Chinese Merchants in the Northern Territory, 1880-1950: A translocal case study

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Thesis (PhD Doctorate)
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
School of Hum, Lang & Soc Sc
Arts, Education and Law
This thesis examines a leading group of Chinese merchants (those engaged in overseas trade) and their families who operated businesses in the Northern Territory (‘the Territory’) during the period 1880-1950. This study emphasises the benefits of a translocal approach to understanding the interrelationships of race, class, and gender in this history. But it also provides a framework for investigating the interrelationships of Chinese people in Darwin, of Chinese and Aboriginal people, and of Chinese people in different locations in Australia and overseas. I argue that Chinese merchants and their families based in particular locations should be studied in relation to each other and thus comparatively and transnationally to better understand their various contributions to local, national and international histories. Darwin is one such illuminating example. The Chinese merchants in the Territory are a dynamic and underinvestigated case study in this regard due to several compelling factors. The ongoing presence of Chinese in the Territory spanned a tumultuous era in the Territory and Australia’s path to nationhood: the discovery of gold in the Territory in the 1870s; the advent of the telegraph line, railway and international steamship companies; anti-Chinese sentiment in Australian colonies and overseas in the 1880s; Federation and the infamous Immigration Restriction Act in 1901; the passing of the Territory from South Australian to Commonwealth administration in 1911, and World Wars One and Two. Darwin occupied a pivotal position in Australia’s battle with Japan during World War Two. Moreover, the Territory, together with the northern regions of Western Australia and Queensland, featured in race debates and anti- Chinese rhetoric surrounding Federation. These regions posed a dilemma for Australian colonial then federal governments regarding the need for labour to develop the north without compromising the vision of a ‘White Australia’. Until 1888, the Territory was a