The Chinese Camp
The Sovereign Hill recognises the presence of the Chinese during the Gold Rushes. (Photo courtesy of SHMA)
The Chinese community has been recreated in Sovereign Hill. Investing in a research project amounting to $1.8 million, this camp acknowledges the presence of the Chinese during the Gold Rush Era. An additional $500,000 investment was also made for the installation of a touch screen which was launched in June 7, 2007. This camp has also been a place of historical importance for many Chinese visitors of about 47,000 a year.
Tales from the goldfields would not be complete without the Chinese—the largest non-British, non-Christian group on the diggings.
The Chinese, who called the goldfields as Shin-Chin-San or a “New Gold Mountain”, arrived into the diggings in 1854. Many of them came from the original “Gold Mountain” in California. But unlike their European counterparts who arrived as free men, the Chinese came as labourers and servants under fixed wages organised under a recruitment scheme between Chinese and foreign traders. These traders paid for their fares and they were subjected to repayments until their debts were cleared. Many of the miners who came from the earlier California Gold Rush were transported under a ‘”credit-ticket” system by similar agents. (Serle 1963, p.320)
Chinese diggers originated from North China—Guangdong and Fujian— but the majority come from Canton near the Pearl River delta Other minority came from Shanghai, Hongkong, Macao, and Amoy (Cronin 1982, p.17; Forster 1969, p. 48) Chinese descendants from Canton province eventually accounted for the largest Chinese population in Victoria (Cronin 1982, p.17)
The Chinese camps composed of tents clustered and built along narrow and winding streets. Men lived by fours or sixes. At panoramic view, they look disorganised but observer said, “the interior of their tents were ‘surprisingly clean and neat’, often with bunks, a table, looking glass, musical instruments, books, pens, ink, and English dictionaries, spelling-books, and copy books.” (Cronin 1982, p.23) Altars and shrines were also built along the narrow paths, while temples were erected in most camps. The Chinese camps were always busy as the Chinese were alert to the latest mining news and they were constantly on the move.
The Chinese, however, were not welcomed by the colonists and diggers. They were perceived as peculiar people in the goldfields whose appearance, language, and behaviours stirred the white diggers. But the main reason was economic. Chinese were hard-working and they were seen as competitors on the goldfields.
The ‘clannish spirit’ ran high in the goldfields causing random clashes among races and nationalities, but no race has agitated the diggers better than the presence of the Chinese. Geoffrey Serle (1973, p.327) noted that economic competition of the Chinese was central to the diggers’ opposition.
The Chinese in pigtails and white uniforms queued on the goldfield.
By 1854, Chinese grew from 10,000 to 17,000. The continuous influx of Chinese angered the colonists and diggers alike that authorities soon imposed an entry tax of 10 pound to every Chinese in 1855. By 1859, Chinese population reached 40,000 or 8 percent of Victorian population.
Persecution and brutalities against the Chinese took place that by 1857-1859, about 3,000 Chinese were returning home, about 10,000 in three years (Serle 1973, p. 351). In 1861, Chinese in Victoria fell to 25,000.
One of the most tragic tales of the Chinese in the goldfield happened in Buckland in 1857. The Chinese found the Canton lead—one of the richest of Victoria’s alluvial leads. This began the great rush to Ararat. But the Europeans diggers forced them out of the claim and expelled them from Buckland. White diggers burned their tents and stores as well as killing scores of Chinese. (Serle 1973, p.325)
Persecution stemmed from Europeans’ fear of being swamped in a countless throng of Chinamen.” Serle (1973, p.335) noted that Europeans did not like to be outnumbered by Chinese in the colony they had found. Chinese immigration was the darkest spot that has yet come upon the colonial horizon. This fear was to live on in the ranks of unionists and was a factor leading to the Commonwealth Immigration Restriction Act of 1901, restricting the entry of non-European migrants into Australia. (This Act is widely known as the White Australian Policy which was abolished in 1973.)
References:
Cronyn, K 1982, Colonial Casualties: Chinese in Early Victoria, Carlton, Victoria: Melbourne University Press
Serle, G1963. The Gold Age: A History of the Colony Victoria, Melbourne: Melbourne University Press
Sovereign Hill Museums Association, Victoria, viewed 10 June 2009, http:/www.sovereignhill.com.au
