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The presence at Chinaman's Garden Well of buttons from Adelaide and
from Geelong, and of one similar to a button found in the Coorong of South
Australia by Snoek. may be suggestive of the direction from which the
residents arrived at Milparinka. But to canvass such a suggestion on the
basis of three buttons is a little too speculative.
In summary, there is evidence of increasing acculturation if the two sites
are compared on the basis of the artefacts present in the assemblage, and
if Chinaman's Well was in fact abandoned significantly before Chinaman's
Garden Well. There is also evidence of adherence to traditional practices
and consumption patterns and for the use of opium at both sites. I am
inclined to consider the opium was used as a pain-killer, for numbing
feelings of loneliness, perhaps for solace generally. There is nothing in
either the historical or the archaeological record to support a proposition
for recreational use, and certainly nothing in the police record to suggest
persecution in this regard. The relative absence of Chinese tablewares
and complete absence of Ng Ka Py jars may be a product of the
remoteness of the site or of increased acculturation. The Chinese at
Milparinka may have had little choice but to adopt European tablewares
and alcoholic beverages, or it may simply be that they had lived in outback
Australia for a much longer period than those Chinese studied elsewhere
had lived in New Zealand, Oregon or the Northern Territory. That they
adhered quite closely to traditional foodstuffs, despite adoption of the
European clothes, and the use of European-sourced eating utensils and
building materials is in keeping with the findings of others. At Milparinka,
however, the shift appears to have been more pronounced.
There is no satisfactory evidence in either assemblage for the presence of
vegetable gardens, although clearly this was the case at Chinaman's
Garden Well, and was probably so at the other site. Examination of the
items held at Peak Hill homestead may alter this situation, but their
provenance is quite uncertain.
9.3 Who Were the Chinese at Milparinka?
At least some of the Chinese who lived at the Chinese gardens at
Milparinka had been living and working in Wilcannia at the time gold was
discovered at Mount Poole and Mount Browne. In the course of a
discussion with Associate Professor Mabel Lee of the University of Sydney
it was suggested that names used by the Chinese were likely to have been
adopted upon arrival in Australia. It was also suggested that a name found
in association with both Wilcannia and Milparinka would very probably
relate to but one individual, Several names, including those of Hung Loy
and Charlie Bow, or close variants of them, can be linked to the two towns.
The historical record shows that the Chinese observed Taoist rituals in
offering sustenance to their deceased companions, while the
archaeological one suggests the format of those offerings. When the last