9. Amoy Shepherds

If people know anything about Chinese Australian history, they likely associate it with the 19th-century gold rushes, market gardening, the Lambing Flat Riots, and the infamous fake Dictation Test from the early years of Australia's 20th-century Immigration Restriction Act. But this common understanding focuses almost entirely on people from the Pearl River Delta, a region of the province of Guangdong (廣東) still widely referred to as Canton, and on Cantonese migrants. Even this level of awareness leaves significant gaps, overlooking contributions that range from opera companies to village networks and major business enterprises—stories that extend only to the mid-20th century. What is often reduced to a mere footnote, even in more comprehensive accounts, is the story of around 3,000 men who arrived in the British colony of New South Wales (which then included Queensland and Victoria) in the late 1840s and early 1850s. These men came not from the Pearl River Delta but from just north of it, the province of Fujian (福建), still considered southern China. Their migration predates the Australian gold rushes, yet their presence is a fascinating but often overlooked chapter in Australian history. Check out: Williams, M., 2025, Too Much like Englishmen: Amoy Migrants in Australia, Ashfield, NSW: ChideStudy Press. For more details see: Maxine Darnell, The Chinese labour trade to New South Wales 1783-1853: An exposition of motives and outcomes, PhD thesis, UNE, 1997. Go to the 88 Objects website and see Ang's Defence (it's No,59) for yourself - https://chinozhistory.org/  As usual you should always check out the publications at - https://chidestudypresscom.wordpress.com/the-bookstore/  You can ask questions at: [email protected]