"Many of the Chinese were brought here as indentured labourers and treated dreadfully yet in spite of this they pulled themselves up by their shoe strings and now function as excellent citizens"

About 3,000 Chinese men in total arrived in the colony of NSW between 1848 and 1853 as Indentured labourers. Following the discontinuing of convict transportation in the 1840's cheap Chinese labour was seen as a substitute. As soon as the importation of Chinese labour began there was fierce opposition from locals with a strong racial undertone in the protests. At the expiration of their contracts many returned to China, it is unclear as to how many settled here, although it was reported that a man living in Gulgong NSW who past away at the age of 105 in 1911 was the last known indentured Chinese labourer in Australia.

The Sydney Chinese Market Garden. Following the incorporation of Municipalities in NSW under the Municipalities Act 1858, small holdings of land were leased, generally for 99 years, to entrepreneurial Chinese citizens by local authorities. The Chinese operated the leases as market gardens, supplying produce locally, and to the Sydney markets in Haymarket central Sydney. Imported male labour, some with families back in China were used in the gardens, and the gardens operated on the "dong" system. The system allowed for part of the yearly profit from the garden to be given to an individual, allowing that person to return to China with a relatively large amount of money. However labouring in the garden could be for up to 20 years for each worker. The gardens were operated as carefully controlled collectives, and all business was conducted by a headman, the non English speaking workers had little contact with the outside world, other than the arranged visits by prostitutes, and the occasional group outing to Chinatown for the pleasures of the Opium Den.

The last Chinese market garden in Sydney was heritage listed and was still operating as a family business at Matraville as recently as a few years ago.

Just of interest, the Chinese market gardeners were able to get extremely high vegetable yields from often very poor sandy soils. They did this through intensive plantings and crop rotation, and by using as much composted horse manure as they could obtain. The gardens were very labour intensive, working sunup to sundown, all work done manually. The only concession to modernism was a horse and cart, later an old truck, to transport produce, and pick up horse dung from surrounding stables on the return trip. My 'Old Man' always said the Chinese were hard people, and never to be underestimated.

And here again is uncle Paul, 14.05 Klm from Nimbin, giving us all his inflated view of Chinese importance to Australians, as viewed through the smoke haze of his bong. (Obviously).

What a beautiful fairy tale Uncle Paul. Now tuck in kiddies and wish them all a peacful night with the sandman.

Actually, it was Prime Minster Andrew Fisher in 1911, who initiated the "White Australia" policy. Take note here, a Labor...yes repeat, Labor Prime Minister.
What a dastardly act some would say. But most didn't at he time.

And could you please rise to the occasion with a truthful response as to why it was actually necessary for the innovation of the policy.

Thank you Uncle Paul, in anticipation.

Dan

Obviously black lives don't matter too much to the Black Lives Matter demonstrating mobs.

In which case, why should they particularly matter to anyone else.

Paul,

If the indentured Chinese can uplift themselves over a few generations, the indigenous with 40 000 years should have had no problem.

SM,

A bit unfair - Chinese have been farmers for thousands of years while Aboriginal people here were hunters, fishers and gatherers across the country in 1788. Farmers and foragers have very different ethos, one consciously works by the sweat of his/her brow and plans ahead, the other perceives - perceives - that bounty drops out of the sky as a result of secret knowledge and appropriate ceremonies previously observed. So farmers consciously work, foragers wait and enjoy the bounty of their ceremonies.

Of course, that was then; this is now. Many, many Aboriginal people either have had experience, or are descended from Aboriginal ancestors who had experience in the early days, of planned, hard work, on their own farm leases, or working for farmers. My wife's gr-grandfather was one of the first Aboriginal men (quite a few Aboriginal women preceded him) to take out a farming lease in SA, around 1868. The Protector here was eager to give out equipment, fencing gear, etc., even breed-animals, to Aboriginal lessees.

Aboriginal women ? Yes, indeed: many white fellas took up the chance to marry Aboriginal women and thereby gain access to blocks of land, which were always in her name, not his. Check out the entries in the Indexes to each of the volumes the South Australian Protector's Letters, on www. firstsources.info where I've noted the names of Aboriginal women and men who held land leases.

I would say that, down this way, much hunting technique had been forgotten by 1900, and that there were probably more Aboriginal people involved in farming by then than in foraging - although there too, the Protector gave out boats, fishing gear and guns so that people could make use of their right to use the land as they always had done. Those rights still exist, by the way.

Joe