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 Min Tang building, moveable heritage and archival collection, 75-77 Ultimo Road, Haymarket
In late 2023, Hector Abrahams Architects (HAA) were engaged by the City of Sydney to investigate the history and potential significance of the three buildings in Haymarket. HAA worked in co-authorship with Our Chinese Past President, historian Dr Juanita Kwok, who was engaged to conduct research and provide contextual histories of the buildings and advise on their significance and management. Following the development of the historical research reports, HAA was engaged to undertake a heritage assessment of all three sites and recommended that all three sites be heritage listed. On 15 December 2025, City of Sydney Councillors unanimously approved a planning proposal to add the three buildings to the City’s Local Environment Plan and on 24 April 2026, all three buildings were formally listed as heritage items under Schedule 5 of the Sydney Local Environmental Plan 2012. The heritage inventories for each new listing will soon be available from the NSW online heritage database.
Read the Statement of Significance for each of the buildings:
Goon Yee, Loong Yee and Loon Fook Tong building, 50-54 Dixon Street, Haymarket
Goon Yee, Loong Yee and Loon Fook Tong building, 50-54 Dixon Street, Haymarket, Photo: Juanita Kwok, 2024
Statement of Significance
The building at 50-54 Dixon Street has historical significance as a key social organisation for the Chinese Australian community, enabling its members to maintain links to their hometowns. The three-storey building at 50-54 Dixon Street was jointly funded and purpose-built in 1916 by leaders of the Tsang Shing (Zengcheng) and Tung Koon (Dongguan) counties. It was built to house the Loon Fook Tong (Luen Fook Tong) clubhouse at 50 Dixon Street for people from the Tsang Shing County; the “Goon Yee Tong” clubhouse at 54 Dixon Street for people from Tung Koon County; and between the two clubhouses, at 52 Dixon Street, a joint clubhouse, the “Loong Yee Tong”. The three district associations have occupied 50-54 Dixon Street for over 100 years. The associations played a vital role in the Chinese Australian community by offering services to assist with settling in Sydney or returning to China, arranged bone-repatriation, provided accommodation, conducted charitable events and most likely arranged the transfer of members’ remittances to China.
52 Dixon Street has historical association with the Tung Wah Times newspaper (1902–1936), the second Chinese newspaper to be established in Sydney. In 1914, the Tung Wah Times boasted the largest circulation of any Chinese newspaper in Australasia. The coexistence of a number of different Chinese newspapers indicates the diverse political affiliations of Chinese diaspora and the newspapers’ role in shaping Chinese Australian identity. 52 Dixon Street was also the meeting place for members of the NSW Chinese Chamber of Commerce (1913-1965), which promoted overseas trade and defended Chinese Australian commercial interests from anti-Chinese campaigns. Historian Mei-Fen Kuo has characterised Sydney in the late 19th to early twentieth century as “a hub of Chinese mobility” and “a centre of community mobilisation and identity formation”. 50-54 Dixon Street was central to this development.
The form and aesthetics of the building are consistent with those of early 20th century buildings pertaining to Chinatown and thereby contribute to the understanding of the historical streetscape of Dixon Street. The Chinese signage on the façade is significant as markers of the historical uses of the building.
The district associations continue to play a social role amongst their respective communities. The historical uses of the place such as the popular restaurants which occupied the ground floors are remembered fondly by the local Chinese Australian community.
The place is representative of early purpose-built district association buildings built across the country to serve the increasing Chinese diaspora in Australia. The building at nos. 50-54 Dixon Street is likely to be the last surviving example of a purpose-built district association building in Sydney or NSW, continually owned by the associations for over 100 years.
The full report can be accessed by following this link:
Hector Abrahams Architects – Heritage Assessment Report – 50-54 Dixon Street
Former Municipal Stores, 90-100 Hay Street, Haymarket
Former Municipal Stores, 90-100 Hay Street, Haymarket, Photo: Juanita Kwok 2024
Statement of Significance
The group of buildings at 90-100 Hay Street are important in the history of the Chinese in NSW. Located opposite the Municipal Markets and built in direct association with the markets, the stores at 90-100 Hay Street were occupied by Chinese Australian fruit and vegetable produce firms between the 1910s and the 1970s. It is also important in the history of the city as the relocation of the City markets from the Belmore Markets in Haymarket to the Municipal Markets was a catalyst for the development of a new Chinatown in Haymarket, as firms opened stores to be near the markets.
