual gifts and collective community donations, and were often acknowledged by local hospital committees. During the nineteenth and early …

Collections, web-based

Web-Based Chinese-Australian Collections The rise of social media and the internet has given a new avenue to the preservation and presentation of Chinese-Australian heritage through a growing number of web-based collections. Scattered Legacy is one such example, but it sits within a broader ecosystem of more …

Lily Ah Toy

When Lily Ah Toy (born Wong Wu Len) came into the world in Darwin in October 1917, her father didn’t even register her birth. ‘Well the war’s on, and another girl’, he said. The prospect that she might be adopted out to a woman in Darwin desperate for …

J Ah Toy & Co, Darwin

A general store (J Ah Toy & Co.) opened by Jimmy Ah Toy in Kunckey Street, Darwin in 1947. Jimmy Ah Toy operated Ah Toy's Store in Pine Creek from 1935. After the war, Jimmy and his wife Lily returned to Pine Creek in 1945 and continued running Ah Toy …

Jimmy Ah Toy

Jimmy Ah Toy was the husband of Lily Ah Toy and father of Eddie Ah Toy, He bought Ah Toy Store in Pine Creek in 1935. Jimmy Ah Toy was born in 1915. He was one of the ten children of Jimmy Ah Yu. He was raised in the Old …

Mount Diamond

Mount Diamond

Names / Romanisation

Many systems for the romanisation of Chinese dialects[1] have been used in the past and so much confusion results when texts from different periods are used. ‘Mandarin’, which is the national language of the People’s Republic of China, has had numerous romanisation systems developed to enable it to …

Old bakery, Pine Creek

The baker's shop and bakery in Pine Creek, are of historical and architectural significance as an example of a Top End galvanised iron store typical of the Pine Creek district. This is the earliest surviving example of this type of store and contributes to the Main Terrace streetscape. Source …

Ah Toy's Store, Pine Creek

Ah Toy's Store was located at 35 Main Terrace in Pine Creek. It was opened in 1935 by Jimmy and Lily Ah Toy. The store has been serving people since it was Wing Cheong & Co. tailor shop and general store early this century. It became Ah Toy’s Store …

Pine Creek Chinatown

Pine Creek Chinatown After the bombing of Darwin in 1942 the family was evacuated to Adelaide and they returned to Pine Creek in 1945 to re-open the general store. When they came back after the war, they went to the back of the old shop and when Lily went …

Burial register, Normanton

The Chinese population of Normanton and the Gulf region was substantial and significant intermarriage took place, especially with the indigenous people. No marked graves remain at Normanton cemetery (two previously recorded stones could not be found in 2024). "The burials register (to 2012) records 27 burials between 1887 and 1930 …

Districts of origin / qiaoxiang

Districts of origin / qiaoxiang Much of provincial China was historically divided into counties or districts composed of groups of villages. While some migrants organised themselves along village lines when numbers allowed, in Australia most structured their associations around the larger district level. Among the Cantonese-speaking settlers, the principal districts …

Canton

Canton - this could refer to either the City (Guangdong) or the province (Guangzhou) and usually just refers to a Pearl River Delta district.

Naturalisation notice, Tommy Ah Gow

"The 1903 Naturalization Act is also usually cited as instrumental in denying citizenship to those not welcome within a White Australia with its specific denial of naturalisation for ‘an aboriginal native of Asia, Africa, or the Islands of the Pacific’. However, this legal limitation did not last long and …

Tommy Ah Gow

Tommy Ah Gow was a long time resident of the Gulf country. He married locally and had a number of children. In the 1920s he made an attempt to be become naturalised but was denied due to the prevailing white Australia policy. "Tommy Ah Gow was married to White woman …

Normanton

Normanton The Chinese population of Normanton and the Gulf region was substantial and significant intermarriage took place, especially with the indigenous people. No marked graves remain at Normanton cemetery (two previously recorded stones could not be found in 2024).

