Daughters of the Flowery Land: Chinese Women in Queensland, 1860–1920

Until recently, little was known about the experiences of young Chinese women who migrated to Queensland in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, journeying to join their husbands alone or accompanied by a servant. This article investigates the changing Chinese cultural family landscape against a backdrop of an expanding colonial Queensland. It explores the impact of arrival, conditions women faced, and the transformation of male-dominated settlements into communities after their arrival. Most of all it shines a light on a little known area of history, highlighting Chinese women’s lives negotiated across the Queensland colonial environment