The Goon Yee Tong is an old Chinese Australian district association of Chinese from the district of Tung Koon. The Goon Yee Tong association, established by Tung Koon natives to organise bone repatriation and engage in charitable endeavours, survives to this day.[1] Early history of the Goon Yee Tong The Goon Yee Tong was established […]
By Juanita Kwok The Quong Sin Tong is an old Chinese Australian society about which little is known. The Society is believed to have erected the Quong Sing Tong monument in Rookwood Cemetery in 1877, commemorating Chinese buried in the Old Chinese Cemetery in Rookwood. According to Terri McCormack, who wrote the Conservation Management Plan for the […]
By Juanita Kwok Three buildings which are highly significant to the history of Sydney’s Chinatown have been newly heritage listed on the City of Sydney Council’s Local Environment Plan: 1) Goon Yee Tong, Loong Yee Tong and Loon Fook Tong buildings, 50-54 Dixon Street, Haymarket 2) Former Municipal Stores, 90-100 Hay Street, Haymarket 3) Kuo […]
Was your Chinese ancestor in Australia at Lambing Flat at the time of the riots in June 1861? The Lambing Flat petition of 1864 contains the names in Chinese and English of 94 persons (some representing parties of people) who state they were at Back Creek on 30 June 1861. The names on the petition […]
Wishing all our followers a fulfilling year. Our photo features Chinese Masonic Society member Mr Harry Chiu who has been performing and teaching lion dancing for over 50 years.
By Juanita Kwok 7 December 2025 The first Chinese men to arrive in Queensland did not come as gold seekers but as indentured pastoral labourers brought to work on the pastoral frontiers from the late 1840s to early 1850s. Margaret Slocomb, historian of the Chinese indentured labourers in Queensland, asserts that “some of the Burnett […]
By Juanita Kwok 18 November 2025 After landing taxes were introduced in Victoria in 1855 and South Australia in 1856 to deter Chinese arrivals, gold seekers from the Pearl River Delta area began landing in Sydney and making their way to the New South Wales goldfields. There were already small numbers of Amoy men on […]
By Juanita Kwok, 13 November 2025 This Chinese Masonic Badge belonged to Charles Yow Senior (b. China 1862, d. Bathurst 1927). Charles Yow Sr was a member of the Chinese Masonic Lodge in Bathurst. The front of the medal has the Chinese character for “award”. The character on the back means “company” or “society” and […]
By Juanita Kwok, November 2025 In 1854, ships from Hong Kong bearing Chinese men from the Pearl River Delta area of southern China began landing at Port Phillip, from where the gold seekers made their way to the Victorian goldfields. Although the goldrushes had begun in NSW in May 1851, it was to the richer […]
Juanita Kwok 23 October 2025 The Hung League/Yee Hing is believed to have originated in Zhangzhou in Fujian Province, China in 1761, from where it spread rapidly through Fujian and Guangdong provinces.[1] Established in opposition to Manchu rule, the slogan of the League was “Overthrow the Qing and restore the Ming”. Outlawed in China, the […]