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3.1.3 Attitudes towards Chinese on Australian Goldfields
On the Palmer River Goldfield, as elsewhere, the Chinese were abused
and maltreated, and on occasions murdered as a result of European
attitudes. A comment in respect to the Palmer River quoted by Crowley is
as follows:
'As Wardens we were often wrongfully accused of cutting off the
Chinamen's tails, but I remember when the Premier was visiting
Cooktown, he had to cross a hand-bridge, and was amazed to see
three genuine pigtails, recently cut off, hanging on each side of the
handrail...Gambling was an awful curse on the Palmer, and
Chinamen would be fleeced to their last penny, and then have to
resort to crime. We did our best to stop it, and made several very
exciting raids on gambling houses. The black troopers took infinite
delight in this sort of work, and it was very funny, after a big haul, to
see the troopers lugging sometimes six to eight chinkies in each
hand, and holding them by their pigtails!' (W.R.O.HiII quoted by
Crowley, 1980, Vol 3:21).
Other extracts collected by Crowley indicate the attitudes towards the
Chinese on the Palmer River in the mid-1870s were little different to those
demonstrated in 1857 on the Buckland River in Victoria and 1861 at
Lambing Flat in New South Wales. In both instanced the camps and
belongings of Chinese goldminers were destroyed by mobs of Europeans,
probably with the initial aim of taking over successful claims being worked
by the Chinese. On the Buckland River 'four of the Chinamen were more or
less seriously injured' in a first attack, and in a second, although 'there was
no official death toll' some were believed to have been killed (Crowley,
1980, voI2:351-352). At Lambing Flat several so-called 'riots' took place in
early 1861, leading to the dispatch of 'a large force of military and police
from Sydney, with two twelve-pound artillery pieces. The military returned
to Sydney on 4 June 1861, and a further 'riot' took place within three
weeks. Contemporary accounts of these attacks provide an insight into
behaviour which appears to have been widespread on the Australian
goldfields. As I consider an understanding of treatment elsewhere to be
critical in understanding the Chinese being researched in the present
instance, the accounts have been extracted in their entirety as Appendix A.
Crowley (Vol 3:46) also indicates that a major cause of a general strike in
1878 was the increasing employment of Chinese crews on coastal vessels
operated by the Australasian Steam Navigation Company, and that
Chinese had been used there and elsewhere in an attempt to 'resist
demands for increased wages'. This action would very clearly have
inflamed existing prejudices.