by Dorothy Khoo, Secretary, Rockhampton Chinese Association, Queensland
From 1981, when my husband Paul Khoo and I became involved with the Rockhampton Chinese Association, I always wondered how the beautifully carved altar housing a deity in the Rockhampton Chinese Association Hall and Temple arrived in Australia and who brought it here. Such a beautifully carved piece of work was obviously not done locally and as time went by, I became more intrigued by its background. Although I had collected stories about the temple and the altar from the elders of the Rockhampton Chinese Association (RCA), it became apparent that the collective memory may have been a little unsure about its origins and its journey to the current location.
The local Chinese community referred to their temple and the building in which the ornate altar was housed as “the Joss” or “the Joss House”. The local non-Chinese community also called the building a Joss House but knew little about what was contained within the building’s walls. When Paul and I first arrived in the community in the early 1980s, devotees were using the temple at each meeting of the association, which were regularly held in the hall.
Funerary records and memoirs of the early Temple Society (the Hun Sarn Tong) were lost over time and the RCA meeting notes only date from the 1980s. Some histories from stories passed down by word of mouth were recorded within the community but no mention was made of the altar’s origins and the people who had commissioned the work and had it brought out to Australia. Notes in my possession, written by two of the past Elders, Alby Forday and his brother, Billy, indicated that there was a temple on Canoona Road in the early settlement days of Rockhampton. They may or may not have been referring to the temple in the Shire of Karkol, better known now as Pink Lily.
It was thought that the Pink Lily temple was built in the late 1800s on the land where Mr Charles Tang Sue Yek (known as Sue Yek) had a market garden.
The hunt for this site began in earnest in early 2023 with a visit to the Rockhampton Regional Library and having a chat with their excellent staff in the local history section. We looked for any allotments where the temple may have stood. However, there was no mention of Sue Yek’s property at that location in the Rockhampton rates books. The area of Karkol was not part of the Rockhampton Shire in the late 1800s. More investigation was needed to find the rates books applying to this area.
In August, Marilyn Sue Dooley and I took a trip down memory lane with Mr Ray Young OAM, whose father had a shop in William Street called Sun Tai Hop, Hoi Kee. Ray told us that his father built a new simple temple for the community nearby in Alma Lane. The altar was brought in from Pink Lily at an unknown date from a property looked after by Mr Lim Kee. More exploration of the rates books at the library could not find this location either! But more about that a little further on!
A theft of a brass “joss stand”, a pedestal on which the statue of the deity stood, at the Pink Lily temple in March 1930, was reported in the Morning Bulletin,[1] in which it said that “the joss house is an unimposing [building] standing in the middle of a slaughtering paddock about 130 yards from the Pink Lily Road”. The journalist wrote that he “found the joss-house without much difficulty. It is something over a mile from the Wandal tram terminus, and is situated on a field near the Lion Creek Road. My first impression was that there was a neat little cottage with a tumble down shed close at hand. It turned out that the neat little cottage was the temple and that the tumble-down shed was the residence of the man in charge.”
Following his directions on a map in the library, we tried to ascertain the location. Using information from the Archer Park Rail Museum we determined that the tram terminus was on the corner of Bracher St and Wandal Road, where a small park now stands. Driving around the area proved unsuccessful as the private properties revealed nothing remarkable.
More maps were brought out. There was good detail on them but sadly nothing could be gleaned as to where Mr Charles Tang Sue Yek may have had his portion of land with a temple on it. We could find many properties under the name Sue Yek around Rockhampton but not for Karkol. It was suggested that the Central Queensland Family History Association (CQFHA) records be explored in the near future, as Gogango and Fitzroy Shire valuation books might be there.
Prior to going to the CQFHA, though, we did some excursions out to the area and found the wooden pylons of the former bridge, shown on the maps, that spanned Lion Creek. Searching for remaining stumps of what could have been a temple in the “snakey” grass was not productive. Suggestions that the airport runway may have been built over the top of the location could have been an explanation as to why the search was not revealing any evidence of a building.
Kevin Roots, husband of the current RCA president and a keen kayaker, thought it may be an idea to hunt by kayak for the remains of the temple along the banks of Lion Creek. Weeds drove us back and we failed to make it under the airport runway where we hoped to find temple remains.
