chinese immigration to queensland - dragon tails conference report presented at state library of...
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Dragon Tails: 4th Australasian Conference on Chinese in Australia.
Christina Ealing-Godbold2015
A Tale of Temples & DragonsWithout understanding the history of the Chinese immigrants, you cannot possibly understand the history of North Queensland
Dragon Tails 2015• Comparing the Qld experience • Researchers from USA, South Africa, New
Zealand, Indonesia, and all Australian states
• Multi-professional approach – archaeologists, anthropologists, museum curators, historians, genealogists.
History of Chinese LabourersThe Coolie Trade
Used world wide as a replacement for slaves - From British abolition - 1834Used in tropical environments where white workers were supposedly not able to withstand the heat and conditionsCuba – sugar plantations used Chinese
Prof. Evelyn Hu DeHart Keynote Speaker
Race History Expert, Brown University, R.I.Studied Chinese Labourers in Cuba1877 Chinese commissioners conduct survey of 3,000 Chinese in response to allegations of terrible treatment.- floggings, no food, no rest, cutting off fingers, sleeping in mud – high mortality.
Why Chinese labourers• Reliable and hard working• Worked long hours• Extracted minerals from land that had already
been worked by Europeans• Grew crops where there was little water.• Indentured – could not leave for a better pay
rate
Qld Workers Contracts• 5 years, working 6 days a week, • 9 and 1/2 hours per day, and • were to be paid 7 dollars per month.• food (8 oz meat per day), a suit of clothes and a
blanket yearly, free medical attendance and in the case of incurable illness, 50 dollars to pay the return passage home.
How many Chinese came to Queensland?
1861 5281864 6281868 26291877 22,0001881 112291891 85241901 76721911 5995
Location of Chinese in Qld• Cooktown to Cairns• Palmer River and gold fields of the north.• Stanthorpe • Pastoral workers – Gayndah/Burnett (from Amoy 1848-1853 3,000 men – NSW )• Fortitude Valley/Breakfast Creek/Frog’s Hollow –
Albert Street Brisbane.
Where did Chinese come from• Guangdong province, Canton and Amoy• Labour Brokers secured their services
Similar Contracts were used for labourers in Cuba, Peru and Queensland
• Miners were indentured labourers brought to work on mines belonging to other Chinese
Why Qld• Economic reasons• Taiping Rebellion – more than 20 million
Chinese reportedly killed in this period of complete civil unrest.
• Population explosion in China and pressure on the land
• Short Journey to Qld 13-18 days.
Gold! – “The New Gold Mt.” • Palmer River discovery in 1873 by James
Mulligan• By 1877, Palmer River fields were 90%
Chinese. • An estimated one hundred tonne of gold is
eventually extracted. • Last Qld Goldfield – Croydon 1886.
Ask the purpose of the enquiry• Family History• House Renovation• Local history• Land Use Survey
Immigration Restrictions
• 1873- Chinese Immigration Act • 1877 - Poll Tax of 10 Pds and limit
on mining on claims for first three years.
• 1888 – Severe Racism developed • 1901 – White Australia Policy
Racism! Heathens or Celestials
White Australia Policy• A complete bar on immigration• Concept – “Democracy required an
homogenous society”• Labour unions feared the lower pay rate
accepted by Chinese workers.• Chinese could not own land.
Genealogy of the Overseas Chinese
Emigration is a Western idea, and one that did not exist in Chinese cultural concepts. In China, the official view was that they were leaving home temporarily to make money. The Quing Government actually outlawed emigation or “leaving the home country forever.”
Tracing Family in China• Exact Chinese name of your ancestor • Name of the village in China where they
lived before emigration• Find Chinese characters for both• Chinese headstones can sometime give
you Chinese names in original characters.