China

China

Way Lee headstone

Chinese-born Yett Soo War Way Lee immigrated to Sydney from Dongguan in 1874. By 1878 he had established Way Lee & Co, an importing business in Adelaide, and soon had trading interests across Australia. Way Lee was well respected in South Australian business circles, but had to battle constantly against …

Nyngan Cemetery

Nyngan

Nyngan

Headstone, Jimmy Cheong Ah Yu, Pine Creek Cemetery

Grave, Charles See Kee

Charles See Kee's grave, Darwin General Cemetery. Charles Tsang See-Kee was a prominent Darwin Chinese leader involved with the Chinese Chamber of Commerce, the Darwin Chinese Recreation Club and the Ethnic Communities Council.

Grave, Arthur Lee Hang Gong

The tombstone of Arthur Lee Hang Gong, Hong Kong Arthur Hang Gong Lee born in Creswick, Victoria and died of throat cancer in Hong Kong on 21 August 1907 at the age of 39. He was buried in Hong Kong Cemetery.

Aleck King

The photo of Aleck King, a market gardener in Caltowie, South Australia A Chinese man identified as Aleck King of Caltowie who had lived in South Australia for sixty-one years, had been naturalised for forty years, and was returning to China for a visit. Aleck married Emily Parsons, formerly …

Emily King's headstone

Aleck married Emily Parsons, formerly of Dorset, in Adelaide and they moved to Caltowie where he became a market gardener. The Caltowie correspondent for The Areas Express, 9 June 1877, page 3, reports: "A Chinaman named King has started a garden in this township, and he has now a fine …

Caltowie

Caltowie

Memorials

There are a number of general memorials to the history of the Chinese in various localities. While much of mainstream Australia remains largely unaware of its Chinese heritage, there have been efforts—particularly at the local level—to memorialise specific aspects of Chinese Australian history. Some of these efforts are …

Avoca Chinese Garden

Bi Jiang grave

Tomb of Bi Jiang, Avoca Lead Wayside Stop, Avoca The Avoca Lead Wayside Stop is an interesting spot located just out of Avoca on the Pyrenees Highway, heading towards Maryborough. This interesting rest area features a Chinese tomb, the site of a butcher shop, and well presented information signs describing …

Chinese Australian History in 88 Objects

Chinese Australian History in 88 Objects Internet Archive

Chinese camps

Under both NSW and Victoria law operate areas of residence for Chinese miners were to be designated. These were called “camps” and Chinese camps were the general label for any Chinese majority part of rural towns in the two colonies regardless of their nominal legal origin. Gradually the designation "camp …

12 Mile Chinatown, Douglas-Daly

Douglas-Daly

Douglas-Daly

Cheefah ticket

Chiffa or Cheefah (字花) was probably introduced by the pearl divers who came to Broome where it was played well into the second half of the 20th century, as well as earlier that century in Perth. The Cheefah winning combination is drawn before the tickets are sold and are …

Chinese in Northwest America Committee

Chinese in Northwest America Committee

Temple Bells, Chinese diaspora

Joss House bells of the 19th century and early 20th century were made in Foshan and are found in many places around the Chinese diaspora. Made of cast iron the durability of Joss House bells makes them a good marker of the distribution of southern Chinese around the world. To …

Chinese diaspora

Chinese diaspora

Diaspora, Chinese

Diaspora, Chinese

Bell inscription, Tingha Temple

國泰民安 Cantonese: gwok³ taai³ màn⁴ on¹ Mandarin: guó tài mín ān Translation: “The country prospers and the people live in peace.” 風調雨順 Cantonese: fūng chìuh yú seuhn Mandarin: fēng tiáo yǔ shùn Translation: “Favourable winds and timely rain.”

Temple Bell, Tingha

Bell from one of the at least two Joss Houses at Tingah, now in McCrossins Mill Museum, Uralla. For more information about this bell and its inscriptions see Our Chinese Past

Temple bell, Port Douglas

侯王宮(Hou Wang Gong)---this is temple’s name 坑仔(keng Zai) the place where donor was living there. ⿈嬌(Huang Jiao) the name who donate the bell 啟(Qiˇ/ Ciˇ) presented by 國泰⺠安(Guo Tai Min An)—the country is prosperous and …

Temple bell, Port Douglas

Temple bell, now in a private collection

Inscription Temple Bell, Georgetown

Temple Bell from former Georgetown Joss House 風調雨順 Cantonese pronunciation: Fūng tìuh yúh seuhn Mandarin: fēng tiáo yǔ shùn Translation: “Favourable winds and timely rain” — an auspicious phrase meaning harmony in nature and prosperity for the people. A common inscription on bells, see Innisfail Temple Bell 光 …

