MELTING POT

Although government-mandated locations were set out for them from 1855, Chinese miners did not always choose to live in the government camps: rather, they followed the gold like everyone else.

This drawing depicts people walking to and from the gold fields of Ballarat, circa 1854. In it, Aboriginal and Chinese people mingle with others on the broad flats of Ballarat East.

Ballarat was the traditional country of the Wadawurrung speaking peoples of the Kulin nation.

Gold was discovered in Ballarat, in Western Central Victoria, in 1851 and it quickly became one of the most populous, lucrative and legendary gold rush towns in Australia.

WORKING THE CLAIM

The Chinese were both admired and resented for their efficient, collaborative gold mining techniques.

Chinese miners commonly worked together in large groups. Many Chinese miners who arrived in Australia owed money to a merchant or organisation for their fare to Australia. As part of their contract they would work as part of big organised teams under the command of a boss or head man until the debt was repaid. Some very large Chinese-owned mining companies operated on the Victorian goldfields who could employ hundreds of Chinese labourers.

After they had repaid their debt, Chinese miners were free to found their own ventures and would often form small egalitarian partnerships. Teams of two to ten people made up of family members or village members would work claims together, dividing the group's domestic chores between them. These small cooperatives often combined forces with other like-minded groups to share resources and labour such that over a hundred Chinese miners could be seen working together turning over a gully.

Business partnerships between Chinese miners and European miners also took place.

Myths about Chinese mining techniques are often wrong. One myth is that Chinese miners sunk round holes when they dug for gold. Archaeological evidence shows both round and square/rectangular holes in gold fields known to be used by Chinese, and round holes in areas known to be used predominantly by European miners.

It was common for Chinese mining groups to work over the surface 'tailings' or dumped soil from old claims no longer being mined. They worked methodically and found gold that had been overlooked by the previous miners. This caused resentment amongst European miners as they argued the Chinese were working claims that had been set aside by Europeans to be worked over again when times got tough.

Yet Chinese miners did more than work on the surface picking over previously-worked mines. Chinese groups also independently fossicked to find gold leads, establishing entire camps (and in the case of Ararat in 1857, a future city) that European miners would learn about and follow. In these practices Chinese miners were often very successful, which also raised the ire of some Europeans.

Chinese leaders worked hard to avoid confrontation and to meet European expectations. For instance, some European miners complained that Chinese miners were profligate with water and that they sullied the clean water supplies.The Ballarat See Yup Association rules for Chinese members of 1868 has a specific stipulation that water holes should not be damaged.

Pictured above is a three dimensional model made by Carl Nordstrom at Ballarat in 1858-59. It shows a typical scene of mining activities and equipment associated with working shallow surface alluvial gold deposits, including puddling machines and other common modes of hand washing for gold. The techniques depicted are typical of those practised by the first wave of miners on most Victorian goldfields during the 1850s. Model scale 1:32. Part of the Nordstrom Mining Models Collection at Museum Victoria.

Two Chinese miners are depicted as part of the mining community.

This is an early photograph (circa 1861) of Chinese men goldmining near Guildford, part of the rich Mt Alexander diggings centred around the town of Castlemaine in central Victoria.

A common technique employed by Chinese gold miners was 'paddocking' where large groups of miners would turn over and wash the soil of entire gullies end to end.

The photo shows the devastating impact goldmining had on local flora and fauna as miners (of all nationalities) dug through and turned over topsoil, changed the topography, destroyed plants and permanently altered the course of waterways.

The Chinese settlement of Guildford on the bank of Campbell's Creek between Yapeen and Guildford was very large, described in one newspaper account as 'the main Chinese village in the colony, some five or six thousand Chinamen'.

Guildford boasted its own Chinese-run coach service running between Sandhurst (Bendigo) to the north and Ballarat to the south, plus a permanent theatre, regular visits of Chinese circus performers, and several Joss houses, restaurants, tea rooms and gambling saloons.

This photograph of Chinese men fossicking for gold in a gully near Beechworth comes from an era (c.1880-1910) after the peak gold rush period of 1850-1870.

However there were still many Chinese men working claims in this period.

Chinese miners would often work together co-operatively, either as employees of a larger company or as smaller co-operatives banding together.

Beechworth, in north-eastern Victoria, was home to one of the largest Chinese communities in the country, particularly after 1857 when Chinese miners from the nearby Buckland Valley were chased from their claims by European rioters. In 1867 Beechworth had 7000 Chinese residents.

Sluicing in Bendigo. Sluicing used water in a wooden box to separate gold from gravel.

It was a technique favoured by Chinese companies as it needed only a moderate up-front investment and required an understanding of water engineering similar to southern Chinese agricultural techniques.