These stores are location markers in Sydney of the processes of the banana and commercial vegetable growing industries which were pioneered by Chinese Australians. The place is a key destination on a trade route with a supply network of vegetables and bananas coming from Chinese Australian communities across New South Wales, Queensland and Fiji. Lee Sang & Co. at 90 Hay Street dealt primarily in vegetable produce supplied by a network of stores and market gardens in regional NSW and firms at 92-100 Hay Street dealing primarily in bananas were supplied by plantations in northern NSW, Queensland and Fiji.
The buildings at 90-100 Hay Street are associated with major Chinese Australian businesses such as Wing Sang & Co., Wing Tiy & Co., Gee Ick & Co., and Lee Sang & Co. and is a rare example of stores occupied by multiple major Chinese Australian businesses. Histories of the firms which occupied the stores evidence the achievements of Chinese Australians in the fruit and vegetable industries despite the impacts of immigration restrictions on Chinese Australian businesses and families. Nos. 96-100 are also associated with the significant and popular restaurant, Emperor Gardens which has occupied the place since 1979.
There are many family and community stories and memories attached to 90-100 Hay Street, particularly for those whose families lived or worked in the buildings, or grew the produce sold through the stores, and for those in China who were reliant on remittances sent through these stores. These stories testify to the resilience of the Chinese Australians in the face of social and economic discrimination imposed by White Australia legislation.
The authors and editors of the book, The China-Australia Migration Corridor: History and Heritage, use the metaphor of a “transnational heritage corridor” to describe the circulation of people, money, goods and ideas between Zhongshan and Australia.163 Alexandra Wong and Ien Ang argue that the businesses which merchants operated at the Sydney end of the corridor, have significance not only at a local, but at a transnational level. 164 The same can be said of the Chinese businesses which rented the Municipal stores at 90-100 Hay Street.
The full report can be accessed by following this link:
Hector Abrahams Architects – Heritage Assessment Report – 90-100 Hay Street
Kuo Min Tang building, moveable heritage and archival collection, 75-77 Ultimo Road
Kuo Min Tang building, moveable heritage and archival collection, 75-77 Ultimo Road, Haymarket, Photo: Juanita Kwok 2024
Statement of Significance
The building and its archival collection are a key site of Chinese history in NSW and Australia, directly related to the 20th century political history of China and Taiwan, and the social and economic affairs of Chinese Australians during the operation of the white Australia policy. The building at 75-77 Ultimo Road was constructed for and served continuously as the headquarters of the Chinese Nationalist Party of Australasia (Kuo Min Tang or KMT) for over 100 years. It has been the locus of Chinese Nationalist political activity since it was purpose-built in 1921.
It was also the publishing office for the Chinese Times newspaper (1925- 1949). The building at 75-77 Ultimo Road has not only local significance, as the headquarters of the Sydney branch, but is also significant at a state, national and transnational level as the headquarters of the KMT in Australasia, overseeing branches in rural Australia, New Zealand and in the Pacific. Funds raised by members of the Australasian KMT were remitted to support Sun Yat-Sen and the ruling Nationalist government (1927-1949) in China and later for the war effort during the Sino Japanese war. The Australasian KMT was also a transmitter of ideas and technology to China. It led the way in allowing female members to join the Party and it played a role in advocating for the rights of Chinese Australians during the White Australia years.
Many prominent Chinese Australians are associated with the KMT Building at 75-77 Ultimo Road, including Peter Yee Wing, Samuel Wong, Mar Leong Wah and Eugene Seeto. The building is also associated with the prominent building company Robert Wall & Sons and architect Francis Ernest Stowe. It is architecturally notable for its fenestration and brick mullions under a single arch spanning to width of the building to read as a single window. Together the elements of the façade including its composition and detailing particular the arch, fenestration, brick mullions, pilasters, parapet and Chinese Characters, make a notable contribution to the streetscape.
The place was also the centre of cultural life with many social activities for the Chinese Australian community, particularly the Dragon Ball which began in 1938 and was a major event on the social calendar for the Chinese Australian community in Sydney until the early 1970s. The building itself houses what is probably the largest collection of records, documents, publications, photographs and artefacts related to the KMT’s history outside of China and Taiwan. It is also demonstrative of a prolific period in the 1920s that saw the establishment of the KMT’s overseas headquarters in centres of Chinese settlement, of which the place is a rare purpose-built example which continues to be used today for its original purpose.
View the full report can be accessed by following this link: Hector Abrahams Architects – Heritage Assessment Report – 75-77 Ultimo Road
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