140-616: The history of Chinese after those from the British Isles . Significant Chinese emigration only began in earnest after the discovery of gold and the sequent gold rushes in Australia. This migration shaped and influenced Australian policies on immigration for over a century. Despite facing societal discrimination and restrictive immigration policies , Australians of Chinese descent have Though some have theorised that northern Aboriginal Australians had dealings with ethnic Chinese traders ,
280-546: A 50-word dictation test. At first this was to be in any European language, but was later changed to include any language. The tests were given in such a way as to make them impossible to pass. If a person seemed likely to pass in English then a test in another language could be given. Attlee Hunt, the first administrator of the Immigration Restriction Act expressed it clearly in a 1903 memo to all Customs Officers: "It
420-475: A clause would be a threat to White Australia and made it clear to British prime minister David Lloyd George that he would leave the conference if the clause was adopted. Hughes wrote in 1919: "No Govt. could live for a day in Australia if it tempered with a White Australia". Hughes wrote a note to Colonel Edward M. House of the American delegation: "It may be all right. But sooner than agree to it I would walk into
560-589: A component for immigration to Australia in 1973. In 1975, the Whitlam government passed the Racial Discrimination Act , which made racially-based selection criteria unlawful. In the decades since, Australia has maintained large-scale multi-ethnic immigration. As of 2018 , Australia's migration program allows people from any country to apply to immigrate to Australia, regardless of their nationality, ethnicity, culture, religion, or language, provided that they meet
700-661: A defender of the White Australia Policy. Menzies: "I don't want to see reproduced in Australia the kind of problem they have in South Africa or in America or increasingly in Great Britain. I think it's been a very good policy and it's been of great value to us and most of the criticism of it that I've ever heard doesn't come from these oriental countries it comes from wandering Australians." Lamb: "For these years of course in
840-580: A degree of government assistance particularly for primary industries, and White Australia, was to continue for many years before gradually dissolving in the second half of the 20th century. The growth of the sugar industry in Queensland in the 1870s led to searching for labourers prepared to work in a tropical environment. During this time, thousands of " Kanakas " (Pacific Islanders) were brought into Australia as indentured workers . This and related practices of bringing in non-white labour to be cheaply employed
980-524: A federation in January 1901, the federal government of Edmund Barton passed the Immigration Restriction Act of 1901 ; this was drafted by Alfred Deakin , who eventually became Australia's second prime minister. The passage of this bill marked the commencement of the White Australia Policy as Australian federal government policy. The key feature of this legislation was the dictation test , which
1120-563: A few hundred in the next two years. However, the numbers of Chinese on the Victorian goldfields continued to increase heavily. The Chinese were instead travelling to South Australia , and between 1855 and 1857 thousands of Chinese landed in the Port of Adelaide and in Robe, South Australia . The population of the small town of Robe quickly doubled as it developed into a port of call for Chinese continuing onto
1260-540: A historical sense. We're family in a genetic sense. But we are so close and that trust is getting stronger all the time. There are many places in Australia named after people and places in the United Kingdom as a result of the many British settlers and explorers ; in addition, some places were named after the British royal family . New South Wales – Cook first named the land "New Wales", named after Wales . However, in
1400-477: A more shameful manner than have the Chinese.... They were forced at the point of a bayonet to admit Englishmen... into China. Now if we compel them to admit our people... why in the name of justice should we refuse to admit them here? Outside parliament, Australia's first Catholic cardinal , Patrick Francis Moran was politically active and denounced anti-Chinese legislation as "un-Christian". The popular press mocked
1540-415: A quarter of the population of the colony of New South Wales in both 1817 and 1828. There were slightly more native-born than free settlers in 1850. They were nearly half of the population in 1868. Their proportion of the population decreased during the times of the rapid population growth brought on by the goldrushes. The convicts were augmented by free settlers, including large numbers who arrived during
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#17328456397861680-400: A reputation as "the working man's paradise". Some employers hired Chinese labourers, who were cheaper and more hard working. This produced a reaction which led eventually to all the colonies restricting Chinese immigration by 1888 and subsequently other Asian immigration. This was the genesis of the White Australia Policy. The "Australian compact", based around centralised industrial arbitration,
1820-520: A rising drive for the Federation of Australia . One of the most compelling arguments for federation amongst the public and politicians of the time was that a united immigration policy would secure the borders of all the Australian colonies. The Chinese 'pest' or 'menace' was the root of these immigration fears. Mining remained one of the biggest industries for Chinese in Australia but it was becoming more of
1960-503: A risky endeavor as the alluvial fields petered out. Chinese in the country towns either established themselves in other industries there or moved to the cities. Many of those opened stores and became merchants and hawkers . In 1890, in NSW alone there were nearly 800 shops owned and run by the Chinese. Fishing and fish curing industries were operating in Melbourne and north and south of Sydney in
2100-464: A significant source of immigrants to Australia. In 2005–06, 22,143 persons born in the United Kingdom settled in Australia, representing 21.4% of all migrants. At the 2006 Census (excluding overseas visitors) 1,038,165 persons identified themselves as having been born in the United Kingdom (5.2% of the Australian population), while 50,251 identified themselves as Irish born. Melbourne and Sydney have
2240-526: A similar effort in Singapore in 1855. However, the Chinese miners resented the extra £1 per annum residency tax this system required and strong resistance meant it had lapsed by 1861. After this the Victorian system was similar to that in NSW were Gold Commissioners in charge of the goldfields handled all disputes. In general this meant segregation to minimise the chances of conflict though again in reality many Chinese people lived where they choose. Thus in most of
2380-540: A slow decline. Thanks to Australian Chinese newspapers like the Tung Wah Times and the Chinese Times which were distributed to Chinese communities all over Australia and thanks to the many clan societies, Chinese Australians were a rather united group, in spite of the geographical distances. This can be seen by the colourful debates that went on within the community over the future of China. Some in Australia and notably
2520-605: A special tax on Chinese immigrants which other immigrants did not have to pay. Towards the end of the 19th century, labour unions pushed to stop Chinese immigrants from working in the furniture and market garden industries. Some laws were passed regarding the labelling of Chinese made furniture in Victoria and Western Australia but not in New South Wales. Chinese people dominated market gardening until their numbers declined as departures were not replaced. Soon after Australia became
