The Gold Rush had bought a diverse range of people from Europe to Melbourne, and once the word got around, people from countries such as China also came to see what all the talk was about.
Many young men left their homes and came all the way from Hungary, Germany, America, Scandinavia and Italy. Americans were represented on the fields and many of them brought their ideas of colonial independence. THE CHINESEThe first arrival of the Chinese to Victoria was in 1854. The Chinese originally came from California, where it was called their "Golden Mountain". After the Californian miners had murdered many of the Chinese, they were driven away and decided to come to Victoria even though they feared the British. It was believed it was a safer place.
The Chinese miners were all young men is search for gold, just like the Europeans. Their migration was temporary, to achieve wealth and to then return to their families to help and support them. Racial and physical abuse was subjected against the Chinese from when they landed. The Europeans feared them of being aliens because, they spoke Chinese, smoked opium, gambled, weren't Christian and had not bought their wives with them. There was ignorance about Chinese customs and culture, and the Chinese seemed very strange and different to the European diggers. The appearance of the Chinese, with their pigtails and unfamiliar clothes, their habit of going barefoot and of, their religion, all made them the target of a great deal of racism and prejudice. The Chinese were generally very hardworking and honest, were quiet and obeyed laws. Local Chinese societies came into being, to advise newly arrived Chinese about how to fit in. More Chinese miners started to enter Victoria so the Government imposed a poll tax of 10 pounds per Chinese miner. By the end of the 1850's the Chinese made up twenty percent of the male population in Victoria. by the 1860's the population of the Chinese declined due to the miners heading back home. |
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REFERENCES
- Ersie Burke. Sarah Mirams. (2001). Australian History - Dream Time To the Great War. Oxford University Press, UK.
- Ken Webb. (2008). Analysing Australian History. Cambridge University Press, 477 Williamstown Road, Port Melbourne, Vic.