Category: Chinese

Mary Ann (McCoy) Ah Car (1849-1872), the wife of an opium dealer

Mary Ann McCoy was one of a small number of European women who married Chinese men on the gold fields. Addicted to drink and opium she died age 22 at Percydale in 1872.

Mary Ann McCoy was born in 1849 in Sydney, daughter of George McCoy and Bridget McCoy nee Gunnan.

In the 1850s he McCoy family moved to Victoria. They were at Talbot in 1855 and in Ararat from about 1857 .

In 1867 at the age of about 17 Mary Ann married Ah Car, a Chinese opium dealer. They had no children.

Five years later, on 2 April 1872, she died at Percydale  age 22. A coroner’s inquest held the next day found her cause of death to be “effusion on the brain, the result of alcohol poisoning and excessive smoking of opium”.

Depositions were made by 

  • Her husband, who spoke of her being a heavy drinker and opium smoker. He said that she was 22, a native of Sydney and that she left a father, mother and sister at Ararat and that her father was a farmer.
  • A neighbour, Annie Williams, who had known her for three or four years and also spoke of her drinking and smoking opium.
  • Another neighbour, Catherine Ah Toon, wife of another opium dealer, who was present at her death.
  • The Avoca doctor John McMahon who performed the post-mortem examination.
inquest deposition
Deposition by Ah Car, opium dealer, husband of the deceased Mary Ann Ah Car
Pubic Record Office Victoria Inquest Deposition Files (VPRS24) 1872/84 Female Mary Ann Ah Car: Inquest Given name : Mary Ann; Family name : Ah Car; Cause of death : Effusion in the brain; Location of hearing : Percydale VPRS 24/P0000, 1872/84 (image 5)

Avoca Mail, Saturday 6 April 1872, page 2

An inquest was held by the coroner, L. Worsley Esq., at the Percydale Hotel, on Wednesday last on view of the body of Mary Ann Ah Kar, aged 22 years, the wife of a Chinese opium dealer. From the evidence adduced it appeared that the deceased had been taken ill on the previous Saturday, but no doctor was sent for as her husband did not apprehend any danger until a few hours before her death, when the services of a Chinese doctor were procured. The husband deposed that she had been a heavy drinker of gin for the last three or four years, and also smoked opium to a great extent. Two female witnesses, who had known her for several years passed, corroborated the testimony of the husband. The post mortem examination made by Dr McMahon proved that the cause of death was alcoholic poisoning. The doctor stated that the lungs and heart of deceased were in a healthy state, but that the liver was enormously enlarged, and there was also a serous effusion on the brain. The jury brought in a verdict in accordance with the medical testimony.

Mary Ann Ah Car was buried at the Avoca Cemetery on 4 April 1872. 

On the burial records her religion was stated to be Roman Catholic, her parents and siblings however were Wesleyan.

opium smokers
Chinese opium-smokers
from The Australian Sketcher (18 April 1874)
State Library of Victoria Accession No : A/S18/04/74/13

Opium was not illegal in Victoria until 1905.

In the 1868 Victorian Parliament Report on The Chinese Population in Victoria, there is a mention of “dens of infamy and immorality” populated with “abandoned European women”.

The report expressed concern that the effects of opium would “in the course of time the practice will gradually spread among the European population, and produce as disastrous results upon them as upon the Chinese people”.

Further reading:

  • In the 1867 survey of Chinese in Avoca: Statistics of Chinese Population in Avoca supplied by Howqua, the Chinese interpreter stated
    • 4 Chinese were married to European women in this colony
    • 2 opium-shops.
      • Evils of opium smoking: A man comes to get an intolerable craving for it. If the Government were to impose a heavy duty on opium, the number of opium smokers would be lessened by one-half.
    • 50 Chinese out of 100 are opium smokers.
    • From 11s. to 12s. are spent by rich Chinese on opium per week; 6s. to 7s. by men in middling circumstances; 2s. 6d. to 3s. a week by poor men.
    • To stop opium smoking: A man who sees the evils that spring from it, will of himself cease using the drug.

Wikitree: Mary Ann (McCoy) Ah Car (1849-1872)

Celebrating Avoca’s Chinese heritage

This month, February 2026, I have been blogging about the Chinese diggers of the Avoca district.

