How did they live and work?
Records suggest that most of Chinese residents of North Sydney in the late 19th and early 20th centuries were either market gardeners or shopkeepers; or the families thereof.
The Chinese remained a small but visible minority in a community dominated by people of Anglo-Celtic origin. It is likely the gardeners and most of the shop keepers lived frugally.
Some insight into the lives of gardeners comes from the 1891 Royal Commission into Chinese gambling practices in NSW; an enquiry which ranged far beyond the issue of gambling. Chen Ah Teak, who leased gardens on Middle Harbour in the 1870s and 1880s, told the Commissioners that he paid his regular workers £40 per year and £50 for the 'head men'. Food and lodgings were included. For this they worked 11 hours a day, six days a week. This was comparable to the conditions for 'white' farm labourers. Ah Teak's men washed in the evening, ate and went to bed to begin again the next day. When the Commissioners probed for evidence of gambling and nefarious activities, Ah Teak simply told them he did not know what his men did on their one day off.
War Hop, who operated eight acres [approximately three hectares] on the 'North Shore' provided his six gardeners with Chinese-style meals - beef, pork, rice, cabbage and salted fish – in addition to their wages. It is possible that this War Hop was the Ah War who appeared in North Sydney Council's ledgers. If so he leased a cottage and garden near Folly Point in present-day Cammeray.
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Detail of transcript of War Hop's evidence from Royal Commission into Alleged Chinese Gambling and Immorality, 1891. State Library of NSW |
That European food suppliers and manufacturers advertised goods such as the 'milk food' Lactogen, baking powder and the beef concentrate Bonox in the Chinese language press suggests Chinese-Australian diets had adapted to local culinary custom to some extent. Other products such as whiskey and, oddly enough, John Craven-Burleigh's 'True Hair Grower' were also promoted in Chinese newspapers. Medical 'tonics' and drugs, including aspirin, were advertised more frequently after the ban on non-medicinal opium in 1905, suggesting that smoking opium was a means of pain relief.
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The Chinese were drinking tea more than 3000 years ago. By the late 19th century insulated woven baskets lined with straw filled fabric were used to keep tea filled pots warm while working. They were popular in southern China from where most of those people who came to Australia lived. This example was found many years ago in a North Sydney house. North Sydney Council collection |
Lodgings in or near market gardens were sometimes provided 'free' as part of the labour contract. Most of these would have been basic one or two room structures made of timber and iron. North Sydney Council records refer to both cottages and houses set in acreage around Willoughby Falls Creek which flowed into Long Bay, Middle Cove. That area is now called Cammeray (Explore sources - Chinese Residences and Gardens)
One of these, however, was made of stone and shingle. It was listed from 1884 to 1910, first as the home of Ah War then Ah Kong, who later became known as the shopkeeper Arthur Kong. Unfortunately, none were surveyed by the Lands Department in the 1890s when the layout of most other buildings were recorded on maps. Neither do photographs exist of the gardens and cottages.
Shop keepers probably lived behind or above their retail premises. They seldom owned the building. The typical shop in North Sydney in the 19th and early 20th centuries was a two-storey brick or timber building with a dwelling above the commercial rooms. Many of these 'shophouses' were no more than two rooms downstairs and two above. The double-story timber and iron house and shop at 45 Lane Cove Road which accommodated War Sing in 1886 and 1887 was only four rooms.
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This detail from Melvin Vaniman's 1904 panorama of North Sydney photograph shows Nos 41-49 Lane Cove Road. The image is looking south. The large building at the top of the circle is No.45, a two-storey shop run at the time by Ah Chew who moved between shops in this stretch of road. Out of sight behind that building are Choong Loong's single storey shop at No.41 and Gilbert Yong Ting Quoy's similarly sized shop at No. 43. All the properties have back yard structures that may have housed chickens and or been used for storage or sorting. Stanton Library |
