Celestials on the Goldfields

Chinese Historical Resources

Background info on Chinese

Chinese miners came out on a contract where their passage was paid for them and they had to pay this back to the money lender in China their families in china where held as assurance against this debt. The amount was to repay was their findings for the 1st year of mining.


Took loans and indentured their families to raise the money for the journey and escape the famine in Chine, for the chance to strike it rich and return with gold to China

  • Journeyed from remote villages to Canton or Amoy, sailed on junks to Hong Kong, and joined European ships and sailed to Australia with the first Europeans they had ever seen
  • The voyage from China to Melbourne or Robe S.Aust. took 3 months
  • Were charged £10-12 to sail to Robe, £1 to be ferried from ship to shore, up to £4 for guides to the goldfields, £1 residence tax and a £1 protection fee


Between 1851-1861, 43,657 Chinese entered the colony of Victoria. Such large numbers led to resentment and fear in the European population of which there was only a dozen chinese women, 2 of which were living in Ballarat. Miners didn't bring out their wives and children but merchants did.

  • In Ballarat, the main camp was on the site of the present athletic track, Llanberris Reserve, just off Main Road. In the period 1854-56 the Chinese population of Ballarat was as much as a third of the total population who lived in the camps of the Ballarat fields and surrounding district. Newspaper reports of the period speak often about the Chinese music and circuses that provided entertainment for all miners not just the Chinese in the streets of these camps.
  • A ten pound poll tax on Chinese immigrants is introduced in 1855 in Victoria — the first anti-Chinese legislation.
  • Walked over 440 kms to the Victorian goldfields in groups of up to 700 led by Bullocky guides over flooded wool trade tracks
  • Chinese Miners Stumbled on and discovered the richest, shallow, alluvial goldfield in Australia's history, the Canton lead, now Ararat
  • Many died of Eastern disease on the ships and when they landed, died of exhaustion and exposure on the walk, were abandoned in the bush by guides, were waylaid by squatters who blackmailed them into undertaking construction works for free, were thrown and burnt off their claims on the goldfields.

And still they came to make their fortune

Chinese people on the way to the Ravenswood gold fields, 1870

QLD State Library

Types of Portrayals Roles that can be undertaken done


Chinese

  • Merchants & Restaurant Tea house suppliers
  • Scribes
  • Miners Contract debit collectors, money lenders
  • Herbalists Doctors
  • Joss House Temple attendant care takers
  • Entertainment performers
  • Laundry service
  • Miners
  • Market Gardeners
  • People gambling or smoking opium


Europeans who had dealing with the chinese

  • Some european women married chinese men as they were seen to be hard workers and good providers
  • The chinese protectorate, Government officials who were in charge of the chinese district'
  • miners and other people gambling or seeking opium
  • people wanting vegetables or tea supplies or using laundry services


Research Photos

My photos taken at Sovereign hill Chinese displays

Information Resources

Golden threads: the Chinese in regional NSW 1850-1950

by Janis Wilton

Golden threads tells the story of the Chinese people who came to and sometimes settled in NSW from the first arrivals in the early 19th century, through the turbulent goldrush years and into the 20th century. Through their compelling and largely previously unpublished stories, the book explores their experiences, working lives, hopes and beliefs, and the attitudes of a white Australia which viewed the Chinese at one extreme as a menacing threat and at the other an exotic presence.

The book is structured around the themes of work, language, leisure, food, beliefs, leaving and staying. Richly illustrated in full colour, it brings together material from diverse sources including oral histories, government and media records, and objects and photographs from local museums and family collections.

A great resource for anyone interested in Australian-Chinese migration history and culture

it can be purchased from here

The Chinese-Australian Historical Images in Australia (CHIA) database is a catalogue of historical images of Chinese, Chinese immigrants and their descendants held in Australia.

A resource kit for teachers of Studies of Asia in the Middle Years pdf

Trouble in China, Gold Strike in Victoria, Funding the Passage, Preparation for the Journey, From Village to Ship

  • Bendigo's Chinese History - Living Stories of the Victorian

CHINA ILLUSTRATED by Thomas Allom

China, in a Series of Views, Displaying the Scenery, Architecture and Social Habits of that Ancient Empire: Drawn,

from Original ... by Thomas Allom. With Historical and Descriptive Notices by G. N. Wright, Volume 1

  • CHINA ILLUSTRATED by Thomas Allom

Select Engravings by Thomas Allom (1804-1872)

Printed in Four Volumes in London Between 1843 and 1847

Commentary by G.H. Wright

a series of 143 engraving by the British Architect and Illustrator Thomas Allom.

Accompanying the engravings are original commentaries published with them by G.H. Wrigh

t, a Protestant missionary who had spent some considerable time in China

Allom's illustrations, more than any other body of work up until that time, helped to provide a clearer picture of Imperial China, though certainly not a perfect one

Images can be viewed here

Museums

Chinese Museum

22 Cohen Place

Melbourne Victoria 3000

Phone: 61+ 3 9662 2888

Fax: 61+ 3 9663 2693

curator@chinesemuseum.com.au

www.chinesemuseum.com.au


Golden Dragon Museum

Bendigo

www.goldendragonmuseum.org/


Gum San Chinese Museum

Ararat

www.cpba.com.au/gum-san-chinese-museum


Bendigo Joss House Temple

Bendigo

http://www.bendigojosshouse.com/