In the nineteenth century a great many diggers on the Victorian goldfields were Chinese.
Statistics about the numbers and distribution of these Chinese are available for 1857 to 1883 through the Geological Survey of Victoria (GSV).
As usual with demographic data of this kind, it is impossible to
obtain entirely reliable exact figures. The numbers used below should
be regarded as estimates, showing trends.
In 1857 there were about 6,850 miners on the Avoca goldfields of whom about 3,000, just over 40%, were Chinese.
In 1860 there was a rush to Lamplough. It was estimated that there were 18,075 European miners on the Avoca gold fields, nearly one in five of all miners in the Colony of Victoria. (The 1860 figure for European miners is not shown. This graph would not fit on this page.)
From 1869 to 1879 Chinese miners outnumbered European miners on the Avoca goldfields.
In 1871 there were estimated to be 2,398 Chinese miners in the Avoca division and 1,066 European miners, 75 % of the miners in Avoca that year were Chinese.
Over the years the number of Chinese miners declined until, in 1883,there were only 150 Chinese miners left in the Avoca district.
The number of Chinese miners in the Colony of Victoria was highest in 1857, when it was estimated there were 36,237. This number declined to just over 6,000 in 1883.
The following commentary was provided in Mineral statistics of Victoria for the year 1864:
The Chinese miners still follow their old system of mining, and they confine their operations, mostly, to ground which has been abandoned by the Europeans. They are alluvial miners; and, though very industrious, they are not enterprising. The numbers do not decrease much. In 1859 there were 25,173 Chinese miners, and in 1864 there were 21,597. There are only eight of them engaged in quartz mining.
For 1867 it was reported:
The total number of Chinese miners in the colony on the 31st of December, 1866, was 20,134 ; the year previous there were 20,933, or a greater number by 800 than in 1865. The report speaks of the great difficulty experienced in enumerating this people. It must be acknowledged that although industrious, they are not enterprising, but generally follow the movements of Europeans. The decrease in their numbers in 1866 may be attributed to the numerous departures for New Zealand, where the Mongolian race is speedily forming a portion of the population.
In the report for 1871 it was noted:
The number of Chinese miners employed on the goldfields in 1871 was 15,669 -more by 590 than those employed in 1870.
There was a smaller number employed in the districts of Ballarat, Beechworth, Sandhurst, Ararat, and Gippsland; but a greater number in the Maryborough and Castlemaine districts. There was, however, no very great change in any district.
The Chinese miners continue to labor very assiduously in all parts of the colony, in workings abandoned by the Europeans; but very few of them have attempted quartz mining. Not more than 87 are put down as quartz miners.
(Avoca was part of the Maryborough mining district.)
In the report for 1874 it was observed that as European men sought and found employment in other areas of the economy there was a decline in the number of miners employed :
In 1866 the mean number of miners employed on the goldfields was 73,577; so that while there has been an increase of 33,523 during the past nine years in the number of persons engaged in farming, manufactories, &c., there has been a decrease of 27,065 in the number of gold miners.
These figures, it appears to me, deserve attention.
The number of Chinese miners is diminishing. [15,079 in 1870 to 12,180 in 1874]
During the year 1874 there were 12,056 Chinese miners employed in alluvial mining, and 124 in quartz mining. The Chinese miners do not readily embrace labors involving the employment of elaborate machinery. They confine themselves, as a rule, to the extraction of gold from the shallow alluviums, where their industry, untiring perseverance, and thrift, enable them to derive sure if but small profits.
In the report for 1876 it was noted that the number of Chinese miners had declined. Unlike the Europeans, the Chinese did not find employment in other areas of the economy.
The number of alluvial miners is still decreasing. The number now employed is about 10,000 less than in the year 1872; since the same year the number of miners employed in quartz mining has also diminished by over 2,000, but the decrease in both classes of mining in 1876, as compared with 1875; is only 707
In 1872 there were 14,158 Chinese engaged in mining pursuits; whilst in 1876 there were but 11,167. The Chinese miners have décreased in number annually since the year 1861, when they amounted to 24,544. Although the Chinese miners do nót in this colony become absorbed in other industrial pursuits like the European miners, it is a remarkable coincidence that their decrease in number is almost exactly in the same relative proportion.
In 1882 the decline in numbers of miners was reported with most of the decrease being attributed to the reduced numbers of Chinese miners.
The number of Chinese engaged in mining operations in Victoria continues to decrease. On the 31st December 1882 the number was 7,274, or 667 less than the number employed at the same date in 1881.
The decrease in the number of miners in the past year is caused by the gradual exhaustion of some of the older workings of the goldfields; but the withdrawal of Chinese alone accounts for most of the decrease in the mean nümber of miners employed.
From 1857 to 1883 the miners on the Avoca goldfields represented 2% to 5% of the miners in the Colony of Victoria. In 1860 however, a rush to Lamplough near Avoca brought many European miners. Over 18,000 miners—21% of European miners in the Colony—were there for this rush.
In 1868 to 1874 the Chinese on the Avoca gold fields were at least 10% of all Chinese miners in the Colony.
In the years 1857 to 1883 Chinese miners were 45% of the miners in the Avoca district. From 1869 to 1879 there were more Chinese miners than Europeans in Avoca. 75% of the miners there in 1869 were Chinese.
For the period 1857 to 1883 25% of miners in the Colony of Victoria were Chinese, with the proportion of Chinese miners on the Avoca goldfields higher than the average in Victoria.
State Library of Victoria Accession No : H87.63/2/4
See also
In 1867 the interpreter Howqua provided figures for the Chinese community living in Avoca (1867 survey of Chinese in Avoca). He estimated the population at 250. In the Mineral statistics of Victoria for the year 1874 the population was estimated at 373 Chinese miners. The difference is probably due to when the counts were taken. Two years later the number of Chinese miners at Avoca was estimated at 2,274, an enormous increase.
