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| Chinese cook |
In the early days of the Moreton Bay settlement, the labour shortage
produced by the booming pastoral industry resulted in the eager importation of
labour not only from Europe but from India and China. The latter was referred to as “coolie
labour”. One such importation of Chinese
labourers consisted of fifty-six workers who arrived on the ship Nimrod at the end of 1848.
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| Chinese coolie |
CHINESE LABOURERS.- Fifty-six Chinese labourers have
arrived by the “Nimrod”. The want of labour is so great that we have heard a
gentleman express his determination to hire some of them, notwithstanding that
the “Artemesia” is hourly expected, and that it is stated, in the Sydney
Herald, of the 14th ult., that another emigrant vessel would immediately follow
her, for Moreton Bay direct.
The wages for which the Chinese may be hired is £6 per
annum, and their engagements are for five years. It will be necessary to pay
down a sum of £15 for each labourer, if taken singly, but a liberal allowance
is made on taking a quantity. Those who have no objection to taking this
description of labour in preference to that which is about to arrive, might
find that the £15 was well laid out - always provided they could reckon on the
honesty and usefulness of the Chinaman himself.[1]
A few weeks later an encounter took place in Brisbane between a group
of these Chinese imports and some of the local aborigines. The incident caused much amusement to the
local townsfolk and was reported in The
Moreton Bay Courier in the racist verbiage of the times.[2]
Chin-ring in a Difficulty.-
On Sunday morning last, as some of the lately-arrived
Chinese labourers were passing down Queen-street, they encountered about six or
eight aboriginal blacks, who saluted the Celestials[3]
with some observations, in the mixed gibberish formed by the patois of the
natives and the elegant language of their earliest instructors.
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| Early view of Queen Street |
The subjects of the Moon's Brother[4]
did not understand the words, but, as the actions of the blacks were tolerably
significant, without being equally flattering, several of the offended parties
tucked up their sleeves, and prepared for a bout at fisticuffs a l’ Anglaise[5].
This was opposed to the tactics of the black-fellows, and they hastened to
possess themselves of waddies, to the infinite disgust of their antagonists,
who in vain strove, by voice and gesture, to convince the grimy savages of the
unfairness of such a contest.
At every fresh expostulation, the man-eaters opened their
jaws to a frightful width, and flourished their weapons with increased glee. A
crowd soon collected, and the influence of the mischievous might have been
sufficient to have caused an affray between the parties, but that some
well-disposed persons contrived to separate them. Certainly the Chinamen
displayed considerable game and their adversaries an equal amount of the
chicken.
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| Chinese market gardener |
Although initially employed as shepherds, shearers, and general labourers,
the Chinese went on to become an important element in Colonial Queensland. Some would be market gardeners supplying
settlements like Ipswich with fresh fruit and vegetables. Others would be
merchants and grocers.
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