Charting the
Chinese Heritage
of New England
The history of the Chinese in NSW is long and fascinating and not only
found in Sydney's bustling Chinatown. Investigating Chinese heritage
outside metropolitan Sydney, Heritage Office staff Karl Zhao and Elizabeth
Fowler travelled to New England to visit local Chinese heritage places and
museums with Chinese collections. The trip included visits to the towns of
Armidale, Uralla, Tingha, Inverell and Glen Innes.
The Chinese first came to country areas of NSW to work as shepherds, cooks
and farm labourers in the early 19th century. With the discovery of gold in
the 1850s their numbers increased dramatically.
Tin was discovered in the 1870s in the northern tablelands and by the 1890s
this particular area had one of the highest concentrations of Chinese in
NSW. After the mining boom, many Chinese remained working as market
gardeners, storekeepers, farm labourers and cooks.
Much of the evidence of the Chinese presence in the New England region is
held by local museums. In Armidale Karl and Elizabeth met with Janis Wilton
who is working on Golden Threads: Chinese in Regional NSW, a project funded
by the NSW Ministry for the Arts. Ms Wilton is establishing a database of
Chinese heritage objects and through her work with local museums is
discovering a huge number of Chinese heritage items.
Chinese stores were included in the visit, such as the century old Wing
Hing Long store in Tingha (a project funded by the Heritage Office), the
Hong Yuen Store in Inverell and Kwong Sing Store in Glen Innes.
Remains from the old Tingha Joss House on display at the Pioneer
Village, Inverell, include Chinese hats, yokes, cookware and scales.
Left: Soy sauce barrel, McCrossins Mill, Uralla. Photographs by Karl Zhao.