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serious illness of his child. Same bail allowed - self in £10 and
assurities of £10 each.
December 20th
(Above) - Joseph L1ande Cox on bail - being a youth did on the said
29th day of October, 1911 at the Chinese Gardens near Milparinka
in the State of New South Wales, did attempt to destroy by fire a
certain wooden fence, the property of Tom Chong Toosey.
Discussed and the accused was discharged.
These extracts help to date a location referred to as Cox's Well, which
according to oral history is perhaps a half mile upstream of the Chinaman's
Garden Well site. They also suggest that in 1911 there was only one
location known as the Chinese Gardens near Milparinka. It follows that the
second site under consideration, that of Chinaman's Well, was then either
unoccupied, or not occupied as a Chinese garden. In 1906, however, the
site of Chinaman's Garden Well was gazetted by the New South Wales
Government as reserved for the Milparinka water supply (NSWGG, 5
December 1906:6642). The site, along with six other small portions along
Evelyn Creek, is marked on the town map held by the New South Wales
Registrar General, but I have been unable to locate any registration
details. Therefor another interpretation of the Police record is possible ­
that the Cox family abandoned Cox's Well some time around 1906 and
took up management of the newly gazetted town water supply at
Chinaman's Garden Well. This of course leads to an interpretation that the
Chinese were either forced to abandon the site or that the original owners
of the well were by then deceased. The interpretation fits neatly with the
statement by Nel Baker that the Cox residence included a cellar, and that
the Chinese gardens were passed when visiting the Cox family.
6.3 Structural Materials
No historical record has been found of the materials used in construction of
the house destroyed by fire at Chinaman's Garden Well, or of those
occupied in later years by George Ling or Lum Hop. The newspaper
accounts of incidents involving these premises suggest at least the first
mentioned house, and that occupied by George Ling were substantial, and
had glass windows.
The other structures presumed to have existed at Chinaman's Garden
Well here may have been built of materials which equated to those used
within the township of Tibooburra and described in a letter to the editor of
The Sturt Recorder, Tibooburra and Mount Browne Advertiser as "some
disreputable looking edifices known as Chinese Camps, built of cow hides,
tins, old rags, and other rubbish" (Sturt Recorder, 11 December 1986:2)
Equally they may have been constructed of traditional materials such as
described by Knapp (1990:26-30,36). Knapp suggests the simplest
traditional structure, which would tend to be occupied by the poor or as