Useful Sites for China• https://familysearch.org/learn/wiki/en/China_Gen
ealogy - how to get started
• https://familysearch.org/search/collection/1787988 - Chinese Genealogies 1239-2014
• http://villagedb.friendsofroots.org/search.cgi Use this website to track your village. Note it has Chinese characters
Finding Chinese Names• Structure – Family name, Generation
name, Person name e.g. Kwong Sue Duc• Transliteration – also many dialects• Changed names when
successful/married/moved cities• Anglicized – Huey became Hughes, Lee -
Long became Leong, Yung - Young
Records in Queensland• Queensland State Archives –
– List of coloured Asiatics 1913 –South Sea Islanders, Japanese, Chinese, Malay, Greek and Indian.
– Inquest Records– National Archives - Naturalization records,
Alien Registration, Certificates of Exemption
More Records• Annual Licenses – for all jobs – Queensland
Govt Gazette and State Archives• Aboriginal Act of 1897 – Protectorate records
where they married indigenous Australians.• Police Records –Aliens/movement forms• Trove – court reports/ community
reports/Petitions and Letters to the Editor.
Aliens! - World War One• Alien Registration certificates• Not allowed to fight in WW 1• Had to be 75% white to get around this• Doctors used to prove the percentage• Chinese leases squashed after WW1 for
Soldier Settlement blocks.
Storekeepers• Many Qld Country towns had Chinese
storekeepers.• Examples are William Lum Chew of Dalby
and Yip Ah Chee of Surat.• Selling/trading was part of their village life
in Canton, where each family took it in turns to sell their wares at the market.
Business Model• Grew produce - hawked them after work• Opened a store – many small investors• Bought in nephews, sons, relatives to work
70 hour weeks– low pay- lived on site• Many branches of stores/market gardens• Diversification
William Lum Chew, DalbyCame to Cooktown 1881 –”Glamis Castle”Dalby by 1888. Married Harriet Archie had 6 children and then lost his business in a fire in 1915. Died 1937.Ah Lum Chew, Lum Quee, Lim Chew, William Lum Chee, William Lum, William Lum –Choo, William Ah Chu and possibly Jung Gum Chew.
Index to Coloured Asiatics 1913
Shipping arrivals• Mariners and Ships in Australian Waters,
http://mariners.records.nsw.gov.au/ is a useful online website
• search each of the years, month by month, to see which ships came from Hong Kong. Use Control Find and word “Hong”
• Use Control Find again to search for the name e.g. “Lum” within that shipping list.
Which ship did Lum Chew a?“Glamis Castle” or“Thales” – bothStopped at Cooktown?
Alien Registration Queensland iAlien Registration Said he arrived in1884, but List of AsiaticsSaid 1881.
Births deaths marriagesLanguage and transcriptions of the original language compound the difficulties.
8 Children to William Lum Chew and Harriet Archie (Ah Chee) from 1898 to 1914
Harriet Lillie Lum Chew 1898Joseph Herbert Lum Chew 1900Anne Cora Lum Chew 1902Frank Roy Lum ChewLeslie Buckle Lum ChewVictor Archie Lum Chew
1905 19121908 (died age 2)
Lum Chew Fruiterer loses his Destroyed by Fire – 1915.
CEDT - Lum – Several Trips to China 1916 -1922
Agricultural Geniuses!• Vegetables – grown in arid conditions• By 1888 Brisbane was reliant on the
vegetables and fruit of the Chinese• Leased land from White farmers• Founded Banana growing in Qld.• Sugar Cane also.
MethodsIrrigation – maximized waterFertilizer – Dung, Hops from XXXX BreweryUse of fertile flood plains and creeksConstant monitoring – lived on site in hutsCheap, willing work force – long hours.Sold directly to the public – no middle man
How did the Chinese survive as aliens in racist lands?
• Temples or joss houses as communities.• Societies – Triads, Clan Groups, Masons• Chinatowns – opium, brothels, cooking.• Worked together to improve land, mines or in
business – Store may have 19 owners.• Assimilated easily into community • Married white or indigenous women
Brisbane Temple, Breakfast Creek
Processions aid AssimilationIn Cairns, Darwin, Bendigo, Atherton, Innisfail and other regional cities, the Chinese New Year and Festivals became part of the social fabric.Every temple imported costumes and instruments for the festivities.
Full bleed vertical image and caption like this. 20 pt arial Image bleed off left hand side, with caption at right