5. How many Chinese miners?

The State Library of Victoria (SLV) estimates that by 1859 there were already 40,000 Chinese people in Victoria, working in both mining and other pursuits.  Some of the Chinese had been here before the gold rush, but the vast majority arrived in search of gold.  In the main towns where gold had been discovered, the Chinese often constituted around 20% of the male population by the late 1850s.  In 1859 at the Mt Alexander goldfields near Castlemaine, the 4500 Chinese constituted nearly a third of the population.  So how many came to the Waranga goldfields?

Obviously, the numbers ebbed and flowed, as they did for all other groups of miners.  When new discoveries were made which seemed to offer better prospects elsewhere, there was wholesale movement to the new rushes.  This applied equally to the Chinese miners.  In the Waranga goldfields, having enough water for mining operations was a perennial problem.  During the summer months and at times of drought, there was a general exodus from the local area.

MINING REPORTS

Regular reports had to be lodged by mining surveyors with the Victorian government.  These contained useful statistics which included the number of Chinese miners.  In November 1859, a little over six years after gold had been discovered at Rushworth, Mining Surveyor John Breen reported that there were nearly 1000 miners working at Rushworth.  Of these, 390 were Chinese, while at Whroo there were 70 Chinese out of a population of 359.¹  It is interesting to note in hindsight that no other ethnic or national groups were identified separately.

By the end of December 1859, the Argus newspaper was reporting “a considerable number of Chinese have migrated (from Rushworth) within the last two months”.²  The paper reported that the number of Chinese at Rushworth was down to 145.  You would suspect that lack of water to conduct mining operations in summer months was a factor.  However, numbers continued to drop to around 100 by September the following year.  Some of them might have gone down to Whroo and White Hills, where the numbers had doubled to 159.  

MOBILITY

With regard to other rushes, the Chinese were prepared to move to where conditions appeared better.  For example, the McIvor (Heathcote) reporter for the Bendigo Advertiser said in November 1856 that “swarms of Chinese pass through our neighbourhood, bound for the Ovens (Beechworth).”³  Another route to the north-east was through Rushworth, crossing the Goulburn at Murchison.

In 1868 the McIvor Times reported that “about 30 Chinamen went to the rush today.”⁴  The paper was talking about what was then called the Spring Creek gold rush, in the area better known today as Graytown.  Spring Creek goldfield, between Mt Moormbool and Mt Black, attracted many Chinese miners “who are in considerable numbers at the north end of the rush, and who have been doing very well…”.⁵

This sort of mobility was a feature of the gold rushes and applied to all ethnic groups and nationalities, not just the Chinese.  Consequently, it is probably impossible to tell exactly how many Chinese people came to the Waranga area in total.  At times, we know they did form a significant part of the local population.  The numbers were in the hundreds rather than thousands at any one time.

VICTORIA - NUMBER OF CHINESE, 1854 to 1921.

(a) Not available.

Source:  Yearbook Australia 1935

STEADY DECLINE

The numbers of Chinese in Victoria appear to have peaked in the late 1850s to early 1860s, followed by a steady decline.  By 1866, the number of Chinese alluvial miners was down to around 21,000, with only a handful employed in quartz mining.⁵  By Federation in 1901, the numbers of Chinese in Victoria were down to a little over 6000, or just over 1% of the population.  In recent times, that percentage for Australia as a whole has risen to over 5.5% (more than a million people), meaning that our connection to China is stronger than ever.

References:  1  The Argus 10.11.1859; 2  The Argus 26.12.1859; 3  Bendigo Advertiser 17.11.1856; 4  McIvor Times 30.10.1868;  5  The Argus 28.11.1868; 6  Bendigo Advertiser 25.6.1866