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 is the same term for society used in the name of the Yee Hing Society [an earlier name for the Chinese Masonic Society].[1] Chinese Masonic Badge that belonged to Charles Yow Senior. Photos by Juanita Kwok Charles Yow Senior Charles Yow Senior came out from China when he was 14 and married Carcoar-born Mary Mook San in 1907.[2] Their first child Charles was Charles Yow Junior (Chinese name Loong Ah Yow, b. 1908 Wallerawang, d. 1985 Bathurst). The Yows had a market garden at White Rock before moving to Brewongle and then Morrisset Street, Bathurst. Charles Yow Senior died in Bathurst in 1927 and is...Read More

By Juanita Kwok, 22 March 2025 Artist and architectural historian Dr Graham Lupp is one of the fourth generation of Lupps in Bathurst. Graham Lupp Photo: Graham Lupp collection. Graham’s father was the well-loved Bathurst piano tuner Hector Lupp. Hector Lupp Photo: Graham Lupp Collection Hector’s father was Louis Lupp, who was employed by Webb & Co. and managed the Lower Keppel Street store from 1904. Louis was also the Bandmaster of the [Bathurst] City Model Band. Hector was in the band too. Louis Lupp, bandmaster. Part of photo of City Model Band. Photo: Graham Lupp Collection. Louis Lupp’s father was John Lup [sic], who married Hannah Sibraa in Crookwell in 1889. According to the marriage certificate, John Lup was 42, Annah was 34. John, Hannah and family moved to Bathurst, where John worked as a market gardener. There is some evidence he worked at “Bradwardine” which at the time was owned by Francis B. Suttor. This was before Robert...Read More

By Juanita Kwok 11 March 2025 Photograph of Wong Sat by Tesla Studios, Source: Powerhouse Museum website, accessed 4 March 2025, https://collection.powerhouse.com.au/object/159277 Alongside Quong Tart, Wong Sat (1837-1916) is one of the best known early Chinese Australians. His life story became known when the collection of shop stock from the Wong family store at Bolong and related family artefacts and documents were acquired by the Powerhouse Museum in 2003. A Wong Collection exhibition opened at the Powerhouse Museum in 2003 and remained on public display for some years. Thomas Wong (grandson), his daughter Dawn Wong and nephew Robert Wong (great grandchildren) at the Powerhouse exhibition opening of the Wong Collection in 2003.  Source: Powerhouse Museum. Although much is known about Wong Sat’s later years, according to Wong Sat’s great-granddaughter Dawn Wong, “the seven years between 1857 and 1864 are a mystery”. Wong Sat was a storekeeper in Tuena in 1864 at the time when Chinese miners who had been driven...Read More

The Lambing Flat riots were a series of riots between 1860 and 1861, in which European miners violently drove Chinese miners and storekeepers from the Burrangong gold field. Lambing Flat, renamed Young in May 1861, was a part of this field, as was Sawpit Gully and Back Creek. The Chinese miners campaigned the New South Wales government for compensation for losses sustained in the riots. Two petitions — one addressed to the Governor and another to the New South Wales Legislative Assembly — have survived in two files in the Museums of History New South Wales State Archive Collection. The Lambing Flat petitions provide an account of the Lambing Flat riots from the perspective of the Chinese people who were driven from the fields and a list of some of their names, written in English and in Chinese. Museums of History New South Wales — State Archive Collection have kindly granted permission for petitions from the correspondence to be reproduced...Read More

By Juanita Kwok and Gill Oxley Amongst the temple artefacts Our Chinese Past (OCP) researched in the Temples project, is a pair of plaques in the collection of the Inverell Pioneer Village Museum, dubbed on the OCP website the “Names Plaque dated 1866” and “Donation Plaque dated 1866.” [1] Our Chinese Past member Paul Macgregor identified these plaques as having been made for a temple that opened in Rocky River in 1866. The names plaque lists the names of two firms and 153 people that were members of the “Yeung Fook Tong” association.[2] These members are given to have collectively donated one or more entrance adornments and door-like screens to the temple, including the Yeung Fook Tong Entrance Adornment.[3] So far only a handful of persons named on the names plaque have been identified. Now, thanks to family history research by Joanne Real and translations by Ely Finch, it seems likely another person has been identified – “Cheung Ah Tze”...Read More

Sam Bow’s store at Rocky River. Image courtesy of Janice Wilton, Heritage Futures Database project supported by the Heritage Futures Research Centre, University of New England, Armidale, 2009. Leslie Alan Bow (1903 – 1983) Leslie Alan Bow was born in Uralla in 1903. His parents’ names at the time of his birth appear in the New South Wales Births, Deaths and Marriages online index as Sam and Minnie Bow.[1] Leslie was the eldest of five boys born to Sam and Minnie, of whom only four survived to adulthood. He married Queensland-born Ching Choy Lan, then known as “Jessie” Ching Sum, at Uralla in 1929, a year after the death of his mother, Minnie in 1928.[2], [3] Choy Lan Bow née Ching then appears to have adopted this westernised first name, “Jessie”, for most of her adult life, reverting to her Chinese given name only at the time of her death in 1999. Accordingly, she will be referred to throughout as...Read More