2660-604: A treaty with China as it was feared the Chinese government would request the abolition of the White Australian policy as an ally. A spokesman for the Labor Party demanded that it be continued, stating: The policy of White Australia is now, perhaps, the most outstanding political characteristic of this country, and it has been accepted not only by those closely associated with it, but also by those who watched and studied "this interesting experiment" from afar. Only those who favor
2800-490: A virtual social apartheid existed at times between [Irish] Catholics and [British] Protestants", which did not end until the 1960s. The term was also criticised by the historian Patrick O'Farrell as "a grossly misleading, false, and patronising convenience, one crassly present-oriented. Its use removes from consciousness and recognition a major conflict fundamental to any comprehension not only of Australian history but of our present core culture." Streams of migration from
2940-446: Is acquired from the former Chinese residents there is really no need for them to return as they have no other assets". The territory's civilian population had mostly been evacuated during the war and the former Chinatown residents returned to find their homes and businesses reduced to rubble. In the post-war period, assimilation became the dominant policy and this led to some extension of rights with gradual changes to citizenship laws. At
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#17328456397863080-645: Is an ancestral grouping of Australians whose ancestors originate wholly or partially in the British Isles - predominantly in England (including Cornish ), Ireland , Scotland and Wales , as well as the Isle of Man and Channel Islands . While Anglo-Celtic Australians do not form an official ethnic grouping in the Australian Bureau of Statistics ' Australian Standard Classification of Cultural and Ethnic Groups, due to
3220-593: Is not desirable that persons should be allowed to past the test, and before putting it to anyone the Officer should be satisfied that he will fail. If he is considered likely to pass the test if put in English, it should be applied in some other language of which he is ignorant." The legislation found strong support in the new Australian Parliament , with arguments ranging from economic protection to outright racism. The Labor Party wanted to protect "white" jobs and pushed for more explicit restrictions. A few politicians spoke of
3360-457: Is significant for the way in which it incorporates a Chinese section into the original cemetery plan. Many other cemeteries have been redeveloped and the heritage and cultural diversity of their Chinese sections has been lost. After the Victorian and NSW gold rushes of the 1850s and 1860s, the numbers of Chinese in those colonies declined significantly. In 1873 in the far north of Queensland at
3500-665: Is so. The Barton government which came to power following the first elections of the Commonwealth parliament in 1901 was formed by the Protectionist Party with the support of the Australian Labor Party . The support of the Labor Party was contingent upon restricting non-white immigration, reflecting the attitudes of the Australian Workers Union and other labour organisations at the time, upon whose support
3640-464: Is unknown due to the way in which ancestry data is collected in Australia. For instance, many census recipients nominated two Anglo-Celtic ancestries due to the long history of these ancestries in Australia, tending towards an overcount. Conversely, the Australian Bureau of Statistics has stated that most people nominating "Australian" ancestry have at least partial Anglo-Celtic European ancestry despite "Australian" ancestry being classified as part of
3780-611: The Aliens Deportation Act 1948 , which had its weaknesses exposed by the High Court case O'Keefe v Calwell , and then passed the War-time Refugees Removal Act 1949 which gave the immigration minister sweeping powers of deportation. In 1948, Iranian Bahá'ís seeking to immigrate to Australia were classified as "Asiatic" by the policy and were denied entry. In 1949, Calwell's successor, Harold Holt , allowed
3920-498: The AIF . One of these was the famous and decorated sniper Billy Sing . These men managed to enlist in spite of the policy that only those with significant European heritage were allowed to serve. During the inter-war period, Australian-born people of Chinese background began to predominate over Chinese-born people for the first time. Numbers increased rapidly again when refugees consisting of ethnic Chinese toddlers began to enter Australia as
4060-656: The Buckland riot in 1857 and the Lambing Flat riots between 1860 and 1861. Governor Hotham , on 16 November 1854, appointed a Royal Commission on Victorian goldfields problems and grievances. This led to restrictions being placed on Chinese immigration and residency taxes levied from Chinese residents in Victoria from 1855. New South Wales following suit with poll taxes and tonnage restrictions only in 1861. These restrictions remained in force only until 1867. Melbourne Trades Hall
4200-628: The Covenant of the League of Nations . Japanese policy reflected their desire to remove or to ease the immigration restrictions against Japanese (especially in the United States and Canada), which Japan regarded as a humiliation and affront to its prestige. Australian Prime Minister Billy Hughes was already concerned by the prospect of Japanese expansion in the Pacific. Australia, Japan and New Zealand had seized
4340-724: The Germany's Pacific territories in the early stages of the war and Hughes was concerned to retain German New Guinea as vital to the defence of Australia. The treaty ultimately granted Australia a League of Nations Mandate over German New Guinea and Japan to the South Seas Mandate immediately to its north – thus bringing Australian and Japanese territory to a shared border – a situation altered only by Japan's Second World War invasion of New Guinea. Hughes vehemently opposed Japan's racial equality proposition. Hughes recognised that such
History of Chinese Australians - Misplaced Pages Continue
4480-525: The Great Depression starting in 1929 and the end of World War II in 1945, global conditions kept immigration to very low levels. At the start of the war, Prime Minister John Curtin ( ALP ) reinforced the message of the White Australia Policy by saying: "This country shall remain forever the home of the descendants of those people who came here in peace in order to establish in the South Seas an outpost of
4620-525: The Immigration Restriction Act 1901 (1 Edward VII 17 1901) to "place certain restrictions on immigration and... for the removal... of prohibited immigrants". The act drew on similar legislation in the South African colony of Natal. Edmund Barton , the prime minister, argued in support of the bill with the following statement: "The doctrine of the equality of man was never intended to apply to
4760-546: The Oceanian ancestry group, tending towards an undercount. The British Government initiated European settlement of the Australian continent by establishing a penal settlement at Sydney Cove in 1788. Between then and 1852, about 100,000 convicts (mostly tried in England) were transported to eastern Australia. Scotland and Wales contributed relatively few convicts. Native-born Australians of British and Irish descent were approximately
4900-562: The Order of Australia award and there are current representatives in both State and Federal parliaments . Chinese immigration has increased continuously from the 1990s and today the Chinese are the third largest group among immigrants. Since the mid-1990s, migration has become less permanent than it used to be, and goes in more than direction, a trend that pertains also to the Chinese. Students and academics are examples of this pattern. In 1990, Chinese settlers rarely returned permanently, but by 2002,