Temple Bell, Georgetown

This is one of only ten remaining bells associated with Australia's more than 100 nineteenth century Joss Houses (though not all had bells). It was originally donated to the temple in 1905, when it was opened as Georgetown's second temple. The bell was in private hands after the …

Bell inscription, Darwin Temple (old)

Temple name: 烈聖宮 Lit Sing Gong Temple of the Venerable Sage. 國泰民安 Pronunciation (Cantonese): gwok³ taai³ man⁴ on¹ Pronunciation (Mandarin): guó tài mín ān Translation: “The nation prospers and the people live in peace.”

Bell, Cooktown Temple

F oundry mark identifying the maker. 昌信爐造 Pinyin: Chāng Xìn lú zào Cantonese (Jyutping): coeng¹ seon³ lou⁴ zou⁶ Translation: “Made by the Chang Xin Foundry.” ( Chang Xin foundry or workshop; 爐造 literally “furnace-made / cast.”) Donors 華文公所敬送 Pinyin: Huá Wén gōng …

Temple Bell, Cooktown

Temple Bell of the Cooktown Joss House now in the James Cook Museum. Erected in 1892 and sold at public auction in 1938, the bell and large urn survived to be housed in Cooktown’s James Cook Museum.

Bell, Brisbane Chinatown

A modern cast bell in a “temple” style marking the site of the Brisbane Chinatown. Installed as part of the revamp of the Brisbane Chinatown the bell features Australian motifs and simplified characters as well as English. The model for the bell is the grander temple bells similar to that …

Temple Bell, Tingha

This bell is from one of the at least two Joss Houses at Tingha. This one was purchased by a local presumably at the time the temple was destroyed around 1930. The bell is now used as the bell for St Andrews Church, Tingha.

Bell inscription, Lit Soon Goong, Cairns

烈聖宮 Pinyin: Liè Shèng Gōng Cantonese (Jyutping): lit⁶ sing³ gung¹ Translation: “Lit Soon Temple” or “Temple of the Venerable Sage.”

Bell inscriptions, Innisfail Temple

風調雨順 Pinyin: fēng tiáo yǔ shùn Cantonese (Jyutping): fung¹ tiu⁴ jyu⁵ seon⁶ Meaning: “Favourable winds and timely rains.” A common inscription on bells, see Atherton and Cairns Temple bells. 烈聖宮 Pinyin: liè shèng gōng Cantonese (Jyutping): lit⁶ sing³ gung¹ Meaning: “Lit Sing Temple” or “Temple …

Temple Bell, Innisfail

The Innisfail Chinese Temple bell is one of only three bells still within continuing temples. The bell gives a date 炎曆卅三年歲次戊戌 “Flame Calendar, 33rd year, cyclical year Wu Xu (戊戌).” This is either 1898 CE , or possibly 1938 CE. The existing …

Bell, Buk Ti Goong Temple, Cairns

風調雨順 is the same inscription as on the Atherton Temple bell.

Bell, Atherton Temple

Like many Joss House bells in Australia this bell was cast with a dedication, maker and date information. Characters: 風調雨順 Cantonese (Jyutping): fung¹ tiu⁴ jyu⁵ seon⁶ / Pinyin: fēng tiáo yǔ shùn Translation: “Favourable winds and timely rains” or “May the winds be gentle and the rains come …

Temple Bell, Atherton

The Atherton Joss House bell is one of only eight surviving from the 19th century temples that once were dotted in many rural towns. The Atherton temple has been restored and its bell is one of only three that continue to reside with their original temple.

Temple Bell, Beijing

This bell was part of the loot brought back by colonial troops who had participated in the suppression of the Boxer Rebellion in which troops from various colonial powers had defended their nationals during a popular uprising. The Chinese community of Sydney supported the sending of these troops, fearing the …

Wylie Creek Joss House

"They built a Joss house, and worshipped strange gods out at the Brisbane claim and at Wylie Creek." The Brisbane Courier , 19 November 1904, p.12. “Wylie Creek was in fete last week. 160 Chinamen foregathered to celebrate the opening of the New Joss House. Pig, wine, and whisky …

Wylie Creek

Wylie Creek

Wombat Joss House

In evidence given at a murder trial reference was made to a Joss House at Wombat: "he asked me whether Ah Kong was in the joss-house" Empire , 29 April 1864, p.3.