Mrs Erica Knox had kindly given a photo of her father, William Goltz, sitting on the steps of the Chinese temple at the Pink Lily site, to the Rockhampton and District Historical Society. In the photo, William Goltz holds a plaque and has a cymbal on his head for a hat. The cymbal is still in the temple collection of the RCA, but the plaque is not. He is dressed in a sort of uniform which my military history buff brother, David Moore, suggests to be a shirt and boots used by the USA forces in WWI and sold through army disposal stores in Australia – the perfect rugged clothing for the man on the land! William Goltz neither served in the First World War nor the Second. He was too young for the First War and in the protected industry of shipping in the Second. We estimated by his appearance in the photo and his birthdate of 1911, that he may have been in his late teens and was helping his dad on the family farm, which would date the photo to the late 1920s. In the photo, the supporting post on the front right of the building appears to have possibly been damaged, perhaps by termites.
A visit in July 2023 to the State Archives at Runcorn in Brisbane to see the Fitzroy Divisional Board Rates Books found that no rates were paid by Sue Yek at the Karkol site to the Shire of Fitzroy Council. In the Rockhampton rates books, sometime in 1900-1909 (the date is smudged), a land sale was recorded for Sue Yek’s property being sold to P. Dwyer. However we were unable to find this location on the library maps, and it may have been another property elsewhere in Rockhampton.
Kevin Roots suggested contacting the Museum of Lands, Mapping and Surveying in Brisbane with the lot numbers on the maps near the Lotus Lagoon at Pink Lily. Although initially proving unsuccessful, the title search of the area was a great source of information of the names of the property holders. I bought a few of the titles that were in the vicinity of the land we thought to be Sue Yek’s, hoping to find the actual site using this method, but they didn’t reveal his allotment.
On a Tuesday in October 2023, after having looked at the cadastral maps at the library and not finding any Sue Yek property paying Rockhampton rates at Pink Lily, I then went to the Central Queensland Family History Association in Rockhampton to meet Jamie Hibbard, one of the research assistants. With Jamie, we explored the rates and valuation books and found Sue Yek was mentioned in 1884 to 1887 but only in the valuation books for both Gogango and Fitzroy Shires and not in their rates books. The Gogango Divisional Board Rates Book (1882 to 1888) had Sue Yek’s reserved land recorded as “not rateable” but no specific lot number was given. In 1909 in the Fitzroy Rates Book, two properties were listed for Sue Yek at Karkol, and one being at Lion Creek. No lot number was given for the Lion Creek entry.
Jamie then did a search for clues on the National Archives website. He found the exact location of the Purrey Steam Tram Terminus and we again looked at the mile from the terminus to Pink Lily and 150 yards in from the road. But which road? The Pink Lily road had been altered just a little in the intervening years and new bridges had been constructed.
Ray Young had mentioned that the property was being looked after by Lim Kee when his father brought the altar into Rockhampton. A search for Lim Kee in the Rockhampton and District Historical Society records revealed that he had a business in Denham St, Rockhampton. There was no other information about Lim Kee on any Pink Lily land.
Then a miracle happened on 31 October 2023 when Jamie Hibbard found a photo on Trove of the Pink Lily temple in the Morning Bulletin, published on 26 March 1930.[2] The photo was attached to an ad for back pain, which had obscured our search on Trove! This photo records that “the Chinese temple of worship is situated in the Lion Creek area, but outwardly it appears to have been forsaken by the faithful. One of the main verandah posts is missing and a charred stump tells its own story. The Chinese characters on each side of the door are to mean ‘good bye’ and ‘good luck’. The one over the door is the name plate of the particular deity housed inside.”
As I was driving home in the evening, a cloud appeared in the shape of a lion and it was hovering over Pink Lily. I took this as a sign from the Heavens that we were soon to be successful at last in finding the location of the temple!
Jamie remembered that former members of the Central Queensland Family History Association were the Wust family who had lived at Pink Lily before retiring to Yeppoon. After contacting Lloyd Wust and his wife Mavis, on the 2 November, we all took a car ride to Pink Lily. After driving around on Osbourne road, we encountered Mr Jordan Gerrard working on machinery and asked if he knew of the site. Yes he did! And he referred us to Mr Chad Chatfield, the current owner of the land on which the temple stood. We drove to the site where Mr Chatfield kindly pointed out where he had found the stumps of the temple. He had built a shed on the site so no stumps could be seen now, but the fence posts and wire were still remaining.
With this exact site location, in November, I once again visited the Museum of Lands, Mapping and Surveying in Brisbane. The Museum staff then found on their maps an allotment number with “Garden” and “Joss” marked on the 12 November 1907 and 18 May 1932 survey maps, which is about 1.5 hectares in area.
