Shopkeeping
Sydney's Chinese commercial community was relatively small but it was characterised by complex relationships.
Some of these were founded on common origins in China, others on partnerships and links established in the colony. It is likely that produce grown by Chinese market gardeners was sold in the Chinese-run stores of North Sydney. Ah War, for example, operated a market garden on Cammeray Road between 1884 and 1898 and owned a greengrocer store on Lane Cove Road, near Hume Street in Crows Nest, from 1894-95. Chinese shop keepers often subleased buildings from a European lessee who, in turn, paid rent to the owner. But the rapid succession of Chinese shopkeepers in these shops strongly suggests a system of networking among the sublessees.
North Sydney's Chinese shop keepers first began operating on Lane Cove Road which was the main thoroughfare linking North Sydney to Willoughby, where there were more market gardens, and the upper north shore. Established as early as the 1830s, this was one of the busiest and most important roads on the north shore by the 1880s. It was renamed the Pacific Highway after the completion of Sydney Harbour Bridge in 1932.
The page (below left) from Sun Johnson's Chinese / English phrase book, The Self Educator, shows terms useful for those looking to rent a shop (State Library of NSW).
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In the era before motor vehicles, produce was delivered by horse and cart. Accordingly, busy Lane Cove Road had several blacksmith shops, coach builders and horse tack makers. Fresh produce, not bought from local gardens, was almost certainly purchased wholesale from the markets at Haymarket in the city. In NSW the Chinese were particularly successful in the wholesale banana trade where produce came from northern Queensland and Fiji. It is likely that the larger shopkeepers either kept a horse and cart themselves or paid 'carters' to deliver their produce. A horse ferry operated from the southern end of nearby Blues Point Road from 1899.
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This excerpt from one of North Sydney property valuation for 1894-95 shows Ah Sam listed as the occupant of No.45 Lane Cove Road, a wood and iron shop/house of seven rooms. Anthony Ebert is shown as the lessee to whom Sam would have paid his rent. Mrs James Wheeler is the owner. Two doors down, at No.49, Ah Ping has taken over occupation from Hop Sing and the Council clerk has made an amendment accordingly. John Gordon is the lessee and Mrs Wheeler is the owner of this five room wood and iron shop/house. Stanton Library |
Ah Sing was the first of the Lane Cove Road shopkeepers. He claimed to have established his business in 1879 but the earliest entry in Council’s ledgers is 1883 at No.71 Lane Cove Road. The building was described in Council's property ledgers as a two-storey, three-room 'shop and house'. It was wood with an iron roof. Bricks were not available in commercial and affordably quantities until the opening of the Oaks Brickworks in Neutral Bay in 1882.
Sing became the most successful of the local shopkeepers. Around 1890 Sing moved his business north to Willoughby Road [then North Sydney Road] which branched off from Lane Cove Road at Crows Nest, a suburb of North Sydney undergoing intensive residential development with single and semi-detached dwellings. Sing's was a substantial rendered brick shop and residence built in the Italianate style in the 1880s or early 1890s with urns mounted on the parapet. The building may have been built for Sing. Despite the apparent success of his business there is no telephone listing for any of Sing's shops. He may have placed orders at the public telephones located in the Post Office on Lane Cove Road or by hand-delivered, hand-written notes. Sing remained in the Willoughby Road shop until 1909 when it seems he and his family moved to the south side of the Harbour.
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With Sing's departure, No.71 Lane Cove Road was run by Ah Ping from 1896 to 1899, Ah Hee to 1900, Ah Sam to 1902, and Ah On to 1903. Such rapid turnover of Chinese proprietors was typical of the Lane Cove Road businesses. More than 40 different Chinese men, and at least one woman (Mrs TJ Hing), operated 17 shops between No.41 Lane Cove Road, in the heart of North Sydney, to No.311 Lane Cove Road at Crows Nest, from 1883 to 1906. Explore sources - Chinese Residences and Gardens
It was not quite a 'Chinatown' in the manner of a consolidated precinct, but the presence of so many Chinese-run shops along one main thoroughfare over two decades must have characterised the identity of the area. The remarkable turnover of Chinese shopkeepers suggests both the existence of a business network and the importance of North Sydney as a stepping stone to life elsewhere.