Wombat

Wombat

Windeyer Joss House

“Clarke's Creek (alias "The Devil's Hole") is close handy, and in travelling through, one passes the Chinese quarters and the Joss House, where the childlike and bland Celestial prays on all occasions when he is not engaged in cultivating cabbage or courting the smiles of Dame Fortune …

Vaughan Joss House

"The Secretary of the Ladies' Benevolent Society desires to acknowledge the sum of £1 3s 4d, forwarded by Sun Yee Goon, from the sale of the Chinese joss house at Vaughan." Mount Alexander Mail , 5 November 1910, p.2.

Wilcannia Joss House

“Wilcannia, Friday.— On Thursday afternoon, about 5 o'clock, the Wilcannia police arrested a Chinaman, at the local joss house, named Kum Ly, on a charge of having stabbed a country-man named Oh Kum." Evening News , 12 July 1890, p.6. "My head was dressed by the doctor …

Wilcannia

Wilcannia

Waratah Joss House

Waratah

Waratah

Vaughan

Vaughan

Tumut Joss House

"The Chinese present, including priests from the Joss House at Tumut Plains" The Burrangong Argus , 30 August 1882, p.3.

Tumut

Tumut

Tambaroora Joss House

“The Hill End Observer states that a new Joss-house was opened with great solemnity by the Celestials at Tambaroora on Thursday week. The occasion was observed as a general holiday, and the Chinamen mustered in large number, everyone bringing an offering, however small its intrinsic value, and laying …

Stanley Joss House

“A Chinaman, who is supposed to be laboring under some religious delusion, set fire to the Joss House at the Stanley Camp yesterday morning about 11 o'clock. That temple was completely destroyed, and it was only by the aid of the police that the camp was saved from …

Stanley

Stanley

Sofala Joss House

"The first time I went to attend a place of worship in Sofala, the central township of the Turon, my attention was caught by a large tent (within bowshot of the Christian's meeting place) gaudily decorated inside and out, with tapers lighted on a table inside at noonday …

Sofala

Sofala

Skeleton Creek Joss House

About 1876 the district experienced a very severe drought; consequently, a great quantity of wash dirt was stacked, awaiting the looking for rain. Coning of incense, failing to produce the desired change in the weather, the hard-hearted God was chopped to pieces. Another was at once installed, and that …

Skeleton Creek

Skeleton Creek

San Francisco Joss House

Joss Houses were also common in many other parts of the Cantonese Pacific.

Cantonese Pacific

The concept of the Cantonese Pacific is crucial to understanding the context of Chinese migration From the Pearl River Delta. It highlights that movement from Guangdong’s Cantonese-speaking regions was not simply a one-way journey from a home village, through Hong Kong, to destinations such as California or …

San Francisco

San Francisco

North America

North America

Rutherglen Joss House

"A Chinese camp at Rutherglen was destroyed by fire on February 27. Eleven buildings were consumed, including two stores and a Joss House. Incendiarism is suspected." Australian Town and Country Journal , 4 March 1914, p.53.

Rutherglen

Rutherglen

Store calendar, Sam Kee

Sam Kee’s store advertising calendars. Bushells advertising calendar for Sam Kee’s store Tingha.

S. Fong Lee Store calendar

S. Fong Lee Store, Inverell

Roll Up placard Hyde Park

"Placards were posted about the streets on Thursday, calling upon the citizens to "roll-up" and hold a monster meeting in Hyde Park that evening, for the purpose of expressing their hatred of the terrible Mongolians, and their sympathy with the lambs of Burrangong. The evening, however, was very …

Businesses (urban)

Cities hosted a wider variety of businesses, many of which served those in the rural areas. In the late nineteenth century, Chinese merchants established numerous stores across rural Australia, extending a commercial network that had long been centred in urban hubs such as Melbourne and Sydney. Many of these firms …

Quongs Bakery, Darwin

Quong’s Bakery, under the family’s house in Smith Street West. The Quong family returned from Queensland to Darwin in November 1945. Very soon they had opened the town’s first post-war bakery, Quong’s Bakery, under the family’s house in Smith Street West. The bakery soon …