5040-474: The Palmer River , after the discovery of gold there was another rush and by 1877 there were 20,000 Chinese there. The conditions and problems there were both similar to those in Victoria but also conditions were more extreme. After the ending of this Queensland rush, people either returned to China or dispersed. Many Chinese stayed in Queensland and worked hard to establish much of the northern banana trade. In
5180-474: The Tung Wah Times believed China should keep a monarchy and they supported reform. Others believed China needed a republic and they supported Sun Yat-sen. The first Chinese-language novel to be published in Australia (and possibly anywhere in the West), The Poison of Polygamy , appeared in Melbourne's Chinese Times in 1909-10 and while it makes only a passing mention of the White Australia Policy, has much to say on
5320-594: The United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland to Australia played a key role in Australia's cultural development, despite the last substantial scheme for preferential migration from Britain to Australia ending in 1972. There is a long history of cultural exchange between the countries and many Australians have used Britain as a stepping-stone to international success, e.g., Nellie Melba , Peter Dawson , Clive James , Robert Hughes . In 1967, British migrants in Australia formed an association to represent their special interests:
5460-413: The assimilation of migrants to Australia from continental Europe, who were expected to become mainstream Australians. In 1947, Australian immigration law, which had until had been based on encouraging British immigration, was amended to take in more European immigration. The way that Australia took in a large number of European immigrants from countries that were previously considered undesirable weakened
5600-519: The gold fields between European and Chinese miners, and labour union opposition to the importation of Pacific Islanders (primarily South Sea Islanders ) into the sugar plantations of Queensland , reinforced demands to eliminate or minimize low-wage immigration from Asia and the Pacific Islands. From the 1850s colonial governments imposed restrictions on Chinese arrivals, including poll taxes and tonnage restrictions. The colonial authorities levied
5740-517: The "Dictation Test", which would allow the government, at the discretion of Customs Officers, to block unwanted migrants by forcing them to sit a test in "any European language". At the time, Anglo-Japanese relations were improving, and in 1902 Britain and Japan were to sign a defensive alliance directed implicitly against Russia. The White Australia policy led to vigorous protests from the Japanese government, and led to complaints from London that Australia
History of Chinese Australians - Misplaced Pages Continue
5880-492: The 1850s, 1860s and 1870s. This provided Chinese people throughout New South Wales and Victoria with valuable seafood. By the 1890s Chinese people in Australia were represented in a wide variety of occupations including scrub cutters, interpreters , cooks , tobacco farmers, launderers, market gardeners, cabinet-makers , storekeepers and drapers , though by this time the Chinese operated fishing industry seems to have disappeared. In this period Sydney and Melbourne's proportion of
6020-475: The 1880s there was also a rise in anti-Chinese sentiment in the cities of Melbourne and Sydney. Earlier discontent had been curtailed by the segregationist policies in the rural protectorates and poorly reported in the urban publications. However, as more and more Chinese began moving from the country towns into the cities there was an equal rise in anti-Chinese sentiment. This resulted in another round of restrictive Acts in NSW in 1881 and 1888. It also contributed to
6160-413: The 1930s the historian W. K. Hancock could aptly describe them as Independent Australian Britons. The Irish-Australian journalist Siobhán McHugh has argued that the term "Anglo-Celtic" is "an insidious distortion of our past and a galling denial of the struggle by an earlier minority group", Irish Australians , "against oppression and demonisation... In what we now cosily term "Anglo-Celtic" Australia,
6300-413: The 1940s, 150 years after first settlement, is adequately described as Anglo-Celtic. At least this acknowledges that the people of Australia were Irish and Scots as well as English, but it has nothing more substantial than a hyphen joining them. In fact a distinct new culture had been formed. English, Scots and Irish had formed a common identity – first of all British and then gradually Australian as well. In
6440-413: The 1971 Census and has remained above one million to this day. The United Kingdom-born population in Australia reached a peak of 1,107,119 in 1991. Anglo-Celtic is not an official ancestry category in the Australian census. Census respondents may nominate up to two ancestries. The number of ancestry responses from the following groups as a proportion of the total Australian population amounted to 51.7% at
6580-418: The 2021 census: English Australian , Irish Australian , Scottish Australian , Cornish Australians , Welsh Australian , British Australian (so described), Manx Australian, Channel Islander Australian. The precise number of Anglo-Celtic Australians is unknown due to the way in which ancestry data is collected in Australia. For instance, many census recipients nominated two Anglo-Celtic ancestries due to
6720-499: The Anglo-Celtic share of the Australian population was calculated as 69.9%. Some have argued that the term is entirely a product of multiculturalism that ignores the history of sectarianism in Australia . For example, historian John Hirst wrote in 1994: "Mainstream Australian society was reduced to an ethnic group and given an ethnic name: Anglo-Celt." According to Hirst: In the eyes of multiculturalists, Australian society of
6860-766: The Australian Territory of New Guinea was only halted by the intervention of the United States Navy in the Battle of the Coral Sea . Australia received thousands of refugees from territories falling to advancing Japanese forces – notably thousands of Chinese men and women as well as many Chinese seamen. There were also Dutch who fled the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia). Aboriginal Australians , Torres Strait Islanders , Papua New Guineans and Timorese served in
7000-464: The British and Irish-born population for every national Australian census as a proportion of the total foreign-born population at various points. Notes: From 1954 onwards people from "Northern Ireland" and " Ulster " were recorded separately from the people of "Ireland". The 1966 census (is Republic of Ireland & Ireland (undefined). The following table shows various Anglo-Celtic ancestries since 1986,
7140-610: The British race." Following the 1942 Fall of Singapore , Australians feared invasion by Imperial Japan . Australian cities were bombed by the Japanese airforce and Navy and Axis naval forces menaced Australian shipping, while the Royal Navy remained pre-occupied with the battles of the Atlantic and Mediterranean in the face of Nazi aggression in Europe. A Japanese invasion fleet headed for
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#17328456397867280-560: The Cardinal's position and the small European population of Australia generally supported the legislation and remained fearful of being overwhelmed by an influx of non-British migrants from the vastly different cultures of the highly populated nations to Australia's north. The Immigration Restriction Act 1901 imposed a dictation test, in any European language, for any non-European migrant to Australia. The immigration officer (Customs until 1949) could choose any language, which effectively meant that
