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 Quong Sing Tong monument:
“The elaborate style of the monument, with its moat, bridges and wrought iron railings indicates that it was quite costly. A society able to build such a structure either consisted of wealthy members or had been in existence long enough to accrue a considerable amount of money through subscriptions.”[1] Mc Cormack wrote:
“In August 1876, some of Sydney’s prominent Chinese citizens presented a petition to the Minister for Lands requesting that ‘a separate portion of land be set apart for the interment of their dead’… It is unfortunate that the files relating to the matter are not extant. The names on the petition would identify those Chinatown merchants, and very likely their district societies, who instigated these proceedings and who may have been associated with the erection of the Quong Sin Tong.”[2]
The General Trustees of Rookwood Cemetery specified that no place of worship was to be erected in the newly apportioned Chinese section. They were, however, permitted to erect a residence for a caretaker with costs to be met by the Chinese.[3] According to McCormack, the extant records contain no reference to any other structure being built in the Chinese cemetery in 1877, however, “permission to build the caretaker’s residence was given on 31 August 1876 and the Quong Sin Tong monument is dated 1877 so it is tempting to link these events.”[4] “At their meeting on 24 September 1878, the General Trustees received a further application from the Chinese to erect a ‘structure in the cemetery in which to bum their papers.”[5] A newspaper article from 1890 describes the Chinese cemetery:[6]
“The graves of the Celestials; it said, ‘are clustered together, and in the centre is an iron brazier about 12 ft high surmounted by a pagoda like dome, with bells at the corners, in which the sacrifices are burned. The tombs generally are of the usual semicircular stepped shape, but there is one that differs from all the rest. It is a small cupola supported by pillars about 12ft high. On the dome are the words, “Quong Sin Long [sic] erected 1877” and a lengthy inscription in Chinese … The majority of the stones have the names in English letters, and inscriptions underneath in Chinese.”[7]
The cupola has an elevated plinth on which sits a stone urn. This was not described in the newspaper article. The base of the monument contains the signature of ‘R Larcombe’ [Robert Larcombe], a well-known monumental mason of that era.
The iron brazier described in the news article is no longer extant, however, McCormack writes, “it is clear that there were two monuments in the Chinese cemetery. Within the iron roundel in front of the Quong Sin Tong monument, there is an extant concrete slab with impressions at each comer where the four feet of some earlier structure once stood.”
“Illustration 21, Quong Sing Tong, CMP: No.1 General Cemetery, showing the roundel (the iron brazier removed) in the foreground and the Quong Sin Tong sandstone monument in the middle ground, 1960. (Society of Australian Genealogists, Clifford Francis photographs. PR 5/4188, July 1960)”. Source: Terri McCormack, Quong Sin Tong CMP.
As further evidence of the prior existence of a paper burner, McCormack’s report contains photographs taken by the Burton family in the 1920s, which show “two structures in the Chinese cemetery during a Chinese festival. In the foreground, the iron brazier can be seen within the iron roundel. The smoke from paper being burnt there almost obscures the Quong Sin Tong monument behind it.”[8]
Illustration 17, Quong Sin Tong CMP: Two structures in the Chinese cemetery during a Chinese festival. Photo Source: Society of Australian Genealogists, Burton family album. PR 6/592. Source: Terri McCormack, Quong Sin Tong CMP.
McCormack’s report also contains a photograph of a cast-iron paper burner which stands in the courtyard of the Yiu Ming Temple in Sydney’s Alexandria. Its appearance closely matches the photo of the paper burner in the Burton photograph and McCormack speculates that” it is of a similar, possibly identical, design to one which stood in the No. 1 General Cemetery at Rookwood.”[9]
Illustration 25, Quong Sin Tong CMP: Cast-iron paper burner which stands in the courtyard of the Yiu Ming Temple in Sydney’s Alexandria. Original photo source: Yiu Ming Temple Precinct: Conservation Report on its architecture and objects. Powerhouse Museum & Yiu Ming Society, 1996. Source: Terri McCormack, Quong Sin Tong CMP.
A newspaper advertisement acknowledging a donation made to the Sydney Infirmary and Dispensary provides evidence of the existence of the Kwong [sic] Sin Tong Society in Sydney in 1879.
“Advertising” Evening News (Sydney, NSW : 1869 – 1931) 16 September 1879.