Long Tack Sam (郞 德 山)

Long Tack Sam was a Shandong born US based entertainer whose group often toured Australia. More images: Saturday Evening Express, 1 February 1936, p.9. See also: The Magical Life of Long Tack Sam

Hong Yuen's Store

Hong Yuen's stores at Inverell, Texas, Moree, Warialda

Sym Choon & Co Ltd in Rundle Street

Fireworks advertisement

Gordon Sym Choon’s store was at 235 Rundle St. He traded in peanuts, was an agent for Wrigley’s chewing gum, and sold fireworks from China and England right up to the 70s. Gordon was the youngest child of John Sym Choon and So Yung Moon who immigrated from …

Dr. Reginald, J.A.E.P. Wong

Chinese Festival Night program, 1923 Reginald Jaep Wong awarded a Master of Surgery at the University of Sydney, 1918. Sunday Times , 14 April 1918, p.2. It was obviously of great significance to the Chinese community to have this link with RPAH even though Dr Wong had departed for Hong …

Advertising

General advertising was common as was advertising in Chinese language newspapers by both Chinese and non-Chinese businesses Chinese Advertising in Australia Chinese business advertising in colonial and early-federation Australia operated across three distinct worlds. Within the Chinese community, merchants advertised in their own newspapers — promoting herbal shops, shipping …

Chong Bros Calendar

Chinese Australian family run stores were common.

Guyra

Guyra

Foon Kee, shopkeeper Wagga

Foon Kee was a long time Wagga resident, shopkeeper and herbalist. For a biography see: Geoffrey Burch - Foon Kee and Chinatown Wagga Wagga Advertiser 3 January 1899, p.1.

Bush clearing contractor, Harry Hong Fat

Wagga resident Harry Hong Fat contracted Chinese workers as scrub clearers. Wife - CAROLINE JANE LONG FAT, deceased , 1916 and CAROLINE PENELOPE FOO daughter? aka Caroline Penelope Sheehan

Chinese Festival Night, 1923 - advertising

These advertisements from the Chinese Festival Night program are a snapshot of some of the many Chinese owned businesses in Sydney in the 1920s. Included are a few non-Chinese businesses who found it worth their while to also advertise. The mixture of Chinese and non-Chinese advertising was common …

Chinese Festival Night Program, 1923

In 1923, the board of Sydney's Royal Prince Alfred Hospital organised a funding drive it called a "Community Campaign" aiming to secure some £23,000. The Chinese community of Sydney, led by G.Y.T. Quoy and the Chinese Chamber of Commerce, agreed to contribute its "Chinese quota" by …

Willie Choy's Empire Cafe, Murwillumbah

Willie Lum Choy acquired Chow Kum’s Empire Cafe opposite the Post Office in Main Street. Murwillumbah Fire - arson suspected. The Sydney Morning Herald , Wednesday 11 December 1929, p.18 .

Murwillumbah

Murwillumbah

Pekin Cafe Menu

"The Pekin Cafe at 206 Pitt-street, which is now open for meals in both European and Chinese style of cookery, is certainly an attractive exotic in our midst. The whole of thc partitions, of carved and decorated wood, as well as the furniture inlaid with mother-o'-pearl …

Ruby Creek Joss Hose

"The Wheel Edith on Ruby Creek and the Brisbane mine up the creek paid spanking dividends, and on the latter the Chinese established their camp and built their joss house." Toowoomba Chronicle and Darling Downs Gazette , 17 December 1928, p.9. "They built a Joss house, and worshipped strange …

Ruby Creek

Ruby Creek

Ravenswood Joss House

"A sign of the times—a new Chinese Joss House!" The Week , 15 July 1882, p.8. The temple remnants are located south of Deighton Street and comprise a series of concrete, stone and earth platforms with overall dimensions of approximately 22 metres long and 10-11 metres wide …

Port Douglas Joss House

“The new Joss-house erected at Port Douglas by the Chinese was opened on Monday, January 28, at midnight, amid a great display of fireworks. The building is a handsome one, costing £180, and the inside furniture, &c., cost £170. A Chinese priest officiates." The Week , 18 February 1888 …