7420-821: The Chinese Chamber of Commerce revived; Chinese language newspapers were once again published. The equality of citizenship laws and family reunion immigration after 1972 meant that an imbalance of the sexes, once a dominant feature of the Chinese communities in Australia, was not an issue in these later migrations. Chinese newspapers are published in Australia and three shortwave and longwave radio channels broadcast in Mandarin and Cantonese . The Australian public broadcaster SBS also provides television and radio on weekends. Chinese Australian social websites like Xīn Zújì ( 新足迹 , www.oursteps.com.au) and FREEOZ (www.freeoz.org) also blossomed. Several Chinese Australians have received
7560-431: The Chinese of Guangdong. The Australian rush was known as 'new gold mountain'. Chinese immigrants to Australia left such conditions as overpopulation and poverty. These issues impacted many parts of China, but immigrants to California and the Australian colonies came mainly from the counties most proximate to the port of Hong Kong . The average voyage from Canton via Hong Kong to Sydney and Melbourne took about 3 months. It
7700-526: The Chinese residents of Australia had steadily increased. One prominent Chinese Australian at this time was gold seeker Wong Ah Sat and Mei Quong Tart who ran a popular tea house in the Queen Victoria Building in Sydney. In Melbourne Lowe Kong Meng and Louis Ah Mouy were two prominent merchants. During this period, furniture making became one of the largest industries for Chinese in Melbourne. At
7840-411: The Chinese started arriving in Australia, they started dying here. Many wanted their remains to be sent back to China for spiritual and traditional reasons. Many families went to great lengths to see this achieved. Others however, were buried in Australia. Cemeteries around the country contain Chinese graves. To accommodate the Chinese funeral rituals that involve burning cemeteries around Australia allowed
7980-533: The Dictation Test, which effectively gave power to immigration officials to racially discriminate without mentioning race. The policy also affected immigrants from Germany, Italy, and other European countries, especially in wartime. Governments progressively dismantled such policies between 1949 and 1973, when the Whitlam government removed the last racial elements of Australia's immigration laws. Competition in
8120-592: The Gold rushes in Victoria, some Chinese moved into the other colonies to follow gold rushes there. New South Wales and Queensland hadn't followed Victoria in establishing Chinese related legislation. This could be seen as a cause for the Lambing Flats Riots and then later the same problems were found on the Palmer River Goldfields in the late 1870s where Chinese miners vastly outnumbered Europeans. As soon as
8260-598: The Immigration Restriction Bill were passed shortly before parliament rose for its first Christmas recess. The colonial secretary in Britain had, however, made it clear that a race-based immigration policy would run "contrary to the general conceptions of equality which have ever been the guiding principle of British rule throughout the Empire". The Barton government therefore conceived of the "Education test", later called
8400-600: The Keeper of Lunacy still required the Amoy dialect from his interpreters. The British were conscious of jeopardising the stipulation that British subjects be allowed to reside in the newly opened treaty ports in China and they made this stipulation reciprocal. So as to avoid antagonising the ruling Qing dynasty, the British government often overruled the Australian colonies when they attempted to exclude Chinese immigration. The 1850s and 1860s saw
8540-516: The Labor Party was founded. The Australian historian James Jupp wrote that it was not true that the White Australia policy was exclusively a right-wing cause as the strongest support for the White Australia policy was on the left-side of Australian politics with both the trade unions and the Labour Party being the most militant opponents of Asian immigration well into the 1960s. Many Australians in
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#17328456397868680-519: The New Zealand government made a formal complaint about the exclusion of two Māori shearers, after which the Australian government changed its customs regulations to allow Māori to freely enter the country. Other Pacific Islanders were still subject to the White Australia Policy. At the 1919 Paris Peace Conference following the First World War , Japan sought to include a racial equality clause in
8820-679: The Pacific donated £36,000 to China. A letter of thank you to the Chinese Australians from the Finance Minister of the Republic is on display at the Golden Dragon Museum . World War I presented Chinese Australians with many unique challenges. It is by the outbreak of the war in 1914 it is estimated that there were less than 1000 Chinese Australian men of fighting age. Of these only about 198 men of Chinese ancestry managed to enlist in
8960-484: The Seine-or the Folies Bergeres-with my clothes off". Hughes did offer the compromise that he would support the Racial Equality Clause provided that it did not affect immigration, an offer the Japanese rejected. When the proposal failed, Hughes reported in the Australian parliament: The White Australia is yours. You may do with it what you please, but at any rate, the soldiers have achieved the victory and my colleagues and I have brought that great principle back to you from
9100-503: The South Seas an outpost of the British race." Successive governments dismantled the policy in stages after the conclusion of World War II, with the Chifley and Menzies governments encouraging non-British Europeans to immigrate to Australia. The Migration Act 1958 abolished the dictation test, while the Holt government removed discrimination against non-white applicants for citizenship in 1966. The Whitlam government passed laws to ensure that race would be totally disregarded as
9240-434: The United Kingdom Settlers' Association, which subsequently became the British Australian Community . On 10 July 2017, at a press conference in London, Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said: "Australians feel at home in the United Kingdom and Britons feel at home in Australia. Most Australians have some of their ancestry at least from the United Kingdom and five per cent of Australians were actually born in
9380-413: The United Kingdom. The culture , the laws the traditions of Britain were brought to Australia with the European settlement, British settlement that were brought as part of the heritage of the men and women, including my forebears , that founded what we know today as modern Australia". . . There are no two nations in the world that trust each other more than the United Kingdom and Australia. We are family in
9520-443: The Victorian goldfields, while many others disembarked in Sydney and began to enter the NSW goldfields of the central districts. After arrival in South Australia, the large number probably in the thousands of Chinese miners then walked the long overland route to the Victorian goldfields. Parties of Chinese men would often pay for local guides to take them to the goldfields in what was a well organised exercise. After finally arriving on
9660-503: The Victorian parliament passed the Chinese Restriction Act in an effort to restrict Chinese immigration. These restrictions, including a £10 poll tax on Chinese and a limit to Chinese passengers per tonnage of shipping, caused a reduction in ship owners' profitability, leading to an increase in the already high fares. The Act did limit the numbers of Chinese arriving in Victorian ports, with official Victorian records showing over 10,000 Chinese arrived in Victoria between 1853 and 1855 but only
9800-441: The act explicitly banned non-Europeans from migrating to Australia but objections from the British government, which feared that such a measure would offend British subjects in India and Britain's allies in Japan, caused the Barton government to remove this wording. Instead, a "dictation test" was introduced as a device for excluding unwanted immigrants. Immigration officials were given the power to exclude any person who failed to pass
