Chinese Gold Seekers

Chinese Gold Seekers Disembark in Robe

When Gold was discovered in New South Wales and then the fabulously rich finds in Victoria in 1851, men left their jobs all over the world and rushed to the goldfields to make their fortunes.

The first ships bringing Chinese gold seekers to Victoria arrived in 1853 and they made their way to the goldfields from Melbourne or Geelong. There were soon 33,000 Chinese on the Goldfields mainly working the alluvial gold fields, often reworking abandoned diggings. This meant other miners starting a new one, could not return to their old mine if the new one was unsuccessful, a reason the Chinese were unpopular.

The Victorian government, alarmed at the huge influx of Chinese, proclaimed a limit of 1 passenger per 10 tons of cargo, and a polltax of £10 on every Chinese immigrant to land at Victorian ports. It was a huge cost on top of the Chinese already large expenses. Consequently passegers were landed at Sydney or Adelaide and left to find their own way. Some chartered ships to Robe, the closest seaport to Victoria. Thus the small village of Robe became the port of choice.

By 1857, Robe was a thriving port having exported more than £1 million of wool. In wool season, drays pulled by bullocks and horses lined the main street all the way from Lake Fellmongery waiting to unload.

Into this mix, the first ship Land o’ Cakes arrived directly to Robe with 264 Chinese passengers. This was followed by 3 more ships, and more after that, bringing 14,675 Chinese gold seekers during the year. The Chinese wore native costumes with their hair tied into pigtails down their backs. A camp accommodating 3,000 people sprang up. They set off to the goldfields in groups at a half trott carrying their goods balanced each end of a long pole. Some hired carts and guides.

It would have been interesting to see the activity with ships bringing goldseekers and wool being exported. There were several shipwrecks too. Guichen Bay Harbourmaster worked hard to clear the port and later wrote: “I often worked night and day to get these ships out of the harbour and was as pleased to see the fore top sails in the offing as the Captains themselves.”.

Read more: Guichen Bay and the Chinese Landings

Liz Harfull