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9.1.3 Chinese Involvement in Gold Mining
The Chinese at Milparinka were certainly involved in alluvial mining. They
were probably at least as successful as their European counterparts, but
do not appear from the written record to have been involved at all with the
quartz reefs at Whittabrinah or Warratta. This is despite suggestions in
oral history (Adams: 1985) to the contrary.
9.1.4 Chinese Retail Premises
A store selling bakery items and other foodstuffs, and sweets, was
operated by Chinese interests at Milparinka for perhaps the last 15 years
of the 30 or so years under consideration. This shop also advertised the
sale of fresh fruit, and could have been one outlet for the produce of the
Chinese Gardens. The store was also a restaurant, probably catering to
the needs of coach passengers.
9.2 Conclusions regarding Occupation Chronology,
Abandonment and Acculturation
9.2.0 Introduction
Analysis of the artefacts from Chinaman's Well and from Chinaman's
Garden Well has produced little evidence to support the development of an
occupation and abandonment chronology. The general impression has
been gained that items relating to later periods may be present in' the
assemblage at Chinaman's Garden Well, but that these are generally
macro artefacts. Included in this category are items which were left on site
- a windlass barrel, a bed iron, a tar ladle, and part of the handle to a
watering can. There appears to be a high degree of consistency in the
assemblage subjected to evaluation, strongly suggestive of discrete
groupings rather than randomly mixed scatter. The same cannot be said of
Chinaman's Well, where the degree of site disturbance is such that the
record could equally contain items from other occupation periods and
casual visitations. For example the presence of a Johnny Walker Whisky
bottle at the time of the first site visit, and the remnants of fencing, a
derelict Austin truck, and a (crushed) green enamel bucket, none of which
have been included in the discussion.
Fortunately the area of each site thought to be more closely associated
with Chinese occupation periods, and from which artefacts were
recovered, is removed from the non-Chinese area. Accordingly it is
possible to argue that the surface scatter under consideration is almost
exclusively associated with the Chinese occupation. This is especially so
at Chinaman's Garden Well.