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ABSTRACT
The fortuitus access to long lost manifests of the Cooktown to Laura railway provides a unique insight into the operations of Chinese merchants serving Far North Queensland gold field communities during the colonial era which hitherto have received scant attention. Whilst the existence of Chinese merchants throughout Far North Queensland during colonial times, commencing with the Palmer River goldrush of 1873 has been documented, very little has been known about the specific details of their operations. The details of the manifests, complimented with other archival records, provide a unique picture of a sophisticated supply network drawing from local, intercolonial and overseas sources. It also highlights the dual flow of goods and services that sustained the operations of these frontier merchants. The paper will case study a pioneers Chinese Merchant of this era who had business interests in Cooktown, Laura and Maytown.
Acknowledgements
I acknowledge the support of: Marge Sculley and Bev (and the late John) Shay of the Cooktown & District Historical Society. Ely Finch for translation of Tam Gee Kee’s photograph and script on the reverse side (September, 2021). I am also grateful to the anonymous reviewers and the editors of History of Retailing and Consumption for their excellent suggestions.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1 Taam Sze Pui, The life and work of Taam Sze Pui.
2 May, Topsawyers: the Chinese in Cairns 1870 to 1920.
3 Loy-Wilson, A Chinese shopkeeper on the Atherton Tablelands, 160.
4 He subsequently had commercial interests in Cairns and Innisfail, principally in merchandising, sugar cane growing, banana agent etc. These aspects fall outside the principal focus of this paper and are not discussed.
5 Official name for the 660,000 ha mining areas gazetted 30 May 1884.
6 Mineral Resources of Queensland, An Immense Field for Investment, 20.
7 Kirkman, Chinese Miners on the Palmer, 49.
8 Kirkman, The Palmer River Gold Field 1873-1883, 240.
9 Ormston, The Rise and Fall of a Frontier Mining Town, iii; 1.
10 Ibid., 2.
11 Ibid., 2.
12 Knowles, The Cooktown Railway, 1–12.
13 Kerr, Triumph of the Narrow Gauge: A History of Queensland Railways.
14 Knowles, The Cooktown Railway, 23–27.
15 The goods manifests records for the Council controlled period (Sep 1903 to Jun 1904) were stored in a backroom of the former Council offices in Cooktown. They came to light when the Council built new chambers and passed over their old building to the Cooktown & District Historical Society in 2007.
16 During his 4 year stay in Laura (1892–1896) he wrote many letters to his friend in UK. He later became a prominent surgeon in London.
17 MacKeith, Letters from Laura, 2.
18 It was reported that the train journey in the early 1890s took nearly 5 h (see: MacKeith, Letters from Laura, 94).
19 MacKeith, Letters from Laura, 71.
20 Willmetts North Queensland Almanac, 1892.
21 MacKeith, Letters from Laura, 10.
22 Hill, Forty Five Years Experience in North Queensland, 75–76.
23 Low Choy, That’s not a Chinese name, 67.
24 This is the best Sze Yap name at the current stage of research into his background
25 Low Choy, The Journey to New Gold Mountain.
26 Rains, Intersections, 393.
27 Opium was legal until the Aboriginals Protection and Restriction of the Sale of Opium Act of 1897
28 QGG 1880 v.27: 288.
29 Shay, Two Chinese businessmen from the Palmer goldfield, 76, 79.
30 Shay, The Chinese on the Goldfields, 29.
31 Pugh's Queensland Almanac, 1887, 94.
32 Pugh's Queensland Almanac, 1889, 109.
33 Willmetts North Queensland Almanac 1892, Maytown Directory.
34 Rains, Intersections, 98/99 and 218.
35 Cooktown & District Historical Society, Cooktown Rates Valuation Register for 1893–1894.
36 Rains, “Chinese involvement in the Pearling and Beche-de-mer Industries of North Queensland”, 41–44.
37 Rains has accessed the available limited and incomplete records to provide this snapshot of the Cooktown industry from which has been constructed.
38 Rains, Chinese involvement in the Pearling and Beche-de-mer Industries of North Queensland, 40.
39 Rains, Intersections, 256.
40 These documents were maintained by the Council to record wharfage fees paid by importers and exporters using Council wharfs. They did not record destinations or sources of the items listed and in many case the actual contents were not noted.