9940-479: The beginning of the colonial era until the mid-20th century, the vast majority of settlers to Australia were from Britain and Ireland, with the English being the dominant group, followed by the Irish and Scottish. Among the leading ancestries, increases in Australian, Irish, and German ancestries and decreases in English, Scottish, and Welsh ancestries appear to reflect such shifts in perception or reporting. These reporting shifts at least partly resulted from changes in
10080-594: The bills, due to a treaty with Japan , and they did not become law. Instead, the Natal Act of 1897 was introduced, restricting "undesirable persons" who could not fill in a set form rather than by naming any specific race. The British government in London was not pleased with legislation that discriminated against certain subjects of its empire, but decided not to disallow the laws that were passed. Colonial Secretary Joseph Chamberlain explained in 1897: We quite sympathize with
10220-486: The case for Australia as a primarily "British" country and led to demands for the end of the White Australia policy. Given that the purpose of the White Australia policy was to preserve Australia as a British country, in an ironic twist, some of the strongest critics of the White Australia policy in the 1950s were liberal British professors serving at Australian universities. In 1959, the Immigration Reform Group
10360-623: The century, was heavily spurred on by racist opposition towards the ethnicity of the Chinese emigrants. Little is known of the habits of such men or their relations with other New South Wales residents except for those that appear in the records of the courts and mental asylums . Some stayed for the term of their contracts and then left for home, but there is evidence that others spent the rest of their lives in New South Wales, marrying and founding families that are only now rediscovering their Chinese heritage. A Gulgong resident who died at age 105 in 1911 had been in New South Wales since 1841 while in 1871
10500-519: The colony. In 1818, John Shying who was born in Guangzhou (Canton) in 1798 had arrived and after a period of working as a farmer, in 1829, he became the publican of The Lion in Parramatta . John Macarthur , a prominent pastoralist, employed three Chinese workers on his estates in the 1820s, though his records may well have neglected others. The ethnic Chinese such as Macarthur's employees were part of
10640-501: The conference, as safe as it was on the day when it was first adopted. Australian anxiety at the prospect of Japanese expansionism and war in the Pacific continued through the 1930s. Hughes, by then a minister in the United Australia Party 's Lyons government , made a notable contribution to Australia's attitude towards immigration in a 1935 speech in which he argued that "Australia must ... populate or perish." Between
10780-550: The construction of chimneys. These chimneys can still be found in cemeteries around the country today. Often the people in charge of the cemeteries were devout Christians, people who had an aversion to what they saw as pagan rituals. The Chinese section of the White Hills cemetery in Bendigo is possibly the most important example remaining in Australia of Chinese graves in their original state. Beechworth Cemetery, which opened in 1857,
10920-509: The copy held by the Admiralty, he "revised the wording" to "New South Wales". Queensland – The state was named in honour of Queen Victoria , who on 6 June 1859 signed Letters Patent separating the colony from New South Wales . Victoria – like Queensland , was named after Queen Victoria , who had been on the British throne for 14 years when the colony was established in 1851. White Australia policy The White Australia policy
11060-421: The country to be used by communities for Chinese new year and local events. In May 1901, to celebrate the sitting of the first federal parliament, Chinese people paraded two dragons through the streets. Continued discrimination, both legal and social, reduced the occupational range of Chinese people until market gardening, always a major occupation, became far and away the representative role of 'John Chinaman'. It
11200-646: The criteria set out in law. Prior to 2011, the United Kingdom was the largest source country for immigration to Australia but, since then, China and India have provided the highest number of permanent migrants. These results exclude the many settlers from New Zealand unless they choose to apply through the permant resident program. The National Museum of Australia describes the White Australia Policy as openly racist, stating that it "existed because many white Australians feared that non-white immigrants would threaten Australian society". The discovery of gold in Australia in 1851 led to an influx of immigrants from all around
11340-497: The design of the census question, in particular the introduction of a tick box format in 2001. Those born in the United Kingdom were the largest foreign group throughout the 20th century. Prior to the last quarter of the century, the United Kingdom was strongly favoured as a source country by immigrant selection policies and remained the largest single component of the annual immigration intake until 1995–96, when immigrants from New Zealand surpassed it in number. However, their share of
11480-447: The determination...of these colonies...that there should not be an influx of people alien in civilisation, alien in religion, alien in customs, whose influx, moreover, would seriously interfere with the legitimate rights of the existing labouring population. In writing about the preoccupations of the Australian population in early Federation Australia before World War I in ANZAC to Amiens ,
11620-633: The development of organizations focused on China rather than the districts and villages of people's origin only and aimed at making Australia aware of the danger of Japan and the need to assist China. A few of these organizations, such as the Chinese Youth League, survive to this day. The Chifley government 's Darwin Lands Acquisition Act 1945 compulsorily acquired 53 acres (21 ha) of land owned by Chinese-Australians in Darwin , leading to
11760-496: The early 20th century tended to define being white as being the same as Australian with a majority of Australian states passing laws banning marriage and/or sex between whites and Aboriginals as part of an effort to maintain Australia's white character. The first Parliament of Australia quickly moved to restrict immigration to maintain Australia's "British character", and the Pacific Island Labourers Bill and
11900-553: The end of the local Chinatown . The Northern Territory 's administrator Aubrey Abbott had written to Joseph Carrodus , secretary of the Department of the Interior , in 1943 to propose "the elimination of undesirable elements which Darwin has suffered from far too much in the past" and stated that compulsory acquisition and conversion to leasehold should "entirely prevent the Chinese quarter forming again". He further observed that "if land
12040-401: The end of the dominance of south China in the link between China and Australia that had existed for nearly 100 years. The final end of the White Australia Policy saw new arrivals from the Chinese diaspora and for the first time significant numbers from non-Cantonese speaking parts of China. The first wave of arrivals were ethnic Chinese refugees from Vietnam and Cambodia during the 1970s; this
12180-609: The equality of the Englishman and the Chinaman." The attorney general tasked with drafting the legislation was Alfred Deakin . Deakin supported Barton's position over that of the Labor Party in drafting the bill (the ALP wanted more direct methods of exclusion than the dictation test) and redacted the more vicious racism proposed for the text in his second reading of the Bill. In seeking to justify