Tens of thousands of Chinese joined in the mid-nineteenth century rush for gold, but when it ran out most of them returned to Canton, and few traces remain of their sojourn here.

Among my sources have been court cases, inquests, naturalisation documents, cemetery records, and newspaper reports of achievements, disturbances, and misbehaviour. There was pageantry and colour too and, accompanied by remarkably little mutual suspicion and hostility, and a great amount of live and let live. 

A memorial at Avoca cemetery, where more than a hundred Chinese gold miners were buried, commemorates their determination and capacity for enterprise and hard work.

A formal garden with a pool and pagoda opened in 2014 on the riverbank near Avoca’s main street. It celebrates the district’s connection with its Chinese heritage.

Avoca Chinese Garden
John Quinn, president, and Marg Pilgrim of the Chinese Garden Committee celebrate Chinese New Year in 2026

Posts this month:

Mr Loo Chin of Percydale

When the Maryborough and Avoca Railway was opened at Avoca by the Victorian Governor, among those who attended the festivities were the district’s Chinese residents. In an extensive report of the opening by the Avoca Mail on 24 October 1876 mention was made of a speech given by Mr Loo Chin, of Percydale on behalf of the district’s Chinese residents.

William Loo Ching was an interesting man, who had lived in the Avoca district for six of the more than 60 years he was in Australia.

He was born in Canton (Guangzhou), China, probably about 1830. He came to the Colony of Victoria in the 1850s.

On 9 May 1859, aged 28 (so born about 1831),  he married Anne Lane in St John’s Church of England in Melbourne. He described himself as a storekeeper living in Little Bourke Street. Anne Lane had been born in Ireland, arriving in Victoria in 1855. Anne was the servant of James Darling a Melbourne clergyman. She was introduced to Loo Chin by him. Anne’s sister Elizabeth also married a Chinese man.

marriage certificate
Marriage Registration: Victoria Registry of Births, Deaths & Marriages Victoria Marriages Index; Registration number: 1406 / 1859
William LOO CHING; Spouse: Anne LENE; Year: 1859.

William and Anne Loo Ching lived first in Ballarat and later Creswick where William was a storekeeper. 

They  had three children, two of whom died young.  William and Anne were estranged in 1861; on 4 March 1861 William Loo Ching placed an advertisement stating he would no longer be responsible for the debts of his wife Annie. In 1862 Anne Loo Ching successfully sued William Loo Ching for maintenance.

When their daughter Fung Lang (Dora) Loo Ching died in February 1862 there was an inquest. It was mentioned that the father of the child Loo Ching was a wealthy storekeeper at the Chinese Town, Black Lead (Creswick). He was reported to have been very fond of his daughter.

From about 1862 William Loo Ching cohabited with a woman called Julia Millar. They had eleven children.  Two of them were born in the gold fields town of Sofala, New South Wales, in 1865 and 1868. Around this time William also had a child with a Sofala woman, Caroline Green. The child died in infancy. William and Julia returned to Creswick, where a daughter was born to them in 1870. Between 1873 and 1877 three more children were born to the couple at Percydale near Avoca. By 1880 they were living in Sydney where four more children were born.

William and Julia married in Percydale on 5 June 1874 by licenseby a Wesleyan minister called David O’Donnell, a Wesleyan minister. Witnesses to the marriage were Elijah Gilsenan and Mary O’Donnell. On the marriage registration William aged 46 (born about 1828) was recorded as a widower with three children, two of whom had died. He had been born Canton, China. His occupation was Interpreter of Percydale. No information about his parents were recorded. Julia Miller was a spinster, aged 30.

marriage certificate
Marriage Registration: Victoria Registry of Births, Deaths & Marriages Victoria Marriages Index; Registration number: 1448 / 1874
William LOO CHING; Spouse: Julia MILLER; Year: 1874.

