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Bendigo (Victoria)

Gallery

Details

Men from south China joined the rush to the Bendigo gold diggings in 1853. They worked cooperatively washing gold, and lived in small camps which emerged right across the field from Golden Gully to Back Creek, from White Hills to Long Gully and Eaglehawk. The protectorate system attempted to impose some control over these spaces with limited success. In May 1859 the Chinese community organised a concerted protest against the Chinese residence tax. The population reached its peak at about 6000, and steadily declined from about 1856. The Chinese were actively excluded from the quartz mining which developed from the mid 1860s, but continued to pan for alluvial gold in the gullies. Some Chinese were subsequently contracted by the large consolidated quartz mining companies to wash mine tailings for gold dust which had escaped the company’s machines. Along creeks at the edges of the city near Back Creek, Kangaroo Flat and White Hills, small cooperative groups of Chinese worked successful market gardens. Several furniture factories operated briefly in the late 1880s and 1890s.

By the late nineteenth century, the centre of Chinese Bendigo life was at the Ironbark Camp in the north east and a strip of shops in Bridge St just beyond the town’s chief public buildings. Chinese came to visit the doctor, have a haircut, buy clothes, mail their letters, pay their bills, and stock up on daily necessities and work equipment. They met to relax with friends over tea and a hearty meal, gossip, gamble and smoke. Four josshouses and a Chinese Anglican mission catered for their spiritual concerns. The Ironbark camp was also where celebrations were held for New Year, and it was from there that the Chinese contingent marched into town for the annual Easter Fair procession. Local Chinese associations including the See Yup Association later the Bendigo Chinese Association, and the Chinese Masonic Society offered support to the local community, used business and familial connections to stay in contact with China, and were fervently concerned with shifting political circumstances in China.

After the introduction of the 1901 Immigration Restriction Act, the Chinese community in Bendigo consisted of just several hundred people. Their scholarly pursuits, sporting achievements and business connections have nevertheless ensured they remain an active and visual part of the community.

Sources used to compile this entry: Cusack, Frank, Bendigo: A History, revised edn, Lerk and McClure, Bendigo, 2002; Golden Dragon Museum, The Chinese Community in Bendigo - A Unique History, Bendigo, Victoria, 1991, 0; ; Bendigo Golden Dragon Museum collection; unpublished research Valerie Lovejoy; unpublished research Amanda Rasmussen.

Prepared by: Amanda Rasmussen, La Trobe University

Related Families

Related Places

Archival Collections

P. Spark (private collection)

  • Peter Spark collection; P. Spark (private collection). Details

Published Resources

Books

  • Cusack, Frank, Bendigo: A History, revised edn, Lerk and McClure, Bendigo, 2002. Details

Book Sections

  • Collins, Yolande, 'Chinese communal arrangements in Bendigo, Victoria, c.1870s-1905, and Health Officer surveillance', in P. Macgregor (ed.), Histories of the Chinese in Australasia and the South Pacific, Museum of Chinese Australian History, Melbourne, 1995, pp. 394-408. Details

Journal Articles

  • Rasmussen, Amanda, 'The rise of Labor: A Chinese-Australian participates in Bendigo local politics at a formative moment, 1904-1905', Journal of Chinese Overseas, vol. 9, no. 2, 2013, pp. 245-271. Details

Online Resources

See also

  • Bendigo Golden Dragon Museum, Chinese Procession: Bendigo at Easter, Bendigo, 2003. Details
  • Golden Dragon Museum, The Chinese Community in Bendigo - A Unique History, Bendigo, Victoria, 1991, 0. Details
  • Holsworth, Carol, The Story of Yar Loong, Journal of Chinese Australia, October, http://131.172.16.7/jca/issue02/07Holsworth.html. Details
  • Rasmussen, Amanda, 'Networks and negotiations: Bendigo's Chinese and the Easter fair', Journal of Australian Colonial History, vol. 6, 2004, pp. 79-92. Details