12320-720: The establishment of the Australian Federation. At the third session of the Australasian Federation Convention of 1898, Western Australian premier and future federal cabinet member John Forrest summarised the feeling of the Anglo-Saxon people in Australia: It is of no use to shut our eyes to the fact that there is a great feeling all over Australia against the introduction of coloured persons. It goes without saying that we do not like to talk about it, but it
12460-616: The exploitation of a servile coloured race for greed of gain, and a few professional economists and benighted theologians, are now heard in serious criticism of a White Australia; but ... they are encouraged by the ill-timed and inappropriate pronouncements of what are, after all, irresponsible officials. Following the trauma of the Second World War, Australia's vulnerability during the Pacific War and its relatively small population compared to other nations led to policies summarised by
12600-535: The fact that while many English arrived in Australia as willing immigrants, many Irish were forcibly transported as prisoners or refugees. At the 2021 census, the number of ancestry responses from the following groups as a proportion of the total Australian population amounted to 51.7%: English Australian , Irish Australian , Scottish Australian , Welsh Australian , Cornish Australians , British Australian (so described), Manx Australian, Channel Islander Australian. The precise number of Anglo-Celtic Australians
12740-479: The first census to include as a question on ancestry. The aim of the question was to measure the ethnic composition of the population as a whole. Very little use was made of the ancestry data from the 1986 Census. As a consequence, ancestry was not included in either the 1991 or 1996 Censuses. Between 1987 and 1999, the Anglo-Celtic component of Australia's population declined from 75 per cent to 70 per cent. In 1999,
12880-401: The frontline of the defence of Australia, bringing Australia's racially discriminatory immigration and political rights policies into focus and wartime service gave many Indigenous Australians confidence in demanding their rights upon return to civilian life. During the war, talk arose about the possibility of abolishing the policy. Hostility to this idea was one reason Australia never signed
13020-542: The gold-rush in the 1850s. As late as 1861, people born in England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland outnumbered even the Australia-born population. The number of settlers in Australia who were born in the United Kingdom (UK) peaked at 825,000 in 1891, from which point the proportion of British among all immigrants to Australia steadily declined. Until 1859, 2.2 million (73%) of the free settlers who immigrated were British. From
13160-482: The goldfields of Victoria and NSW Chinese people were lived is so called "camps". The camps soon consisted of buildings similar to others but were the forerunners to later Chinatowns in many places. The organization of these camps was often done around clan, or dialect differences where this was applicable. While most of the men were from the Guangdong province, several different dialects and Chinese languages were present on
13300-413: The goldfields seeking prosperity. Gold brought great wealth but also new social tensions. Multi-ethnic migrants came to Victoria and New South Wales in large numbers for the first time. Competition on the goldfields, particularly resentment among white miners towards the successes of Chinese miners, led to tensions between groups and eventually a series of significant racist protests and riots, including
13440-563: The goldfields the Chinese goldseekers faced many hardships. There was a lot of anti-Chinese sentiment amongst the European miners. In July 1854 in the Bendigo Advertiser it was reported that William Denovan called for an uprising for the purpose of 'the driving of the Chinese population off the Bendigo goldfield'. A riot was averted by the local police commissioner. However, this sort of sentiment
13580-556: The goldfields. These camps were their own little communities. To the Europeans these were notorious and exotic places. At the same time in China, opium addiction was rampant, some of the men brought this addiction with them to the goldfields. Two of the most common finds by modern fossickers in the area of Chinese camps are Chinese coins and opium pipes. However, the records of local health groups and hospitals show only low numbers of Chinese were ever treated for their opium addictions. After
13720-436: The height of this industry in Melbourne there were 175 firms, producing and selling Chinese made furniture. However, the Chinese success in this industry didn't last. Furniture makers of European descent petitioned the government, saying Chinese furniture makers were hurting their livelihoods. The government of Victoria but not New South Wales passed a Factories and Shops Act that targeted Chinese working in that industry. By
13860-455: The high level of tea drinking to 'the existence of an intercourse with China from the foundation of the Colony ...' Many East India Company ships used Australia as a port of call on their trips to and from buying tea from China. These ships carried some ethnic Chinese sailors, and some historians have raised the possibility that they chose to disembark in the port of Sydney to start a new life in
14000-543: The largest component of the British immigrant population, Australia has also received significant numbers of immigrants from Ireland, Scotland, and Wales. Up until the First World War the Irish were, in their own right, the second largest immigrant population. The most dramatic increase in the British immigrant population occurred between 1961 and 1971. The number of British-born people living in Australia exceeded one million at
14140-535: The largest pre-federation Chinese migration to Australia, with numbers peaking around 40,000. These numbers were only reached again after the abolition of the White Australia policy in 1973. Gold was found at several places in Australia in 1851 but significant Chinese migration to join the diggers only began late in 1853. Most Chinese who came to Australia for the gold rush were from Southern China. The Californian Gold Rush had been known as 'old gold mountain' to
14280-423: The long historical dominance and intermixture of Australians with ancestries from the British Isles, it is commonly used as an informal ethnic identifier. The term has received criticism for erasing historical distinctions between English and Celtic settlers. In particular, it does not account for the political and social segregation of English and Irish Australians which some scholars have labelled an apartheid or
14420-479: The long history of these ancestries in Australia, tending towards an overcount. Conversely, the Australian Bureau of Statistics has stated that most people nominating "Australian" ancestry have at least partial Anglo-Celtic European ancestry despite "Australian" ancestry being classified as part of the Oceanian ancestry group, tending towards an undercount. At the 2021 census, the most commonly nominated Anglo-Celtic ancestries were: The United Kingdom remains
14560-447: The lowest rates of Anglo-Celtic Australians, particularly in certain regions of each city (such as Western Sydney). Tasmania could have the nation's highest proportion of citizens of Anglo-Celtic origin, possibly as high as 85 percent. On the evidence of statistics of ethnic derivation Tasmania could also be considered more British than New Zealand (where the Anglo-Celtic majority has fallen below 75 percent). The following table shows
14700-462: The merchants and others sponsored, both legally and illegally, prevented the Chinese populations in Australia from disappearing entirely. In WW2 the Darwin branch of the KMT was a valuable source of information for Chinese Australians. Chinese Australians also showed the support for the republic with monetary donations. In 1913 Chinese Australians, Chinese New Zealanders and others in the Chinese diaspora in