In 1871 at Berlin (now Rheola) sixty kilometers north-east of Avoca, Loo Chin was with a party of Chinese miners who found a large gold nugget they named “The Precious” (also known as “The Kum Tow”). It weighed 796 ounces (22.6kg), the sixth largest nugget ever found in Australia.

gold nugget
Replica of ‘Kum Tow’ gold nugget. [M 38741]
Source: Museums Victoria
Copyright Museums Victoria / CC BY (Licensed as Attribution 4.0 International)

In June 1875 Loo Chin was employed as an interpreter in Avoca. A correspondent to the Avoca Mail suggested his English was not good.

In October 1876 at the opening of the Maryborough Avoca Railway Loo Chin presented an address to the Governor of Victoria on behalf of the residents of Avoca.

Opening of the Maryborough and Avoca Railway in 1876 : Reception of the Governor and Chinese procession
Illustrated Australian News of 29 November 1876

In 1877 Loo Chin, then living at Percydale, was recorded in the newspapers scoring a cricket match and playing in another match.

He moved to Sydney in 1880 where he became a merchant living at 47 Smith Street, Surrey Hills. His family adopted the surname Lisson.

In December 1880 he advertised in the Sydney Evening News:

PUBLIC NOTICE.—WM. LOO CHING having
now Opened his commodious premises, is ready
to supply purchasers with the best and cheapest of
GROCERIES. If you wish to save money, do so by
purchasing your Groceries of him. Every kind kept in
stock. Note the address—William Loo Ching, 34,
Lansdowne-street, Surry Hills.

In 1888 William Loo Ching wrote a letter to the editor of the Sydney Daily Telegraph. In this letter he asserted he was 72 years old (born about 1816) and had arrived in Australia 42 years previously (about 1846).

Daily Telegraph (Sydney, NSW), Wednesday 9 May 1888, page 5

A VETERAN CHINAMAN'S FEW REMARKS.
TO THE EDITOR OF THE DAILY TELEGRAPH.
Sir,— Kindly excuse me for introducing myself. I am one of the oldest naturalised British subjects in Australia. Born in Canton 72 years ago, I emigrated, or rather took passage, at an early age in one of the old sailing boats then trading between Hongkong and London. I served as cabin boy to and fro for several years, and served in various capacities afterwards. I have resided both in Liverpool and Glasgow. I have reared an Australian family of 13, seven of them sons. Was one of the first batch of Chinamen who arrived some 42 years ago in Australia.

In the old days a Chinaman was looked upon as a species of natural curiosity rather than an interloper, and received more tokens of regard and friendship than, I regret to say, are at present shown him. I am sorry to see that my countrymen are not treated now as they were in former years, and am at a loss to understand why the national feeling should be so antagonistic to those of us at present amongst you. Is it because a new and totally different generation has sprung up, who are jealous of their rights and privileges; and fear that they will be encroached upon, or is it a popular fear that Australia will be overrun by us ? and we will make the continent a Chinese one ? To these grounds I say there are some causes for fear, for over-populated China must have some outlet for her vast numbers. As population there gradually increases and means of livelihood become limited, the people must and will seek for other lands where the chances for subsisting are easier. If, therefore, these reasons are correct, then I say the nation is right and is perfectly justified in closing her ports against us, for, to use the old adage, "Self-preservation is the first law of nature."

I, with the majority of my countrymen, those in mercantile and other pursuits, are of one mind, and have been so for years past, that it would be best for Australia to prevent a further influx, as this action would materially tend to benefit, not only themselves, but would make the lot of those of our countrymen lighter. For at present, in the face of hard and struggling times, it is a serious and difficult matter for all of us to eke out anything like a fair and honest living, and it would be a much harder matter for all of us to live were the colony swamped by excessive immigration.

If, therefore, prohibition is enforced, I would implore all trueborn Christian native Australians to be kind to those of us who are "aliens" amongst you and who are seeking for means of subsistence. Treat us not as beasts (as I have seen some of us treated), but bear with us with kindness and civility; for this you will get in return ; and do not forget that although our skins are yellow we have the same kindred feelings as yourselves and a heart beneath our jumpers which beats the same as any man ; for bear in mind that in a very few years indeed our present numbers will be considerably lessened both by death and departure (for a Chinaman's dearest wish is to lay his bones in his own native land), and then Australia will have attained her object of keeping "Australia for the Australians." Such men as self-constituted leaders of anti-Chinese societies and others who demean themselves by offensive epithets and disgraceful utterances against us we treat with silent contempt, as these proceedings not only rebut against themselves, but fail to benefit their cause. We cannot understand how any educated logical gentleman can use these utterances, much less direct others neither to speak, deal, sit, walk with nor acknowledge us.

