Chinese sojourners, immigrants and settlers in Victoria: an overview

The first arrivals were indentured labourers, imported to Australia between 1847-53 when the colonial master and servant laws were extended to Chinese. Some 3,500 men boosted the labour force of shepherds and rural labourers, cooks and gardeners on the east coast. Most were from Fujian, in contrast to those who followed and joined the great gold rushes of the 1850s – the men of the villages of ‘Canton’ (Guangdong) and in particular, the Sze Yup – the ‘five districts ’ – as well as the Sam Yup, Chungshan (Zhongshan) and other districts. By 1854 they numbered several thousand, growing to over ten thousand by 1855 and two and half times that number by 1857. The settlements they encountered were stirring with unrest over the governance of inflows from across the globe. The silk-bound ‘Bendigo Goldfields Petition ’ of mid 1853, some thirteen metres long and with over 5,000 signatures from Victoria’s goldfields highlighted the poverty among the diggers and sought a reduction in licensing fees; land tenure; and an end to the brutal policing of the diggings. Seven Chinese names are included (probably written by the same hand) among the signatories