Port Douglas

Port Douglas

Parramatta Joss House

Palmerville Joss House

Palmerville

Palmerville

Palmer River gold rush

The Palmer River Gold Rush: a major but neglected goldrush that had a great impact on Queensland and NSW. The Palmer River Gold Rush of the 1870s, in the far north of Queensland, remains one of the most neglected of Australia’s gold rushes. Yet it was also among the …

Merchants

The category of merchant can be a somewhat vague one, yet it remains a highly significant aspect of Chinese trade history. From the outset, many of the men who arrived in Australia from the Pearl River Delta were not merely gold seekers, but individuals who already possessed some capital. They …

Omeo Joss House

“Our Omeo correspondent writes: Our celestial friends have been holding high holiday at Omeo, in celebration of the opening of the New Joss House. The august ceremony took place on Monday last, when the clans gathered in numbers in their best bib and tucker from every quarter. There could …

Omeo

Omeo

Nerrigundah Joss House

Mt Hogan Joss House

Image: No picture or artifact from this Joss House survives. James Ah Sue as the leading (only) storekeeper perhaps maintained the Joss House.

Mt Hogan

Mt Hogan

Mount Misery Joss House

"the Chinese camp, a very cosy, compact little township, containing about 400 residents, and possessing a large number of stores, together with a joss-house, a well-furnished lottery house and gambling saloon, etc." Leader , 8 October 1864, p.17. "He said he first fled for relief from his …

Moree Joss House

Moree Joss house - also referred to later as the Chinese Masonic Temple. "Close by the spot where the crime was committed is a Chinese Joss House in Heber Street, where a gaudy looking flag, inscribed with queer hieroglyhics in the Chinese tongue, may generally be seen flaunting in the breeze …

Moree

Moree

Moo Tai Mue Temple, Darwin

"There are some people that are beginning to like John Chinaman – they get fish, prawns and fine vegetables, &c, which they could not procure awhile ago at any price." The Northern Territory Times , 1 June 1878, p.1. "...in strolling along the beach, ... he may suddenly come upon a …

Mongarlowe Joss House

“There is a Chinese joss-house in the township, which we inspected on Sunday morning, and it was well worth a visit." Illawarra Mercury , 3 April 1894, p.3. "Then came the churches — Anglican, Roman Catholic, and Chinese. Ah Gow was the last of his tribe left there— a …

Mongarlowe

Mongarlowe

Shu Ack Fong's quilt

This is section H3 of the Darwin Commemorative wall quilt, on it is written 'Shu Ack Fong Evacuated to Adelaide by truck and train 29 March 1942'. Quilt section of the Darwin Commemorative Wall Quilt which includes the applique of the RSS & AILA (old RSL). The quilt was assembled between …

Portrait, Alderman Kennedy Smith

An interesting example of a gift from the Chinese community not of a banner done in the Chinese style but a portrait done in the European style by a Chinese artist.

N.S.W. Chinese Anti-Opium League Illuminated Address

This illuminated address was presented to W. E. Johnson for his assistance in getting the Commonwealth Government to pass a ban on opium. For the Chinese Australian elite, anxious both to see China strong again and to stave off the threat of a White Australia, opium was seen as debilitating …

Drawing of three Mount Gambier Chinese gardeners

Three Mount Gambier Chinese gardeners, Sammy Lew, Hey Lew, Jimmy Win Wah. 1946. Artist Unknown

Mount Gambier

Mount Gambier

Wahgunyah

Wahgunyah

Drawing, Chinese man fleeing from an Aboriginal man wielding an axe

Tommy McRae was an indigenous artist who sold his drawings. This image therefore is as likely to represent something his audience considered amusing as of any real scene. NLA: http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-139419296

Chinese in Melbourne 1854

Eugene von Guerard was a German artist who did a number of drawings with Chinese subjects. Volume 01: Sketchbook XXII. No. 4 Australian. Australia, Apr. 1854-Dec. 1857, 1858 / by Eugene von Guerard

Maryborough Joss House

"A large fire on Saturday night burnt down 15 houses at the Chinese Camp. Several stores, opium shops, gambling dens, and the joss-house were burnt." Launceston Examiner , 20 January 1876, p.2. "MARYBOROUGH, Friday. Shortly after 10 p.m. to-day an extensive fire occurred in the local …