What we ask for is common justice. (What says our mutual treaty?) If you deal with us, what we give you in return for your money is full value, whether it be in vegetables, cabinetware, or merchandise; This the poor classes can attest to.

From the press I would ask impartial treatment. If we transgress against your laws or otherwise offend, report us in truth. Neither vilify or for the sake of sensation say aught against us to our detriment. The truth we can bear.

We are not an infallible people, and as our stay amongst you will be but of short duration let us seek our living in peace, for in the course of but a few years' space we, the poor despised Chinaman, will be but an historical person of the past. — Yours. &c.,

WILLIAM LOO CHING,. Sen.
47 Smith-street, Surry-Hills

In 1892 William Loo Ching was one of the merchants representing Chinese residents in Sydney. There had been a riot. The Chinese community was dissatisfied with how Mr Quong Tart resolved a dispute and resolved that he should not represent them in future in matters requiring arbitration. William Loo Ching was described as “the oldest Chinaman in the colonies and a resident in Australia of 51 years”.  The dispute was apparently resolved amicably at a meeting of senior Chinese merchants including Mr Quong Tart and William Loo Ching.

In October 1910 William Looching Lisson died. He was said to be aged 91 but was probably 81 based on his ages when he was married. He was buried in Rookwood, Sydney, in the Old Church Of England Section of the cemetery.

gravestone
Gravestone of William Loo Ching Lisson (1819-1910)
Rookwood General Cemetery Zone B, Anglican Section AAAA, Grave 525-526
Photograph uploaded to FindAGrave by user Q-Here

Related posts and further reading:

William Loo Ching owned real estate in Sydney. To do this he must have been naturalised. I have not found his naturalisation papers. 

Chinese pageant and speech at the opening of the Maryborough and Avoca Railway in 1876

In 1876, when the Maryborough and Avoca Railway was opened by Sir George Bowen, the Governor of Victoria, Chinese residents were present at the ceremony and the festivities that followed.

The  Illustrated Australian News of 29 November 1876 reported the Chinese participation and published some sketches:

The Chinese, of whom a considerable number reside in the district, mustered in great force, and joined in the procession of the inhabitants to and from the station. Many of them were arrayed in their native costume, which it is needless to say was of the fearful and wonderful character, and quite sufficient to make the juvenile population look on in awe. … A platform was erected at some short distance from the station, and to this his Excellency the Governor and the members of the Government attending were conducted. Some thousands of persons were assembled, having arrived shortly before in procession, in which the Chinese inhabitants and the children attending the schools in the district formed a considerable part ….
The Chinese subsequently presented a loyal address, to which his Excellency replied in suitable terms.
Reception of the Governor and Chinese procession
Stampede of the Chinamen under a shower

A fuller report appeared in the Avoca Mail on 24 October 1876.