14840-433: The need to avoid hysterical treatment of the question. Member of Parliament Bruce Smith said he had "no desire to see low-class Indians, Chinamen or Japanese...swarming into this country... But there is obligation...not (to) unnecessarily offend the educated classes of those nations" Norman Cameron , a Free Trade Party member from Tasmania, expressed a rare note of dissension: [N]o race on... this earth has been treated in
14980-502: The number of Hong Kong settlers leaving Australia for good equalled those arriving during that year. In 2005-6 China (not including Hong Kong or Macau) was the third major source of permanent migrants to Australia behind the United Kingdom and New Zealand but with more migrants than from India. Between 2000–01 and 2005–06, the number of skilled migrants coming to Australia from China more than tripled, from 3,800 to 12,500 people. Anglo-Celtic Australians Anglo-Celtic Australians
15120-606: The officer had the power to restrict the immigration of any individual. Further discriminatory legislation was the Postal and Telegraph Services Act 1901 (1 Edward VII 12 1901), which required any ship carrying mail to and from Australia to only have a white crew. In 1901, there were approximately 9,800 Pacific Islander labourers in Queensland. In 1901, the Australian parliament passed the Pacific Island Labourers Act 1901 (1 Edward VII 16 1901). The result of these statutes
15260-403: The official historian of the war, Charles Bean , considered the White Australia Policy and defined it as follows: "White Australia Policy" – a vehement effort to maintain a high Western standard of economy, society and culture (necessitating at that stage, however it might be camouflaged, the rigid exclusion of Oriental peoples). Immigration was a prominent topic of discussion in the lead up to
15400-482: The policy, Deakin said he believed that the Japanese and Chinese might be a threat to the newly formed federation and it was this belief that led to legislation to ensure they would be kept out: It is not the bad qualities, but the good qualities of these alien races that make them so dangerous to us. It is their inexhaustible energy, their power of applying themselves to new tasks, their endurance and low standard of living that make them such competitors. Early drafts of
15540-620: The political situation in China, and other cultural and political topics relating to the modernisation of China. At the same time, Chinese republican revolutionaries were operating in Australia, and the Qing government saw a need to dissuade the Chinese diaspora against supporting the republicans. Reflecting the political debate in China, Chinese Australians had by 1900 formed branches of the Chinese Empire Reform Association to press for reform in China. Chinese regalia travelled around
15680-574: The preferred option of the British, the Education Test was passed. There was also opposition from Queensland and its sugar industry to the proposals of the Pacific Islanders Bill to exclude "Kanaka" labourers, however Barton argued that the practice was "veiled slavery" that could lead to a "negro problem" similar to that in the United States, and the bill was passed. The new Federal Parliament, as one of its first pieces of legislation, passed
15820-429: The remaining 800 non-white refugees to apply for residency, and also allowed Japanese " war brides " to settle in Australia. In the meantime, Holt continued Calwell's policy of encouraging mass immigration from Europe, and Australia admitted large numbers of immigrants from mostly Italy, Poland, Greece and Yugoslavia , as well as its traditional source of immigration, the British Isles . The Australian Government promoted
15960-399: The result of WW2. Some were Chinese crew members who refused to return to Japanese-held areas and others were ethnic Chinese residents of the many Pacific islands evacuated in the face of the Japanese advance. Still, others included those with Australian birth who were able to leave Hong Kong and the villages on the approach of the Japanese. At the same time, the anti-Japanese War helped inspire
16100-574: The same immigration and voting rights as European New Zealanders in Australia, making them a notable exception to the White Australia Policy. In 1902, with the Commonwealth Franchise Act , Māori residents in Australia were granted the right to vote , a right denied to Indigenous Australians . During that same period, their right to settle in Australia was facilitated by their shared status as British subjects . The Australian government granted equal rights to Māori only reluctantly. In 1905,
16240-428: The same rights as their Anglo and southern compatriots, although they faced significant discrimination. Agreements were made to further increase these restrictions in 1895 following an inter-colonial premiers' conference where all colonies agreed to extend entry restrictions to all non-white races . However, in attempting to enact this legislation, the governors of New South Wales, South Australia and Tasmania reserved
16380-467: The same time cafes began to replace market gardens as the major source of employment and avenue for bringing in new migrants, both legal and illegal. These changes, combined with the increased number of Australian-born Chinese, the final return of the last of the domiciles who still wished to do so and the arrival of Chinese background students under the Colombo Plan from various parts of Asia, brought about
16520-424: The slogan, "populate or perish." According to author Lachlan Strahan, this was an ethnocentric slogan that in effect was an admonition to fill Australia with Europeans or else risk having it overrun by Asians. Immigration Minister Arthur Calwell stated in 1947 to critics of the government's mass immigration programme: "We have 25 years at most to populate this country before the yellow races are down on us." During
16660-478: The state. They were also part of an international community involved in political events in China such as sending delegates to a Peking Parliament or making donations at times of natural disaster. There were many Chinese Australians who supported the Xinhai Revolution and Sun Yat-sen . The passing of the Immigration Restriction Act of 1901 , however, froze the Chinese communities of the late 19th century into
16800-548: The time of Australian Federation, there were around 29,000 ethnic Chinese in Australia: Chinese people in the capital cities of Sydney and Melbourne, were a significant group, running numerous stores, an import trade, societies and several Chinese language newspapers. There were also many Chinese still working in the north of Queensland in the banana trade. Tin mining in Tasmania was also a venture that brought Chinese workers to
16940-549: The total immigrant population is in decline. Those from the United Kingdom comprised 58 per cent of the total overseas-born population in 1901, compared to 27 per cent in 1996. An even greater decline has occurred for those born in Ireland. In 1901, those born in Ireland comprised 22 per cent of all immigrants, while in 1996 the Ireland-born represented just 1 per cent of the immigrant population. While those born in England have formed
17080-404: The total population. The arrivals of large numbers of Chinese gold seekers into the only recently created Colony of Victoria caused great alarm among its politicians and gold seekers. In the Victorian parliament, it was argued that it was a security risk to have so many Chinese in the colony who were fighting the Europeans. But the real issue was fear of competition on the goldfields, and in 1855
17220-549: The varied mix of people that inhabited early Sydney Town . It was the increasing demand for cheap labour after convict transportation ceased in the 1840s that led to much larger numbers of Chinese men arriving as indentured labourers , to work as shepherds for private landowners and the Australian Agricultural Company . These workers mainly came from the province of Fujian via the port of Amoy , with some having been kidnapped and brought to Australia. The practise
