This coloured lithograph shows the arrival of the first gold escort to Melbourne.

In the foreground you can see a Chinese man carrying goods using shoulder poles. Chinese were an everyday part of street life during the gold rush period.

Language skills were essential for just finding your way around a new city or town, particularly a gold rush town that was growing rapidly.

coloured lithograph by Atkinson and Atkinson

(1985.07.01)

Large numbers of Chinese gold prospectors began arriving in Melbourne from 1853 onwards. Little Bourke Street was a place to rest and obtain provisions before heading to the Victorian goldfields.

Between the passing of An act to make provisions for certain immigrants by the Victoria government in 1855 and An Act to make provision for levying a charge on Chinese arriving in South Australia by the South Australian government in 1857, ships carrying Chinese passengers were diverted to Robe in South Australia. Over 16,000 prospective Chinese miners walked approximately 500km from Robe to the Victorian goldfields.

Although Melbourne's Chinatown area and the Chinese camps on the goldfields were places where 'new chums' from China could find countrymen who spoke Cantonese, negotiating the journey between these places would have been eased by English-language skills.

Grosse, Frederick (1828-1894)

wood engraving published in' The Australian News for Home Readers (The
Illustrated Australian News'), 20 September 1866

(1985.07.33.pt02)

The Zhu phrasebooks mention the 四邑公司 (or Four Counties ('Siyi' in Mandarin, 'See Yup' in Cantonese) company/society) in Emerald Hill, South Melbourne. This is a reference to the site of the present-day See Yup Temple in South Melbourne.

The current building was formally operating as a temple until 1866, a few years after the publication of the Zhu phrasebooks.

The original wooden building was the main headquarters for the See Yup Society and would have had an altar for ancestor worship as well as meeting rooms and accommodation for members. The main meeting rooms of the Society are now in Little Bourke Street.

'Opening of the New Chinese Joss House, Emerald Hill', Australian News for Home Readers, 20 December 1866

(1750.0003.05)

This photograph is believed to have been taken of a coach in Newstead, near Castlemaine on its way to Fiddlers Creek (later Percydale), near Avoca. Fiddler's Creek was the site of an alluvial rush in 1853.

The coach is overflowing with Chinese miners and luggage. Note the Chinese-style hats on back of coach. Might there be a phrasebook in some of that luggage?

Without English, organising transport and finding out about new gold rushes would have been difficult. Special coach lines were established to cater to demand and there is evidence that two coach lines in Victoria were operated by Chinese during the 1850s and 1860s.

photographic print : gelatin silver ; 9.6 x 14.4 cm

http://handle.slv.vic.gov.au/10381/150900 - This copy is from an original loaned for copying to the State Library in 1931

This engraving shows a group of Chinese men sluicing for gold at an unidentified site near Beechworth.

Chinese prospectors often worked in teams and so would have communicated in Cantonese or their local dialect when working. They might even have been able to purchase food and goods from nearby Chinese camps.

But how did the Chinese storekeepers manage? They needed to be able to order and organise the transportation of supplies to their stores.

wood engraving published in 'The Australasian Sketcher', 25 August 1864

(1750.0003.01)

The top left-hand image in this montage of engravings shows a Chinese man mining using a cradle in the Upper Ovens district.

The inclusion of a Chinese prospector in this collection shows that while Chinese may have been viewed as exotic and different, they were also an everyday part of the goldfields landscape.

They worked side-by-side with prospectors from all over the world. Did conversations strike up between these men as they gathered wood and water and prepared their meals?

wood engraving published in 'Illustrated Australian News', 23 January 1878

(1750.0003.12)

While many Chinese came to Australia as prospective gold miners, others came to take advantage of business opportunities offered by the gold rushes.

Some established stores to supply prospectors and others began growing vegetables and sold produce that they didn't need. As the gold rushes began to wane, some became full-time market gardeners and others worked as hawkers selling produce door-to-door.

Being able to communicate with your suppliers and customers was crucial to success in these trades.

engraving from unknown source

(1985.07.29)

Chinese Australians became involved in all kinds of hawking from fruit and vegetables to fresh fish to fancy goods.

Successful sales techniques involve being able to talk to your customers, learning their likes and dislikes and persuading them to try something new or treat themselves.

Phrasebooks would have helped Chinese hawkers not just to speak to their customers but also understand what their customers were saying to them and to each other.

'The Graphic', 24 December 1887

(1985.07.13)

Many who arrived in Victoria during the gold rushes were poor farmers with little education, but not all.

Lowe Kong Meng was one notable exception. He was born in Penang, Malaysia in 1831 to a Chinese merchant who came from the See Yup area in Guangdong. He was educated in Penang as well as Mauritius and spoke English and French fluently as well as a number of Cantonese dialects.

Before coming to Australia Lowe Kong Meng traded goods between Mauritius, Calcutta and Singapore. He arrived in Victoria after hearing of the gold rushes in 1853 and a year later had established an importing business in Little Bourke Street.

He became a very successful businessman and important Chinese community leader.

wood engraving published in 'The Australasian Sketcher', c1866

(1985.07.33.pt01)