… The Chinese also must not be forgotten, on account of the excellent manner in which they showed their loyalty to the Queen's representative and their sense of the importance of the event. The good spirit thus shown will no doubt greatly tend to still further improve the friendly relations existing between the Europeans and Chinese in this colony.
…
About half-past one o'clock the Chinese pageant made its appearance in the town, coming from the direction of the Avoca Load where the preparations had been made during the morning. This was, without doubt, the chief feature of the procession— not even excepting the grand display made by the children. To minutely describe every portion of the show would be impossible without explanations from the Chinese themselves of the various mysterious emblems, banners, and properties, which were carried. As usual on such occasions a sample of the Chinese music was given, and it scarcely accorded with European ideas of melody and harmony, it was evident at least that good time was kept by the players, and that they played together with a precision that could only come from long practice. The dresses were of the grandest, being mostly composed of silk richly embroidered and worked, and we presume that several of the costumes may be taken to be robes usually worn by the mandarins and other high officials of China. In addition to these were specimens of celestial warriors with their weapons, and fierce fellows they looked, although probably the loose drapery worn would be found somewhat in the road in a hot hand-to-band encounter. One of the most instructive features of the pageant was that in which the weapons were shown. There were two warriors with large shields and short broad-swords, something after the fashion of those with which the ancient Greek heroes are represented. Then there were sword-like instruments attached to long staves, suggestive of "chopping;" others mounted in the same way much like our own sword bayonets ; a peculiar kind of spike with a cork-screw blade, which would give an ugly wound, and a three-pronged pitch-fork looking weapon which would be awkward to evade, and would be sure to " spit" the enemy without being particularly well directed. Altogether the display was a most creditable one, and shows that the Chinese had gone to considerable expense and trouble to do honor to the vice-regal visit. We hear that the cost for the hire of dresses and weapons was not less than £130, and nearly all of this large sum was raised by voluntary contributions of the Chinese in this district, and this, also, at a time when we are sorry to say this industrious people are not so prosperous in the way of gold- winning as formerly. They have shown by this demonstration their loyalty and good feeling, in an unmistakable manner ; and we are sure that they will be pleased to know through their head men and interpreters that their efforts and liberality on this occasion were well understood and appreciated. The railway authorities liberally allowed the Chinese and their paraphernalia free transit, and His Excellency specially authorised the Shire Secretary to convey His Excellency's appreciation and interest in the Chinese procession.
…
The Chinese procession having approached, Mr Loo Chin, of Percydale, presented an address on behalf of Chinese residents, of which the following is a translation " To His Excellency Sir George Bowen, Governor of the Colony of Victoria.— Most honourable Governor.— We, the Chinese residents of the Avoca district, welcome the representative of the most illustrious Queen Victoria.What the good father is to the family, the good Governor is to the people. We are told, Oh honourable Governor, that you are a just and good ruler. We thankfully acknowledge the freedom from oppression that we enjoy under your rule. Religions are many ; reason is one ; men are all brothers. So taught our great Chinese Governor Confucius— (Kong-fu tse); and that every man should govern himself and his family according to the sacred maxims, and should render to the Emperor, as the father of his people, that filial obedience which preserves domestic peace, social order, and national safety. Hence on this day of rejoicing we humbly lay our most respectful obedience at your feet, as the worthy representative of your great Queen, and of the law, order, and justice which native-born subjects and foreign aliens alike receive throughout her vast dominions. Finally, Oh worthy Governor, our earnest desire is that you may be happy on earth, and that when you exist no more you may ascend to the sky."
Sir George Bowen replied,—" I receive with satisfaction this loyal address from the Chinese residents of this district, who I am informed show a praiseworthy desire to obey the laws and to live in harmony with their neighbours of European descent. It is a remarkable fact that the Queen of England and the Emperor of China now reign over more than 600,000,000 of people, i e, over about half of the entire human race. I would direct the attention of the Chinese in the country districts of Victoria to the advantage of extending still more their cultivation of vegetable gardens, for which their habits of patient industry seem especially to fit them, and in which pursuit they can contribute largely to the comfort and convenience of the entire community. The rapid extension of railway communication will render it more easy to send all garden produce to any profitable market in the chief towns. Once more I thank you for this address, and I wish you all prosperity."
Three cheers were then given for the Governor and the Avoca railway, after which the Chinese procession marched past at the request of His Excellency, and the children sang the National Anthem accompanied by Neihoff's Band.

In that year,1876, there were some 600 Chinese miners reported on the Avoca goldfields, well down from the 2,000 reported in the Avoca district from 1867 to 1871.

The Opening was a well-managed civic occasion. Its success seems to demonstrate the existence of a considerable reservoir of goodwill between the Chinese and European participants.

Relared post:

Chinese miners on the Avoca goldfields

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.

A line of Chinese walking with their bundles and belongings, a group in foreground seated and standing beside a waterhole, a bullock dray on ridge in background.
“Chinese on their way to the diggings” drawing by Charles Lyall about 1854
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.

Ah Yen, sojourner

In the forty years between 1850 and 1890 62,990 Chinese are recorded as having entered Victoria by land or sea (the land route from Robe in South Australia.). Sixty percent of these—48,000—later left the Colony, most returning to the Canton (Guangzhou) area from whence they’d come, a hundred miles or so up the Pearl River from Hong Kong.