Maryborough

Maryborough

Majorca Joss House

“John Chinaman is about to supersede John Bull in the occupancy of the Majorca Wet Lead. According to the local Times " the Chinamen have offered to purchase every claim on it, the price being L5 a share, they allege ' English man no good — too much lazy; Chinaman buy all …

Majorcia

Majorcia

Maitland Bar Joss House

"Some days since the Chinese residing in the neighborhood of the murders held a great prayer and invocation meeting in the temple of Joss, concluding with casting lots among themselves," The Age , 13 July 1868, p.3. "At one end of the village, in a detached situation, is a …

Maitland Bar

Maitland Bar

Mackay Joss House

"Another Mackay item ; "Yesterday, at Chinatown, there was quite a commotion amongst the Chinese, the occasion being the opening of a new Joss House. Tom toms were beaten, fireworks exploded, and altogether John celebrated the auspicious occasion in a lively manner, much to the annoyance of the white residents …

Mackay

Mackay

Little Bourke street, Joss House

"In the centre of the Chinese quarter, in Little Bourke-street east, and situated a door or two above the Joss House,.." Illustrated Australian News for Home Readers , 13 August 1872, p.168. 1903 - Strikers meet in Joss Hse The Herald , Wednesday 18 Nov 1903, p.3.

Lefroy (Nine Mile Springs) Joss House

"These pious Orientals have lately erected a neat little Joss-house, and have thus shown, according to their light, a good example to the more favored Christian inhabitants. The door of the little temple stands open to all, to barbarians as well as Celestials. Over the table or altar …

Lefroy

Lefroy

Launceston Joss House

"Peters, Barnard, and Co's store has, in fact, been the head-quarters of the Chinese, and here it is here, in an otherwise unoccupied portion of the yard, that they have built their joss-house." The Mercury , 23 August 1872, p.3. "The party intend to remain in …

Kiandra Joss House

"Two companies of Chinese have arrived from the Omeo. About 100 are camped near Mr. Scully's, and have made him an offer for his house, to convert it into a Joss House." Empire , 23 June 1860, p.3 . "The Chinese have a Joss House (or place of worship …

Pig Oven, Windeyer

Two Pig Ovens at former Chinese mining site Clarke’s Creek, Windeyer. “For her 2002 Honours thesis, Lin Johnston investigated the site of a Chinese camp at Clarkes Creek, Windeyer, NSW, describing one or possibly two stone ovens at the back of the camp area. The site, which included a …

Windeyer

Pig Oven, Windeyer

Pig Oven, Tingha

In fieldwork for her Honours thesis on the archaeology of Chinese suburban settlement in the north west New South Wales tin mining towns of Tingha and Emmaville, Rebecca Lin Yit found large earthen mounds with convex tops within 20 metres of both the temple site on Howell Road at Tingha …

Pig Oven, Timbarra

"In one place were the ruins of an old Chinese joss house, whilst nearby were three old Chinese stone ovens for roasting whole pig." The Gosford Times and Wyong District Advocate , 13 November 1924, p.7. “... the only relics left are an occasional ruin of an old chimney or …

Timbarra Joss House

"In one place were the ruins of an old Chinese joss house, whilst nearby were three old Chinese stone ovens for roasting whole pig." The Gosford Times and Wyong District Advocate , 13 November 1924, p.7. “... the only relics left are an occasional ruin of an old chimney or …

Timbarra

Timbarra

Pig Oven, Tambaroora

In 2018, Hill End resident Robert Anderson was alerted to the presence of a stone oven on the Tambaroora Common on old diggings off Andersons Road at Washing Gully, almost due west of Hill End. He showed the oven to Lorraine Purcell from the Hill End and Tambaroora Gathering Group …

Tambaroora

Tambaroora

Pig Oven, Stuart Town

A pig oven in Stuart Town was identified by Hoy Lee (1911-2006) in an interview with historian Janis Wilton in 1999. Lee was the son of Wong War Lai (Tommy Lee), who came to New South Wales from Baak Shek village in Jang Sheng County in 1888 to work …

Stuart Town

Stuart Town IRONBARK AND WELLINGTON ROAD DIGGINGS. https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/13012850