Other businesses, individuals and market gardens named Kwong Sing/Quong Sing appear in Australian English language newspapers, though none of these businesses have as yet been positively identified with the Quong Sing Society. The first of these is an application made by Quong Sing at the Chinese camp in Bright in 1866, to survey land and occupy the same.[10] Although the early mentions of Quong Sing were in Victorian newspapers, in the following decades, there are references to Quong Sing in almost all of the Australian colonies. In 1885 Quong Sing made a donation to the Adelaide Hospital.[11] In New South Wales, a gunpowder licence was awarded to Quong Sing War in Junee in 1885 and the following year, the Kwong Sing War store was opened in Glen Innes in 1886 by a partnership of Chinese merchants, and managed by Wong Chee (Wong Hoon Naam).[12]
At the 1891 “Royal Commission into alleged Chinese Gambling and Immorality and Charges of Bribery against members of the Police Force”, William Pow Chee gave evidence that the Quong Sin Tong was “a very old society, no longer in existence.”[13] However, the name Quong Sing continued to appear in news reports after this date. In 1898, On Wah and Quong Sing Tong went before the Cairns Police Court charged with a breach of a Municipal by-law.[14] References to market gardens named Quong Sing are not uncommon, including both a prize-winning market garden in 1890 and a store named Quong Sing in Bathurst in 1897, and in Alexandria, a market garden in 1897 and cabinet making factory named Quong Sing, which burnt down in in 1907.[15] What possibly unites these businesses named Quong Sing are their existence in places with a strong Chinese Masonic presence, though much firmer evidence is needed to prove that Quong Sing was a trading name for the Yee Hing/Chinese Masonic Society.[16] The only person positively connected to the Quong Sing monument is Quong Tart of the Moy clan, who contributed towards the cost of refurbishment of the Quong Sing monument and its surrounds in 1888.[17] The F. Kwong Sing & Co. store in Casino, a networked store of the Glen Innes Kwong Sing & Co. continued to operate into the late 1950s.
In 2008 restoration work was carried out on the Quong Sing monument including carving of a new sandstone urn and replacing the rusted fencing and repairs to the historic moat and entrance steps.[18]
‘Rookwood, Quong Sin Tong Monument’, blogspot, Sydney City and Suburbs, 2010.
[1] Terri McCormack, Quong Sin Tong Monument No, 1 General Cemetery, Rookwood Cemetery Rookwood, Sydney, NSW 2141 Conservation Management Plan Volume II (History Report), 44.
[2] Terri McCormack, Quong Sin Tong Monument No, 1 General Cemetery, Rookwood Cemetery Rookwood, Sydney, NSW 2141 Conservation Management Plan Volume II (History Report)
[3] Terri McCormack, Quong Sin Tong Monument CMP, citing Rookwood Anglican Trustees Archives. General Trustees Minute Book. 1868-1894. Second meeting, 31 August 1876.
[4] Terri McCormack, Quong Sin Tong Monument CMP, 51.
[5] Terri McCormack, Quong Sin Tong Monument CMP, 52.
[6] Terri McCormack, Quong Sin Tong Monument CMP, 26, citing The Echo, 11 December 1890.
[7] Terri McCormack, Quong Sin Tong Monument CMP, 51.
[8] Terri McCormack, Quong Sin Tong Monument CMP, 52, citing Society of Australian Genealogists, Burton family album. PR 6/592.
[9] Terri McCormack, Quong Sin Tong Monument CMP, 98, photo from Yiu Ming Temple Precinct: Conservation Report on its architecture and objects, Powerhouse Museum & Yiu Ming Society, 1996.
[10] ‘Advertising’, Ovens and Murray Advertiser, 27 March, 1866, p. 3, Viewed 2 August 2026, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article112908265
[11] ‘Miscellaneous, South Australian Register 14February 1885, p. 3 (Supplement to the South Australian Register.). Viewed 2 August 2026, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article44547991
[12] ‘Gunpowder Licences’, Goulburn Herald, 29 December 1885, p. 2, viewed 02 Aug 2026, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article103280133
[13] Terri McCormack, Quong Sin Tong Monument CMP, 44.
[14] ‘Advertising’, Morning Post 28 July 1898, p.3, viewed 2 Aug 2026 <http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article42936518>.
[15] ‘Police’, The Sydney Morning Herald, 28 January 1887, p. 5, viewed 2 Aug 2026, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article13625722;
[16] ‘Nasty Fall’, Glen Innes Examiner and General Advertiser, 19 March 1901, p. 2, viewed 02 Aug 2026, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article217865331
[17] Terri McCormack, Quong Sin Tong Monument CMP, 62.
[18] ‘Quong Sing Tong shrine’, Monument Australia website, viewed 2 August 2026, https://www.monumentaustralia.org/themes/culture/community/display/21841-quong-sing-tong-shrine/