One of those who went back to China was Ah Yen, an Avoca vegetable hawker and gardener. The Avoca Mail noted his departure in 1882:

Avoca Mail, Tuesday 5 September 1882, page 2

Local housewives will, for some months to come, miss the daily attentions of one who has for some years passed supplied their requirements in the shape of vegetables. Ah Yen, the very civil and obliging vegetable hawker and gardener, having by his industry accumulated a modest competency, has determined to visit his native land, and accordingly started for China yesterday, intending to be absent for twelve months, and we are sure that his customers will wish him a pleasant voyage, and an enjoyable holiday. Ah Yen is still a young man, and it is rumoured that he is going home for a wife — perhaps a couple of wives — and if necessary he can obtain such testimonials from the Avoca housekeepers as will secure ample favor for him in the eyes of the fair daughters of the Flowery Land. While absent his garden will be managed and his business conducted by a relative recently arrived from China.

I do not know how long Ah Yen lived in Avoca, nor anything about his replacement.

I doubt whether he ever came back. Few Chinese made a second trip to Victoria.

During the Australian gold rushes of the 1850s and 1860s, the word “sojourner”, from the Latin ‘to spend a day’, referred to a Chinese who came to Australia temporarily to earn money for his family back home. ‘Sojourner’ is roughly equivalent to our ‘resident alien’.

a Chinese hawker
Print – ‘The Chinese Hawker’, c.1873
Courtesy of the Chinese Museum Retrieved through Victorian Collections

See also:

1860s, Chinese travelling by stage coach

Stage Coach Laden with Luggage and Many Chinese People
Stage Coach Laden with Luggage and Many Chinese People En Route to the Gold Fields
In the collection of the State Library of Victoria Accession No : H35244 (accessioned about 1900)

This photograph, often reproduced, appears to be of Chinese miners on their way to the diggings at Fiddlers Creek, also known as Percydale, near Avoca, Victoria. It is said to have been taken at Newstead, near Castlemaine.

The style of the coach suggests that the photograph is from the 1860s.

Cobb and Co. coaches from about 1863 set off from Castlemaine when the Melbourne train arrived. They went through Newstead, Carisbrook, Maryborough, Avoca, Percydale, Moonambel, Barkly, Red Bank, Landsborough, Amphitheatre, Eversley, Ararat, Pleasant Creek (Stawell).

The Melbourne curator and  historian Sophie Couchman has written about the photograph and its various interpretations.

coach advertisement
Advertising (1869, November 20). The Avoca Mail, p. 4. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article252153859
Percydale in February 2026
Post 5 indicates the former coach stop.
In the 1860s Percydale had two butchers, a hay and grain store, two hotels, a blacksmith, a dress shop, three banks, two grocers and a Chinese shop. Two churches, Cobb & Co. coach and horse yard, a post office and a police station next to the Temperance Hall. The Chinese population lived south of Fiddler’s Creek, tended market gardens and mined there for gold.

See also

Chinese coins found at Percydale

These coins belong to a member of the Avoca and District Historical Society, who has a small collection of Chinese coins found by her father more than 60 years ago at the Percydale diggings, ten kilometres or so northwest of Avoca.

Four coins found at the Percydale diggings, obverse (‘heads’, with Chinese) and reverse (‘tails’, with Manchu script).

The coin on the upper left is the most legible.

Turn the image 45 degrees anti-clockwise. In the three o’clock position you will see the word 通 ‘tong’, which means ‘circulating’. In the nine o’clock position is 寶 ‘bao’, treasure. Reading these two words from right to left you have the word 通寶 ‘tong bao’, which means ‘currency’. 

The characters at twelve o’clock and six o’clock give the date of the coin, not as a number AD, of course, but by the name of the reign period when the coin was minted. The ‘reign period’ was the name of the imperial era, a bit like ‘Georgian, at the time of George II’. This coin is from the Qing dynasty Kangxi 康熙 period (r. 1661–1722). It was a widely-circulated coin of low value.

The third coin in the grid is another example of this coin.

The second coin down dates from thereign of Qianlong 乾隆 (r. 1735–1796).

