Celestial Connections
The first record of a Chinese miner that shows up in an Assistant Gold Commissioner’s regular weekly reports for the Waranga goldfields appears in late April 1854. An unnamed Chinese man brought two nuggets into the Gold Office (which was then located in a tent). The nuggets weighed 17
Celestial Connections
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
Celestial Connections
The previous story talked about early Chinese miners landing in Melbourne and walking to the goldfields. Then as the Victoria government introduced an entry tax for Chinese from 1855, some landed in South Australia and walked into Victoria. Others landed in New South Wales and found their way overland. There
Celestial Connections
Early Chinese arrivals would disembark in Port Phillip Bay, then embark on a long trek to the goldfields. Melbourne was full of stories about the latest rush, so it could be assumed that from the start of the rushes to the Waranga goldfields in 1853, a proportion of the miners
Celestial Connections
During the 19th century gold rushes, many Chinese miners came to the Waranga area, mostly from the mid-1850s onwards. In history, they have tended to be lumped together into one homogenous group. One reason for this was that they tended to stick together as part of tight-knit groups because of
Celestial Connections
The Waranga area has strong Chinese historical connections, thanks largely to the influx of Chinese miners during the gold rush. Gold discoveries in this area in 1853 post-dated earlier finds in Victoria, which had sparked the first gold rushes to the new state, by a little over two years. As