Forest Yarns
Forest Yarns No 1
Introduction
Celestial Connections
APPENDIX C: Inquests into deaths of Chinese people in the Waranga area
PROV FILE* NAME OCCUPATION PLACE OF DEATH CAUSE OF DEATH CHINESE WITNESSES NOTES 1856/389 Ching Mine Not stated Whroo Natural Causes Nil Died in tent; had been ill 1858/360 A Yea Miner Rushworth Mining Accident (cave-in) Nil Working with Europeans - unusual 1862/857 Kong Tong Miner -
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APPENDIX B - Chinese ratepayers in the Waranga area
1863 & 1865 NAME ASSET LOCATION 1863 1863 1865 1865 NO VAL NO VAL A Wing Hut & Puddling Machine Main Gully Chinese Camp 126 12 A Wing Hut & Puddling Machine Main Gully Chinese Camp 127 10 A Wing Hut & Puddling Machine Main Gully Chinese Camp 128 10
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APPENDIX A: Chinese people in the Waranga area
This is a list of people whose names were encountered during research for the Celestial Connections stories. It is not a comprehensive of all the Chinese people who came to the Waranga area. NAME# EURO NAME SOURCE* DATE/YEAR NOTES A Chong PROV 1863 Ratepayer at Growlers - Hut and
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Epilogue
This is the last in the series of stories about the history of the Chinese in the Waranga area. The history stretches back 170 years to when the first Chinese arrived in the local area, probably in 1854. Since then, Chinese immigrants and their descendants have made a significant contribution
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38. On the kokoda track
On the kokoda track Images and stories from Kokoda Track might have you believe that Australian soldiers, all of good British stock, took on and ultimately beat back the invasion by Asiatic hordes in Papua New Guinea during World War 2. However, some of the Australians were from other ethnic
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37. War service
Two of the boys of “Tommy” Ah Chong and his wife Emma of Moora (mentioned in an earlier story) served overseas with the AIF in World War 1. This helps to illustrate that the men and women who served came from quite diverse backgrounds. The image of the “bronzed ANZAC”
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36. Long serving teacher
A long-serving (and maybe long-suffering) teacher with the Victorian Education Department and local resident, Dorothy (“Dot”) Jean Salter, was of Chinese-Australian heritage. When she taught humanities subjects at Rushworth, some of the students called her “Ching” or “Old Ching”, reflecting the casual racism that was unfortunately still prevalent in the
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35. Chinese New Year
In this area, we tend to only hear about Chinese New Year through news stories of events held in larger centres like Bendigo and Melbourne. However, it is an important annual event for Chinese people everywhere. With traditions going back around 3500 years, New Year in China is a time
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34. Religion and Spirituality
As a group, the Chinese miners on the Waranga goldfields were probably more spiritual and active in remaining connected to their religion than the European miners. They obviously had a spiritual connection to their homes in China which meant that many of them returned home as the returns from alluvial
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33. Chinese gamblers
Gambling by Chinese immigrants was usually described in negative terms by the press of the goldrush era. Terminology included phrases such as “gambling dens”, “unlawful games” and “gang of Chinese gamblers”. The reality was that people of virtually all ethnic backgrounds engaged in gambling on the goldfields, of one form
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32. Opium use
Some of the Chinese immigrants in the Waranga area were opium users. One of the many stereotypes trotted out by the press of the day referred to “opium dens” and the number of “depredations” attached thereto. At the same time, the writers tended to overlook the excessive use of alcohol