They are probably brass (copper and zinc) or copper and lead. Their value was one 文 ‘wen’, a thousandth of a 圓 ‘yuan’ (a dollar, in modern terms). The collective term is ‘cash’.

By convention the Manchu mint marks are taken to have been stamped on the reverse (tails) side. The Chinese characters are on the obverse (heads) side.

The coins have Manchu mint marks. In 1657 bronze cash coins were introduced with Manchu script on the reverse side. Many coins have the Manchu word ᠪᠣᠣ (Boo) on the left. To the right there is often the name of the coin’s issuing agency. This coin appears to have been issued by the mint attached to the Board of Revenue at Beijing.

Similar coins were found at Wagga Wagga; they were possibly used as gambling tokens.

Further reading

Wikipedia:

Tending to graves in Avoca

As everyone knows, the Chinese celebrate New Year not on 1 January but on the first day of the lunar New Year. This year Chinese New Year’s Day was 17 February, last Tuesday.

Another important festival in the Chinese calendar is Qīngmíngjié (清明节), Tomb Sweeping Day, a week or two after the Spring Equinox. On Qīngmíngjié in China and among Chinese communities around the world people remember and honor their ancestors by sweeping and tidying ancestral tombs and getting together to eat traditional food and celebrating with friends and relations.

Avoca Mail, Tuesday 6 April 1875, page 2

Some curiosity was excited in Avoca on Sunday morning last by a procession of buggies to the number of six or seven, most of them double seated, and all of them heavily laden with Chinamen, which went down High street in the direction of the cemetery, and shortly afterwards returned in the same order. It appears that Sunday was the day set apart in the Chinese year for the annual visitation to the graves of departed celestials by their surviving country men, and certain ceremonies only known to the pagan mind have to be gone through including the offering: of provisions in the shape of food and drink, but whether to propitiate " Joss," or, as a current belief is, to refresh the carnality which is supposed to exist after death, we are unable to say. We can only know from observation that whatever was done, this curious and decidedly intelligent people were in earnest about it. Most of the Chinamen came from as far as Majorca.

The distance  from Avoca to Majorca is 35 km (22 miles). 

‘Chinese Rites at the Graves of Their Countrymen’
(1872, September 10). Illustrated Australian News for Home Readers (Melbourne, Vic.), p. 196.

In 1879 the celebrations in early April resulted in a fire at the Avoca cemetery.

Avoca Mail, Tuesday 8 April 1879, page 2

The practice adopted by Chinamen of performing religious rites and ceremonies over the graves of their dead countrymen nearly caused some damage in the Avoca cemetery on Saturday. The Chinamen had come prepared with a good supply of food and drink to sustain the souls of the dear departed, and in the course of the ceremonies had lighted a fire, candles, &c. Probably owing to the high wind the grass caught .fire and spread away rapidly in the direction of the quarters occupied by the Europeans' graves, and it seemed likely that the whole cemetery would be over-run with the fire, in which case much damage would have been done to tombstones, railings, and plants. Fortunately, however, Mr Buhlert and others, with two of the police, saw the smoke and by their exertions the fire was at last extinguished. Most of the Chinamen present at once made off without trying to put out the fire, but one of them, Ah Cow, showed a better spirit and worked manfully in assisting the Europeans. This man afterwards obtained his reward by being arrested on the charge of having lighted the fire, while his less active but equally guilty countrymen made good their escape. After remaining in the lock-up till Monday morning Ah Cow was fined £1 and 10s 6d costs, the amount being subscribed by his friends in the court. The presiding magistrate stated that he had power to fine the accused £100 for the offence, but the trustees did not press for a heavy penalty, and Constable Shanklin, who prosecuted, spoke favorably of the prisoner's exertions to subdue the fire. The Chinamen present in the court, through their interpreter, promised to be more careful in the use of fire for the future.

The following year a funerary oven was built. This is a small red brick structure with an oven opening in one side with a semi-circular head. The top three courses of brickwork are corbelled with the centre course being laid on the diagonal to give a decorative chevron appearance. The curved pyramidal shaped metal roof is capped at the apex with a ball decoration.