Images

Title
Ah Hew [Ah Hen]
Type
Photograph
Date
c. 1900
Place
Australia - Victoria - Bendigo (Sandhurst)
Creator
Bartlett Bros, Bendigo
Details
Title
Ah Louey
Type
Photograph
Date
c. 1900
Place
Australia - Victoria - Bendigo (Sandhurst)
Creator
Smith, R. Dermer, Bull St, Bendigo
Details
Title
Altar at Chinese temple in Ironbark (Bendigo)
Type
Photograph
Place
Australia - Victoria - Bendigo (Sandhurst) - Ironbark
Details
Title
Chew Choon
Type
Photograph
Date
c. 1900
Place
Australia - Victoria - Bendigo (Sandhurst)
Details
Title
Chinese temple at Ironbark (near Bendigo)
Type
Photograph
Place
Australia - Victoria - Bendigo (Sandhurst) - Ironbark
Details
Title
'Digging life 25 years ago'
Type
Illustration
Date
20 December 1879
Place
Australia - Victoria - Bendigo (Sandhurst)
Details
Title
Family group at Bridge Street, Bendigo
Type
Photograph
Date
1940s
Place
Australia - Victoria - Bendigo (Sandhurst)
Details
Title
George Fooke and Ruby Appoo wedding party
Type
Photograph
Date
c. 11 August 1908
Place
Australia - Victoria - Bendigo (Sandhurst)
Details
Title
Li Chung
Type
Photograph
Date
c. 18 June 1900
Place
Australia - Victoria - Bendigo (Sandhurst)
Details
Title
Louey Ah Kwoe
Type
Photograph
Date
c. 1900
Place
Australia - Victoria - Bendigo (Sandhurst)
Creator
Smith, R. Dermer, Bull St, Bendigo
Details
Title
Louey Ah Wong
Type
Photograph
Date
c. 1900
Place
Australia - Victoria - Bendigo (Sandhurst)
Creator
Smith, R. Dermer, Bull St, Bendigo
Details
Title
Louey Ang
Type
Photograph
Date
c. 26 November 1899
Place
Australia - Victoria - Bendigo (Sandhurst)
Details
Title
Louey Goon
Type
Photograph
Date
c. 1900
Place
Australia - Victoria - Bendigo (Sandhurst)
Creator
Bartlett Bros, Bendigo
Details
Title
Louey Leong
Type
Photograph
Date
c. 1900
Place
Australia - Victoria - Bendigo (Sandhurst)
Creator
Bartlett Bros, Bendigo
Details
Title
Louey Quing
Type
Photograph
Date
c. 1900
Place
Australia - Victoria - Bendigo (Sandhurst)
Creator
Bartlett Bros, Bendigo
Details
Title
Que O'Hoy and bicycle
Type
Photograph
Date
c. 1903 - c. 1905
Place
Australia - Victoria - Bendigo (Sandhurst)
Details
Title
Unidentified boy (Chinese-European ancestry) in uniform (band?)
Type
Photograph
Date
c. 1877 - c. 1883
Place
Australia - Victoria - Bendigo (Sandhurst)
Details
Title
Unidentified man sluicing in Bendigo area
Type
Photograph
Date
c. 1889 - c. 1890
Place
Australia - Victoria - Bendigo (Sandhurst)
Details

See also

Title
Aerial view of dragon circling the Alexandra fountain
Type
Photograph
Date
c. 1914 - c. 1941
Place
Australia - Victoria - Bendigo (Sandhurst) - Pall Mall
Details
Title
Alice O'Hoy 1917
Type
Photograph
Date
1917
Place
Australia - Victoria - Bendigo (Sandhurst)
Details
Title
Annie Moyle (nee Goon Wing) c1910
Type
Photograph
Date
c. 1910
Place
Australia - Victoria - Bendigo (Sandhurst)?
Details
Title
Annie Moyle with her daughter Edna Millar (nee Moyle) and granddaughter Joyce Spark
Type
Photograph
Date
1947
Place
Australia - Victoria - Bendigo (Sandhurst)
Details
Title
Charles Powell Hodges with groom
Type
Photograph
Date
c. 1890
Place
Australia - Victoria - Bendigo (Sandhurst)
Details
Title
Claude Pang, Jean and Dorrie Shang, Jan O'Hoy in Bendigo
Type
Photograph
Date
c. 1937
Place
Australia - Victoria - Bendigo (Sandhurst)
Details
Title
Dr James Lamsey in buggy
Type
Photograph
Date
c. 17 April 1900
Place
Australia - Victoria - Bendigo (Sandhurst)
Details
Title
Edna, Mabel and Edith Moyle
Type
Photograph
Date
1912
Place
Australia - Victoria - Bendigo (Sandhurst)?
Details
Title
George Fooke and Ruby Appoo wedding party
Type
Photograph
Date
c. 11 August 1908
Place
Australia - Victoria - Bendigo (Sandhurst)
Details
Title
George Young and family documentation
Type
archival object
Date
June 1899 - June 1900
Place
Australia - Victoria - Eaglehawk
Details
Title
Henrietta Chew (nee Goonwing) and Charles Chew with children Walter and Archibald
Type
Photograph
Date
c. 1913
Place
Australia - Victoria - Bendigo (Sandhurst)?
Details
Title
Interior of Chinese temple at Ironbark, Bendigo
Type
Photograph
Place
Australia - Victoria - Bendigo (Sandhurst)
Details
Title
Ironbark Chinese village
Type
Photograph
Date
c. 1889 - c. 1890
Place
Australia - Victoria - Bendigo (Sandhurst) - Ironbark
Details
Title
Norma Quon and Beverly Geechoun, Jubilee Day procession, Melbourne
Type
Photograph
Date
c. 1951
Place
Australia - Victoria - Melbourne
Details
Title
Que O'Hoy and bicycle
Type
Photograph
Date
c. 1903 - c. 1905
Place
Australia - Victoria - Bendigo (Sandhurst)
Details
Title
Samuel Lougoon and his wife Mary Ellen and two of their sons, Percival and Clarence
Type
Photograph
Date
c. 1895
Place
Australia - Victoria - Bendigo (Sandhurst)?
Details
Title
Unidentified women in Chinese opera costumes for Bendigo Easter procession
Type
Photograph
Date
1920s
Place
Australia - Victoria - Bendigo (Sandhurst)
Details
Title
Wedding portrait of Bill Moy (Bor Nam) and Ethel Tong with Charles Moy and Rose Moy
Type
Photograph
Date
c. 26 February 1927
Place
Australia - Victoria - Bendigo (Sandhurst)
Details

Created: 27 September 2005, Last modified: 7 November 2005