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This detail from an 1890s Lands Department survey map shows Nos 41-49 Lane Cove Road. All were shophouses run by Chinese proprietors between 1886 and 1906. The footprint of each building can be seen as can outhouses, probably toilets. No.47 has a well behind. A natural creek referred to by then as an open sewer runs behind the properties. State Library of NSW |
Chinese-run shops could be found dotted elsewhere across the municipality. Sam Hicks ran a green grocer's shop at No.176 Blues Point Road for several years from 1904. Between 1906 and 1911 the substantial rendered brick corner store at No.220 West Street, in the middle of suburban Crows Nest, was operated by Lewis Kee, and then William Wong.
Willoughby Road, Crows Nest, took over from Lane Cove Road as the main location for Chinese-run shops from the early 1900s. It seems that others had followed Ah Sing's example. There were 11 shophouses run by Chinese men on that road between 1890 and 1927.
Sam Kee and Company operated out of Nos 5, 54 and 127 Willoughby Road respectively from 1911 to 1927. One of the few businesses referred to as a company, Kee's Crows Nest store was established at the same time as he bought into a main street shop in the small town of Tingha far to the north in the New England region of NSW where Chinese people had been mining tin since the 19th century. Sam Kee and Company was the last Chinese business listed in the North Sydney area. Having left Crows Nest in 1927 the company consolidated its Tingha operation and remained there until after the Second World War.
In the 1920s there were three Chinese-run businesses in Mount Street, in the heart of the North Sydney commercial area. Around the corner, in busy Walker Street, was Mewe Low at No.110. Allen Low, whose Chinese name was Lin Lo, ran a shop at No.100. Possibly Mewe and Allen were related. They may have been the same person. Allen Low had clearly decided to anglicise his name perhaps in the hope of assimilating in to the very 'white' society in which he did business. He was probably unaware that the shop at No.100 was next door to Centennial Hall where Henry Parkes had given his anti-Chinese speech in 1888. He may well have known that the North Sydney Council clerk took pains to describe him as 'Chinese' in the 1920 property ledger. Decades years after the height of racist oratory and caricatures in the late 1800s, it was difficult to avoid being marginalised in Anglo-Celtic North Sydney.
Lin Lo, who anglicised his name to Allen Lowe, is pictured below as he appeared around 1910. The entry for the 1920 North Sydney Council property ledger has Allen Lowe's name accompanied by the description '(Chinese)'. Such ethnic identifiers were not used for any other groups (Stanton Library).
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Lastly, several Chinese-run shops were located on Military Road, which ran through the suburbs of Neutral Bay and Cremorne on route to Mosman in the east. A tram line had run the length of this corridor from 1893 and, by the first decades of the 1900s, it was a busy thoroughfare rivalling Lane Cove Road. Chinese shopkeepers moved here from 1911 to around 1920. One of them, Arthur Kong, made the move from Willoughby Road, Crows Nest. The names of those listed in Council records and Sands Directory which published commercial and residential addresses suggests family connections or movement between shops. Arthur Sing shared a shop with Jim Sing. Yee Low operated a business at No.130 Military Road in 1913, while Charlie Low See was a fruiterer at No.256 in 1916. Explore sources - Chinese Residences and Gardens. These businesses may have sourced their vegetables from Haymarket as Chinese men with baskets were a regular sight leaving the ferry and boarding the Cremorne Point tram to Military Road, until they were effectively banned from using the service in 1918.
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Walker Street, North Sydney, looking north around 1900. The arrow indicates Centennial Hall. Allen Lowe's greengrocer's shop was located next door towards the camera. Stanton Library |