A brick oven, used in Chinese funerals, at the cemetery in Avoca, Victoria, Australia.
A brick oven, used in Chinese funerals, at the cemetery in Avoca, Victoria, Australia. (photographed 2010)
Uploaded to Wikimedia Commons by user Peterdownunder CC-BY-SA-3.0

Avoca Mail, Tuesday 27 April 1880, page 2

OPEN COLUMN.
To the Editor of the Avoca Mail.
Sir, — I observe in the last issue of your contemporary an article dealing with what is termed " The Chinese difficulty in a new shape," the said difficulty being apparently a " joss-stick oven" recently erected in our cemetery. I quite agree with the writer that the " horrid red brick abomination" is no ornament to the burial ground, according to outer barbarian notions, but it must not be forgotten that it was chiefly built for utility, and by the express orders of the local magistrate to prevent the ignition of the grass at the Chinese burial ceremonies. The Chinese deserve credit for having obeyed the instructions of the court, and it appears to me that they have taken some trouble to make their " joss-stick oven" as ornamental as their ideas of the beautiful in art would permit them to do. If anyone doubts this let them inspect the structure. It will then be seen that the brick-work has been raised something after the fashion of a pedestal, and perhaps from designs supplied by some of the monuments existing in the cemetery. Then the roof has evidently been a subject of much study, and when the architect finally adopted the plan of the familiar pagodas of his native land he no doubt thought the barbarians would be lost in admiration of its gracefulness, and straightway " take a wrinkle" from it for use in their own buildings. But this was not enough. The brick work had to be further improved with a coat of red coloring, the joints were pricked out with white, and finally the roof was painted with graceful curves, which have placed Hogarth's " line of beauty" altogether in the shade. Now, sir, although the effect may not be all we barbarians desire, some allowance should be made for the evident intention to please, and it may be suggested that if it does not please us the builders should have been favored with our ideas on the subject before the structure was commenced. There is another aspect of the question, however, which is deserving of consideration. The Chinese have had a portion of the cemetery devoted to their use, and they may fancy that they have some sort of proprietorship in it, and some right to do as they please there while they hurt no one else. They do not trespass on the European part of the cemetery, and Europeans have no business to go into their part. If the writer for your contemporary will remember this and act upon it he will be able to keep his fingers out of the pork fat which he so much dislikes. It strikes me that we Britishers have a good many cemeteries in China and other foreign countries, and we have a way of doing as we like in them ; let us then afford John Chinaman the same privilege, and while he takes due precautions against fire and keeps his pagodas and pork fat on the ground set apart for him he should not be interfered with.
I am, &c.,
Q.Z.

(Presumably the earlier article was in the Avoca Free Press which has not yet been digitised.)

Nearly 150 years later the red brick funerary burning tower still stands in the cemetery.

cemetery
Chinese section in Avoca cemetery February 2026

Related posts

Chinese New Year at Avoca Lead 1865

Kung hei fat choi! 恭喜發財! Happy new year!

As we enter the Year of the Horse in 2026, here’s a look back at how the Chinese community in Avoca Lead celebrated New Year in 1865 – one hundred and sixty one years ago.

Leader (Melbourne, Vic.), Saturday 18 February 1865, page 17

AVOCA.

Chinese Hospitality.— Our local correspondent writes :— ‘ The inhabitants of the Avoca Lead were, on the 5th inst., regaled with a most sumptuous dinner, given by Messrs Ah See and Ah Sing, Chinese storekeepers, of this district, the day being the last of the anniversary of the Chinese New Year. About forty Europeans and upwards of one hundred Chinese partook of a monster dinner, consisting of turkey, fowl, pork, &c., &c, with bottled porter, spirits and wine ad libitum. Upwards of £8 worth of crackers were let off on the occasion. Our hosts received the well- wishes of the company, and seemed highly pleased on being cheered by their European guests. The whole proceeding passed off in a most orderly manner.

“A CHINESE NEW YEAR’S DAY.” (1899, February 18). Evening News (Sydney, NSW), p. 1 (EVENING NEWS SUPPLEMENT). Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article113700205

The 1865 Chinese zodiac is the Ox, covering the lunar period from January 27, 1865, to February 12, 1866.