Cihinese entry to The North

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In Queensland, Chinese worked on a number of goldfields, but they were most dominant on the Palmer River goldfield which was discovered in 1873. Chinese miners began to arrive on the Palmer a few weeks after the discovery was announced, coming at first from mining fields in the southern colonies. By the end of 1874, about 1500 Chinese people, or 40% of the mining population, were distributed across the Palmer field.

In 1875, Chinese from Hong Kong began to arrive in Cooktown, the nearest port to the goldfield. The Hopkee Company organised up to two steamers a week to bring in an average of a thousand Chinese miners a month. Most were recruited from the lower Pearl River districts. Within months the Chinese population grew to between 9000 and 12 000, and by 1877 had reached 18 000 -- more than 90% of the goldfield's population. The Chinese organised most of the supplies, including food, for this community. Much of the folklore about aggression between Chinese and Aborigines has been greatly exaggerated -- death at the hands of Aborigines was statistically less likely than death by drowning, snakebite or falling from a horse.

By 1882 the Palmer's alluvial gold was worked out and only about 2000, mostly European miners, remained. The Chinese miners either returned to China, moved to new goldfields or took up other work elsewhere, such as gardening. Today, the Palmer River area still retains many Chinese mining sites, house sites, water races, gardens, cemeteries and other heritage sites(11).

...After 1878, many Chinese left Queensland's Palmer goldfield and moved to the nearby ports of Cooktown, Port Douglas, Cairns and Geraldton (later Innisfail), where they established tropical agricultural industries. Chinese farmers cleared Atherton Tableland rainforest to grow maize, and the Hop Wah Company founded the Cairns sugar industry in 1881. Others cleared scrub along the hot, wet, coastal plain to grow sugar cane, bananas, pineapples and mangoes throughout the 1880s. They established an industry that today supplies Australia's major cities with tropical fruit.
Social organisation and institutions
Chinese people organised their migration, local societies, businesses and their mining activities according to village and district ties, obligations of debt, and dialect affiliations(33). The Chinese immigrants in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries were usually heavily indebted to family, community, brokers or merchants for their fares to Australia (this has been termed the 'credit-ticket system'). They were also obliged to help support their families in China(34). These factors combined to stimulate hard work, the cheapest living arrangements possible (usually organised communally) and a willingness to persist with any work at hand. They were also in regular contact with China and their home districts (qiaoxiangs).

Dialect and language played an important role in maintaining regional links among the Chinese in Australia. Most of the Chinese in Australia coming from the province of Guangdong spoke the Yue language (Cantonese), though some such as the Hakka, who were numerous in northern Australia, spoke a non-Yue language. In NSW there were many Chinese from the Long Dou area of Zhongshan district, who spoke their own dialect. Victoria was dominated by people from the Sze Yup districts(35) and they too spoke their distinctive dialects, especially those from Toishan (Taishan). In the nineteenth century, language and dialect affiliations were very important. The Chinese in Australia often formed themselves into different communities with their own spoken language and cultural practices and their own temple. In Cairns, for instance, the Chinese formed two main district and dialect groupings, each with their own temple(36). Rivalry within Chinese communities was often based upon district and dialect affiliations.

In Western Australia, there were no distinct dialect affiliations, as there were no dominant districts represented since the Chinese were mostly from Singapore or the eastern colonies of Australia.

During the latter part of the twentieth century, Chinese migrants came from a wider range of places inside China and from other South-East Asian countries. As a result, dialect as a broad-scale social influence is probably less important now than it was formerly.

Temples were often the focal point of Chinese community life and were established on the basis of district and dialect affiliations. Communities established or re-established temples in many cities, towns and goldfields at different periods right up to the present day. A number still survive including:

Sze Yup Temple, Glebe, Sydney, NSW
Yiu Ming Temple, Alexandria, Sydney, NSW
Chit-Kung-Tang Temple, Bendigo, Vic
Sze Yup Temple, South Melbourne, Vic
Sze Yup and Chung Wah Temples, Darwin, NT
the Temple of the Holy Triad, Breakfast Creek, Brisbane, Qld and
the Temple of Hou Wang in Atherton, Qld
Chinese churches are a feature of many communities due to the work of Christian missionaries. In some areas, such as Melbourne's Chinatown, the churches played an important role in teaching the Chinese language and in helping to maintain traditional ways. Conversely, the churches also ran English classes and helped to 'Europeanise' Chinese communities(37). Examples of places with known heritage significance include:

the Chinese Christian Churches in Milsons Point, Sydney, NSW and in Little Bourke Street, Melbourne, Vic and
the Chinese Sunday School in Fremantle, WA
During the nineteenth century, district societies (tongxianghui or 'same place' societies) provided social support for Chinese communities in Australia. Their work included establishing temples and returning old men to China who were unable to fund their own return. The societies also returned to China the bones of members who had died in Australia. Between 1875 and the late 1930s, societies organised the exhumation of more than 1500 bodies from Rookwood cemetery and sent the remains back to China.

Societies also helped Chinese communities to keep their focus on family obligations and links to China. Australia's oldest society, the Sze Yup Society, was established in Melbourne in 1854. The oldest society in NSW is the Quong Sing Tong, which was established in 1877. By the 1890s there were a further 10 Sydney-based societies with membership spread throughout the state. Three of these are still operating in Sydney, and others have been formed or reformed in recent decades(38).

Societies existed in most cities with a substantial Chinese population. The Kuomintang, for example, had branches operating in at least Sydney, Broome and Darwin. Some significant buildings associated with these societies survive today including:

the Chung Wah Association building in Northbridge, Perth, WA
the Australian Chinese Community Association building in Sydney, NSW
the Nan Poon Soon Chinese Society Clubhouse in Melbourne, Vic as well as
temples sponsored by specific societies
The Chinese Nationalist Revolution in 1911 galvanised many Australian Chinese into political activity, prompting the formation of political organisations and newspapers, particularly in the Chinese communities of Sydney and Melbourne. After the 1930s Chinese national affiliation, as opposed to district affiliation, began to dominate local Chinese community views. Little has been done to identify and record the places associated with these developments.