Pictured is a lone Chinese sluicer photographed in Bendigo, in north-central Victoria, in 1898. This photograph dates to quite late in the gold era, well after the mid-century peak. Many people continued to dabble in gold mining, perhaps as a part-time venture, even up to the early 20th century.

Bendigo was a famous gold rush city and one of the richest gold fields in the history of Australia. It had a significant Chinese population from the 1850s onwards.

PROTECTORATES

The Chinese were required by the Victorian Government to be segregated into areas called Protectorates.

Chinese Protectorates were set up in 1855 with the aim of protecting Chinese residents but also segregating and quarantining them from the non-Chinese communities. Restricting Chinese to the protectorates also to made it easier for government officials to collect the taxes imposed on Chinese residents.

The Chinese Protectorates were inspired by the Aboriginal Protectorate model. Aboriginal Protectorates had been set up in Victoria in the 1830s, ostensibly to protect but also to separate Aboriginal communities from settler communities. Aboriginal protectorates were deliberately placed in remote locations outside towns, and Aboriginal people were required to move to them, although not all did so.

Unlike Aboriginal Protectorates, Chinese Protectorates were often placed quite close to the centre of towns.

Chinese Protectorates were established after violence towards the Chinese broke out in goldfields around Victoria. Strong anti-Chinese sentiment within elements of the European mining community grew. Some Europeans viewed the Chinese as alien, peculiar and sinister, others were disturbed by the numbers of Chinese people arriving and the efficiency of their communal mining techniques.

This potent mix of fear, distrust and economic envy led authorities on the goldfields to respond by separating the Chinese and imposing restrictions on them.

Chinese Protectorates required Chinese arrivals to a town to report and live in a specially-designated camp. A Chinese head man was assigned, Chinese interpreters were provided along with special police constables and other administrators. Chinese were required to pay a special tax to pay for the Protectorate services, though, as with Aboriginal people, not all Chinese people chose to live in the town protectorates.

By 1865 much of the formal government protectorate system had been dismantled but many of the camp locations continued as Chinese quarters for decades afterwards.

The engraving above depicts the Chinese Quarter at Golden Point in Ballarat in 1868.

WORLDS WITHIN WORLDS

Chinese quarters in the heyday of the gold rush were bustling, vibrant, interesting places.

Places with large Chinese populations in the 1850s and 1860s such as Guildford, Ballarat, Beechworth and Bendigo had flourishing economic and cultural worlds-within-worlds.

Tents and huts were set closely together. Chinese storekeepers and merchants kept the community fed and provisioned. Restaurants, tea houses, opium tents, gambling tents and tailor shops were established. Temples were prominent features, alongside scribes and calligraphers and a range of specialised artisans providing services. Herbalists, apothecaries and acupuncturists offered medical services to Chinese and European settlers alike. Permanent Chinese theatres were set up in larger towns and entertainers travelled from town to town presenting acrobatics, puppetry and opera to appreciative Chinese audiences.

As the gold rush evolved, the easy shallow gold of the 1850s disappeared and mining techniques moved to deep lead ventures. Many successful Chinese miners returned home or moved into other business ventures. Towards the later 1860s and 1870s Chinese camps slipped into neglect, becoming home to mainly impoverished and increasingly elderly residents.

This watercolour (above) by Horace Burkitt depicts the Government Chinese Camp in its heyday at Black Lead, Creswick, circa 1858.

UNIQUE COMMUNITIES

Chinese miners set up camps within their village dialect or ethnic units.

See Yup language speakers (a variety of Cantonese spoken by residents of four counties south-west of Guangzhou/Canton) populated much of the goldfields. They congregated according to dialect, home village or family group. Eventually specific family names became attached to certain goldfields towns: the Loueys predominated in Bendigo and Vaughan Springs, for instance, and the Chins in parts of Ballarat and Creswick.

Macao, Shantou and Shunde Chinese usually congregated in separate camps. The culturally distinct Hakka minority assembled in separate districts to Cantonese speakers. Beechworth had its own separate Hakka camp and See Yup camps.

Hokkien-speakers from the province of Fujian were another linguistically different cultural group. Ballarat had a significant minority of Fujianese, also known as Amoy Chinese, present on the goldfields, large numbers of whom settled at the Golden Point camp, pictured here (above).

EVERYDAY LIFE

The ordinary chores of campsite life were taken care of by group members.

Chinese mining communities were well organised units, with designated specialist camp members taking care of cleaning, cooking and provisioning while others worked the claims.

Miners would work hard, from sunrise to sunset. At the end of the working day they would return to a community of fellow Chinese. Many would be known to them as close friends and relatives from their same home village.

This Chinese grinding mill (above) ground rice into flour. It was excavated by Creswick Council workers during road works at Slaty Creek, near Creswick in central Victoria.

