James and Rose Chuey
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James and Rose Chuey posing at the time of their National Archives of Australia |
James Wong Chuey (aka JA Chuey) was probably born in 1862.
He arrived from China as a 16-year-old in 1878 accompanied by his uncle but, 'penniless and not knowing a word of English'. In the words of his obituary 50 years later, his was 'a romantic rise to fortune and influence'. (Australasian, 15/10/1938, Daily Telegraph, 25/7/1923).
Chuey was from the See Yap area on the western side of the Pearl River Delta from where many of the early gold seekers had departed for the United States and Australia in the 1850s and 1860s.
On his 61st birthday, in 1923, Chuey spoke of his early days in western NSW recalling his first wage – five shillings a week. By his third year he had saved £12. Chuey referred cryptically to an encounter, an 'interview' as he put it, with the bushranger Captain Moonlight who was robbing properties in and around Gundagai in the late 1870s. It is not clear whether the young James was 'bailed up' – robbed – by the bushranger.
Chuey's business career began by trading animal skins and wool from a wagon in the Junee area. He became a successful wool broker and moved to Sydney in 1917. In 1924, James and Rose moved to a 12-room house called 'Mahonga' 12 Kareela Road, Cremorne. It was the largest dwelling in one of the most salubrious streets in North Sydney with views of the harbour, and was presumably named after 'Mahonga', Robert Rand's sheep station north west of Albury. Perhaps Chuey had an association with that place or looked upon it as the quintessential Australian sheep station. 'Rand of Mahonga' was certainly legendary among wool producers in the late 19th century (Farmer and Settler, 25/2/1955).
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Portrait of James Chuey by N. Johnson Studio State Library of NSW |
But James' standing in the wider Chinese community predated his permanent residence in the city. He was clearly travelling from Junee to Sydney regularly for business and community affairs. After the untimely death of Quong Tart in 1903, Chuey became the leading representative of the State's Chinese community. Tart had occupied that unofficial position since the 1880s. He died from complications after a savage assault. Around that time Chuey assumed the office of secretary of the Sze Yup temple in the inner-city suburb of Glebe, in keeping with his county ties to See Yap.
Chuey was already an avowed republican and anti-Manchu campaigner. He was recognised as such by Sun Yet Sen who would become the first President of the Republic of China after the fall of the Manchu Qing dynasty in 1911. Chuey became head of the Yee Hing, the first secret society dedicated to overthrowing the Qing dynasty. The Yee Hing had been established in the Australian colonies during the gold rushes. After 1911 its activities were well publicised. Chuey's position in the Yee Hing led to his Presidency of the NSW Young China League around 1911, founded to support Sun Yet Sen. Chuey would also lead the Chinese Masonic Society of NSW, a group of well-respected merchants and businessmen who were also supportive of Chinese republicanism. A confidante of Sun, Chuey was the key representative for the new Chinese republic in Australia. In 1919 he was described as 'the uncrowned Chinese King of Australia', an unintentionally ironic epithet given his republican views. (Molong Argus, 27/6/1919).
Rose Chung Gon married James Chuey in Junee in August 1909. She was born in China around 1880 and given to James and Mary (Mei) Chung Gon as a wedding present as a young girl. James was already established in Tasmania ('James Chung Gon', Australian Dictionary of Biography). He returned to the colony and then sent for his wife and Rose in 1892. The girl became a part of a large family. Mining tin, rather than gold, had attracted the Chinese to that southern colony. James Chung Gon sold a tin mine and established an orchard, thereby making the transition from mining to food production as many others had done in NSW and Victoria. Rose's marriage to James was arranged by her parents.
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'Mahonga' is the large house with a turret in this photograph Stanton Library |
She, too, was passionate about the Chinese republic. In 1916 Rose was described as a 'Chinese Lady Orator'. That occasion was an address to the United Chinese National Friendly Society in Melbourne in support of the republican constitution drafted by Sun Yet Sen and others in 1906. As the wife of a wealthy businessman, Rose took on the typical role of society hostess but she did so while successfully straddling Chinese and non-Chinese society in Sydney. Her birthday in August 1925 was reported in the general press. On that occasion decorations in Chinese colours (possibly the blue and white of the Republican flag) were remarked upon without comment. Colour and flower arrangements appear to have been a feature of Rose's gatherings. James died in 1938. A service at St Chad's Anglican church in Cremorne was followed by a funeral cortege which left from the Chinese Masonic Lodge in Mary Street, Surry Hills, and at which thousands of pennies were distributed among the large crowd. Chuey was buried at Rookwood Cemetery.
After her husband's death, Rose continued to entertain and campaign. In 1939 she hosted the Chinese Women's Relief Committee at 'Mahonga' and was presented with a badge by Chinese Consul-General Dr Pao. She died in 1954.
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James Chuey and two colleagues in business attire in the Sydney Botanic Gardens, [1910-1930] SLNSW |