Now we had definite proof of the location of the position of the temple. Mr Sue Yek actually leased the land from the Queensland government and so was not paying rates to the council. This explained why it was so hard to find the location. The land was Reserve land and not liable for rates.
The map from Google Earth shows the location of the temple and former market garden sites so near to Lotus Lagoon! No wonder it was prized land being so near the water for the gardens.
Further investigation on Trove revealed that Sue Yek had been operating in the Lotus Lagoon area as early as 1884. In May of that year he applied to the Gogango Divisional Board for a grant of 5 acres of land on Lotus Lagoon for the purpose of a vegetable garden. He was willing to pay “rates” [rent?] of 10 shillings an acre per annum for the privilege and the request was granted, subject to the cost of improvements being borne by Sue Yek.[3]
There was a Fitzroy Shire Council meeting in September 1908 where a letter from the Land Commissioner responded to the Council’s prior request that the land be submitted for auction, as once it was private land they could charge rates. The Council was informed by the Land Commissioner that such an action would be an injustice to Sue Yek, because Sue Yek was already paying a high rental of £5 per annum to the crown and had made considerable improvements to the land, and would not be allowed to compete for the land if it was offered for sale. Councillors stated that the joss house was on the property and used frequently, with “as many as a dozen cabs” going out there “when it was in full swing”. There was considerable discussion amongst the councillors about whether or not Sue Yek was entitled to stay on the property. The question of his naturalization came up as the Chinese who failed to have this certificate could not have as equal footing to the Europeans. They also mentioned that the place was a like a training school for the newly arrived Chinese who could not speak the language. The Council, not satisfied with the Land Commissioner’s refusal to sell the land, then decided to go above the Land Commissioner, and to have the discussion points be placed before the Minister by letter, and that he be asked whether the Council could legally recover rates and if not, that the land be sold.[4]
It is unlikely that permission to sell the land was granted by the Minister, as in 1937, Yung Po Cheung (William Young, born 1885, and father of Ray Young) is recorded in the Evening News[5] as making an application in December 1937, to the Supreme Court “for a declaration that Sue Yek, formerly of Rockhampton, merchant, but late of China, deceased, held improvements on an informal lease at Lion Creek as trustees for the Chinese residents of Rockhampton and District.” The article goes on to say that the Chinese residents had used the building for numerous years as a joss house and had subscribed to the building of it. The land on which it stood had been resumed by the crown and was later taken under a new lease. The value of the improvements, £21, was paid to the Department of Public Lands by the in-coming lessee and was held by the Department. The court ruled in William Young’s favour, and the funds were vested in William Young as trustee for the Chinese residents.
It is likely that the temple contents were moved to Alma Lane around this time.
An article written in 1955 for the Central Queensland Herald, by G.E. Sue Yek, son of Charles Tang Sue Yek, provides more detail. He says that his father decided to visit China in 1908. He sold out almost everything, and left Rockhampton, but while in China he had a stroke and was bedridden for many years, dying in Canton in 1922. Geoffrey stated that “all the businesses were in charge of father’s relations, who came out from China, and it was not until well into the present century that my own brothers were old enough to take part in their management”. The article doesn’t mention the temple, or the market garden site at Pink Lily, so I can’t say yet how the land was used after 1908 or who was managing it from 1908 to 1937. [6]
Published 18 March 2025
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This is a continually evolving website, and new content will be added as further research is conducted.
[1] “Temple Rifled”, Morning Bulletin (Rockhampton), 21 March 1930, p. 8, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article55357870; “The Joss House at Rockhampton. A Chinese Sanctuary. Images Locked Up.”, Morning Bulletin (Rockhampton), 22 March 1930, p. 11, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article55357990
[2] “Chinese Joss House”, Morning Bulletin (Rockhampton), 26 March 1930, p. 7, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article55358441
[3] “Gogango Divisional Board”, Morning Bulletin (Rockhampton), 7 May 1884, p. 2, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article52028812
[4] “Fitzroy Council”, Morning Bulletin (Rockhampton), 9 September 1908, p. 6, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article53163735
[5] “Supreme Court Application”, Evening News (Rockhampton), 4 December 1937, p. 1. http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article198882123
[6] “The Sue Yeks of Rockhampton”, Central Queensland Herald (Rockhampton), 23 June 1955, p. 29. http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article79250721