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migrant's loyalties to family probably bound him to be frugal in his habits
while away from home, as he was obliged not only to repay money
advanced for passage, but also to remit money home to support his wife
and the extended family system. This obligation is referred to in Choy
(1975: 14) and also in works by Maxine Hong-Kingston in reference to the
situation which applied to indentured labourers in the Hawaii (Hong
Kingston,1977:92,115-116). Yong (1977:2,3) expands upon this loyalty,
indicating that 'there are two traditional and ethnic concepts which had a
deep-rooted effect upon the temperament of Overseas Chinese
immigrants..."to return home with honour and wealth"... and "upon the
roots of the trees rest falling leaves", I which was a reference to the desire
of the Chinese to return to their native village and live a life of comfort in
their old age. Thus it is likely groups of Chinese living together in rural
Australia had a common origin in China, and aspired generally to return in
their old age to their home village.
Choy states the obvious that the washing of alluvial gold was a quick way
for some to accumulate considerable sums of money. He also discusses in
some detail the activities taken up by the very considerable numbers of
Chinese who no doubt failed to earn sufficient on the goldfields to repay
their debts and meet family obligations. He, however, concentrates upon a
study of statistical information, and, because Chinese were statistically
more numerous in the cities, takes little note of the Chinese in rural areas.
My research concentrates upon a group of Chinese in a very remote part
of New South Wales, who may be representative of the other goldfield
remnants. I suggest they too were unsuccessful gold seekers, who
perhaps continued to aspire to the traditional concepts. That I further
suggest they died of old age before attaining those aspirations is part of
the tragedy which unfolded for the Chinese in Australia.
3.1.2 Demography of the Chinese in Australia 1870·1890
Chinese migration to Victoria, New South Wales and South Australia had
been restricted by legislative measures imposed during the mid- to late
1850s. However, the Acts which operated to limit immigration of Chinese
to these states were repealed in 1865, 1867 and 1861 respectively.
Queensland did not impose effective restrictions until 1877, keeping these
in place until 1906, when the legislation was superseded by a
Commonwealth Immigration Restriction Act.
The restriction Acts perhaps impacted upon the distribution of Chinese
already in Australia, although no statistics have been identified from which
numbers of Chinese moving between the Australian colonies can be
determined. Choy (1975:23) suggests an increase in the number of
Chinese in New South Wales and a decrease in Victorian numbers
between 1871 and 1881, was due to overseas movements rather than
movements across the borders of the colonies.