17360-578: The vast majority state that they interacted indirectly via trepanging . The first recorded link between China and Australia occurred during the establishment of the Colony of New South Wales . Three ships of the First Fleet , Scarborough , Charlotte and Lady Penrhyn , after depositing their convicts in the colony, sailed for Canton with the intent to purchase tea and other Chinese goods to sell on their return to Britain . The Bigge Report attributed
17500-571: The war, many non-white refugees, Chinese but also including Malays, Indonesians and Filipinos, arrived in Australia, but Calwell controversially sought to have them all deported. Between 1945 and 1952, an Australian brigade served as part of the British Commonwealth Occupation Force in Japan. Until 1952, Australia did not permit Japanese women who had married Australian soldiers to enter Australia. The Chifley government introduced
17640-572: The wealthier city-born men who were coming to Australia to be merchants or work in an industry other than gold mining. From 1853 to 1855, thousands of Chinese disembarked in Melbourne and headed for the goldfields. Very few Chinese women came to Australia during this period. In 1861, at least 38,000 Chinese people lived in the Australian colonies with the vast majority being men. On the goldfields in Bendigo in 1861 there were 5,367 Chinese men and only one Chinese woman. By 1861, there were around 40,000 Chinese people living in Australia, constituting 3.3% of
17780-508: The world. The colony of Victoria had a population of only 77,000 in 1851 and New South Wales just 200,000, but the huge influx of settlers spurred by the Australian gold rushes transformed the Australian colonies economically, politically and demographically. Over the next 20 years, 40,000 Chinese men but very few women, nearly all from the province of Guangdong (then known as Canton) but divided by language and dialect nevertheless, immigrated to
17920-402: Was a profitable exercise for the ship masters, and the more Chinese passengers they could fit on board the more money they could make from the passage fares. These fares were often paid through a system of debt to clan leaders and/or to agents who accompanied them on the ship. Such methods of travel were known as credit-tickets. However, some Chinese were able to pay their own way. These were often
18060-477: Was a set of racial policies that aimed to forbid people of non-European ethnic origins – especially Asians (primarily Chinese ) and Pacific Islanders – from immigrating to Australia in order to create a "white/British" ideal focused on but not exclusively Anglo-Celtic peoples. Pre-Federation, the Australian colonies passed many anti-Chinese immigration laws mainly using Poll Taxes, with Federation in 1901 came discrimination based on
18200-464: Was argued that without Asiatics to work in the tropical areas of the Northern Territory and Queensland, the area would have to be abandoned. Despite these objections to restricting immigration, between 1875 and 1888 all Australian colonies enacted legislation which excluded all further Chinese immigration. Asian immigrants already residing in the Australian colonies were not expelled and retained
18340-410: Was as gardeners that most pre-1901 now granted status as 'domiciles' under the 1901 Act, visited their villages and established families throughout the first 30 years or so of the 20th century, relying on the minority of merchants to assist them to negotiate with the Immigration Restriction Act bureaucracy. Only the rise of a new generation of Australian-born Chinese people, combined with new migrants that
18480-597: Was commonly termed " blackbirding " and refers to the recruitment of people, often through trickery and kidnappings, to work on plantations, particularly the sugar cane plantations of Queensland (Australia) and Fiji . In the 1870s and 1880s, the trade union movement began a series of protests against foreign labour. Their arguments were that Asians and Chinese took jobs away from white men, worked for "substandard" wages, lowered working conditions, were harder workers and refused unionisation. Objections to these arguments came largely from wealthy land owners in rural areas. It
18620-655: Was followed by economic migrants from Hong Kong in the 1980s and 1990s, whose families often settled in Sydney while the breadwinner returned to Hong Kong to continue earning an income – a significant reversal of the traditional migration pattern. After the Tiananmen Square massacre of 1989 , the then Australian Prime Minister, Bob Hawke , allowed students from mainland China then resident to settle in Australia permanently. Since then, immigrants from mainland China and Taiwan have arrived in increasing numbers. New institutions were established for these arrivals and old ones such as
18760-475: Was founded at Melbourne University to champion for the abolition of the policy. Australian policy began to shift towards significantly increasing immigration. Legislative changes over the next few decades continuously opened up immigration in Australia. Labor Party Chifley government : Liberal-Country Party Menzies government (1949–1966) : This was despite comments Menzies made in a discussion with radio 2UE 's Stewart Lamb in 1955, where he appeared to be
18900-399: Was gratuitously straining relations with Japan, which Britain viewed as a prospective ally against Russia. For the Labor Party this was a compromise of principles, so the main question for the debate on the Immigration Restriction Act just how openly racist to be, with the Labor Party preferring to openly bar "aboriginal natives of Asia, Africa, or the islands thereof". However in the end
19040-472: Was often referred to pejoratively as the 'sale of pigs'. In the 1850s, the opening of ports such as Amoy as treaty ports facilitated the practice of importing indentured labour. Between 1848 and 1853, over 3,000 Chinese workers on labour contracts arrived via the port of Sydney for employment in the New South Wales (then including Victoria and Queensland) countryside. Resistance to this cheap labour occurred as soon as it arrived, and, like such protests later in
19180-497: Was opened in 1859 with trades and labour councils and trades halls opening in all cities and most regional towns in the following forty years. During the 1880s, trade unions developed among shearers , miners , and stevedores (wharf workers), but soon spread to cover almost all blue-collar jobs. Shortages of labour led to high wages for a prosperous skilled working class, whose unions demanded and got an eight-hour day and other benefits unheard of in Europe. Australia gained
19320-519: Was that 7,500 Pacific Islanders (called " Kanakas ") working mostly on plantations in Queensland were deported, and entry into Australia by Pacific Islanders was prohibited after 1904. Those exempted from repatriation, along with a number of others who escaped deportation, remained in Australia to form the basis of what is today Australia's largest non-indigenous black ethnic group. Today, the descendants of those who remained are officially referred to as South Sea Islanders . Māori generally benefited from
19460-427: Was used to bar non-white immigrants from entry. Subsequent acts further strengthened the policy. These policies effectively gave British migrants preference over all others through the first half of the 20th century. During World War II, Prime Minister John Curtin reinforced the policy, saying "This country shall remain forever the home of the descendants of those people who came here in peace in order to establish in
19600-479: Was widespread throughout the Australian gold rushes. In 1857 this sentiment caused the Buckland Riot and in 1860-1861 the Lambing Flat riots in NSW. There was also unrest around Ararat when a party of Chinese men were the first to discover gold there and kept the find quiet. In answer to these problems the parliaments of Victoria and NSW had differing approaches. Victoria installed Chinese protectors modelled on
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