The Slaty Creek/ Cabbage Tree area was home to a large Chinese mining community in the 19th century.

These Chinese pottery jars, used for storing and transporting preserved food, were found in an old cesspit in Hard Hills, near Creswick, where a thriving Chinese community once lived in the 1850s and 1860s.

Campfires were a part of communal life.

This rare Chinese-language item from the gold rush period in Victoria is a government proclamation warning on the dangers of open fires.

The fact that such a publication was issued to Chinese merchants and miners on the gold fields indicates that increasing numbers of Chinese were living and operating on the diggings.

English title devised by cataloguer based on inscription: Royal board: restriction order: careful with fire and candles.

Text source: National Library of Australia.

An abacus was used for calculating numbers.

This one was brought to and back from the Victorian goldfields in the 19th century by a journeyer from Taishan in Guangdong Province, Southern China. It became part of the Taishan Museum collection of China and was donated to the Gum San Museum of Ararat, Victoria, to form part of its collection.

This Chinese calligraphy stone was excavated from the Harrietville goldfields.

An inkstone was used to grind solid ink sticks into liquid for use in writing and to hold the ink for the calligrapher's brush.

Calligraphers were important and valued members of Chinese working teams, writing letters and keeping records for the community.

A MOBILE POPULATION

Like all miners, Chinese diggers travelled from town to town as news of gold strikes filtered through.

Goldfields populations were highly mobile. Groups criss-crossed the countryside as reports of new gold finds filtered through the city centres and to the diggings.

A town with a busy population of 2000 miners one week might be emptied the next as prospectors travelled to a different, more promising, diggings.

Often miners would walk between gold fields but coach travel was also common.

This photograph (above) of Chinese travellers on a Cobb and Co stage coach is believed to be taken in Newstead, near Castlemaine in central Victoria, with the coach on its way to Fiddlers Creek (later Percydale), near Avoca, circa 1865-1871.

The Cobb and Co route circa 1863 started in Castlemaine with the arrival of the train from Melbourne. It then headed west to Newstead, Carisbrook, Maryborough, Back Creek, Avoca, Moonambel, Landsborough, Barkly, Red Bank, Evelyn and Ararat before returning via Maldon, Eddington, Dunolly, Tarnagulla and Burnt Creek. Most were gold-mining communities, many with a strong Chinese population.

Once established, Chinese communities became quite self-supporting. They ran their own coach service between goldfields towns, transported imported food such as rice, and delivered garden produce to major towns, including Melbourne.

Interpretative text on image courtesy of "Chinese-Australian Historical Images in Australia", Chinese Museum, 2003.

QUARTZ MINING

It is often assumed that the Chinese only worked in alluvial or shallow gold mining.

Quartz or deep-lead mining was expensive and usually required investment companies to provide capital. While most Chinese were considered to be poorer and restricted to surface or alluvial pickings, some Chinese miners and businessmen speculated in deep lead ventures.

The Woah Hawp Canton Quartz Mining Company of Ballarat was founded in 1882 by a conglomeration of Chinese shareholders and business men who chose to employ Chinese workers.

POVERTY & RICHES

Like all miners, Chinese diggers could be lucky or unlucky on the goldfields.

Some were successful, finding gold and returning triumphant to their homeland. Others settled in Australia and started new ventures with their new families.

Ng Young Fun, pictured here (above) with his Chinese-born wife Wing Sing and children Harry, Clara, Mary, Willie and Lily, circa 1900, was one of the success stories.

Ng Young Fun, also known as George Young, was born in Whampoa in Guangzhou (Canton), Southern China.

In the 1850s he walked overland from New South Wales to Bendigo seeking gold.

He made his fortune re-processing mining tailings, employing European labour in his mining works. He lived in Eaglehawk, near Bendigo.

In the early 20th century he and his wife and children returned to China. Although he died there, his children came back to Australia and were allowed to remain because they were Australian-born.

Some unlucky miners would end in poverty living on the fringes of society.

Those caught in a spiralling cycle of poverty were unable to raise enough money to go home. Some found themselves living on the margins of Victorian society.

As the supply of gold dwindled, punitive taxes and prohibitions continued to be levied on the Chinese, making it difficult for those in strife to make ends meet. Some moved into market gardening or began hawking wares to survive.

Mental health problems were high amongst Chinese migrants with suicide rates far higher than other sections of the population. Opium abuse and gambling addiction were also widespread.

As the later 19th century wore on and many returned to China, camps became home to older, poorer miners.

This photograph (above) depicts a Chinese man outside a bark hut in Albury on the New South Wales-Victorian border, at around the turn of the century.

By the early 20th century, Chinese camps would become eery and worn down places, relics of a previous era.

In this photograph a family walks down the empty streets of Ballarat's Chinese Quarter, circa 1875-1938.