41 The volume he was exporting (not to mention other Cooktown merchants) suggest that there were large areas under cultivation in the Cooktown hinterland (see also Appendix B).
42 Havilland, The China Navigation Company Limited, 51.
43 QGG, No 52, Vol LXXX, 7 Mar 1903, 971.
44 QSA PRV6447/1/1.
45 Rains, Intersections, 393–394.
46 Rains, Intersections, 394.
47 May, Topsawyers: the Chinese in Cairns, 62.
48 His Maytown property records (see ) indicate Cairns as his nominated place of residence in 1896. It is probable that he relocated his family to Cairns by that date for education and family reasons but maintained his Cooktown residence and split his time between his properties in Maytown (until sold), Cooktown and Cairns. As noted in the case of his Laura property, he would have installed a relative or clansman as manager in his various enterprises as was the case with Chinese merchants of this era.
49 May, Topsawyers: the Chinese in Cairns, 111.
50 Only a limited number of Chinese in Cooktown and district would have been able to read and write English. Also, there were several Chinese language newspapers in Cooktown around this time. There has not been an opportunity to investigate if Tam Gee Kee advertised in them.
51 Hart, A British Atlantic World of Advertising, 111–112. – see also Barnard, Emporium
52 Hart, A British Atlantic World of Advertising, 121–123.
53 Barnard, Emporium, 7.
54 Ibid., 7.
55 Dickenson, Global Advertising Histories, 322.
56 Presbrey, History and Development of Advertising, Forward
57 Cooktown & District Historical Society, “Hann Divisional Board Rate Book, Subdivision 2, Valuation Register”, entry 107 and 124.
58 The Council’s railway manifest records consistent show an Ah Chow receiving goods at Laura but also signing for consignments on behalf of other people – hence he may have been Tam Gee Kee’s Laura agent. (see Cooktown & District Historical Society, Cooktown to Laura Railway records (1903/04).
59 Cooktown & District Historical Society, Cooktown to Laura Railway records (1903/04).
60 Palmer Chronical, 25 December, 1886.
61 Queensland Government 1903, 460.
62 Crown Solicitor’s Office 1898a; 1898b; 1905
63 The introduction of peanuts into Australia is credited to the Chinese who brought seeds and clipping with them from China during the early years of the Palmer gold rush. Whilst the first domestic crops were planted around the Cooktown region, there was not a large uptake in Australia by the Europeans e.g. by 1900 there was less than 11 acres under cultivation. (Source: www.peanutvan.com.au).
64 www.bom.gov.au and www.nma.gov.au (drought).
65 Shay, Cooktown through the Years, 51.
66 Approximately AUD $14,500 (todays value).
67 Bowen, “The Merchants: Chinese Social Organisation in Colonial Australia”, 37.
68 State and Interstate after 1901.
69 Low Choy, Lost Opportunities, 125–127.
70 QSA Z2286 Gee Kee certificate of naturalisation of 2 December 1884
71 Morning Post, 23 June 1906, 2.
72 Sydney Tung Wah Times, 14th April 1906.
73 There is some speculation that he, like many overseas merchants, purchased Mandarin rank through substantial donations to the Qing Dynasty during its dying days – see Mei-fen Kuo, “Making Chinese Australia”, 260.
74 Finch, Translation 2021.
75 May, Topsawyers: the Chinese in Cairns, 123.
76 Low Choy, “Lost Opportunities,” 127.
77 Table compiled from partial records kept by the Cooktown Municipal Council to record wharfage fees paid by importers and exporters using Council wharfs. Unfortunately, there were no records of the previous and next destinations of the ships listed, and, in many instances, the contents of the consignment were not identified.
78 The term “package” has been used extensively in the records and could contain small items through to furniture eg the 1896 packages of merchandise weighed 52 tons!
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Darryl Low Choy
Darryl Low Choy is a qualified town planner, a Fellow of the Planning Institute of Australia and a Fellow of the Environmental Institute of Australia & New Zealand. He has been a tertiary educator and researcher for 35 years retiring in 2017 as Head of Planning at Griffith University. He is now Professor Emeritus (Environmental and Landscape Planning) at Griffith University. His parallel military career commenced as an Army school cadet before enlisting as a Private and rising to the rank of Major General in the Reserves. He retired in 2007 after 43 years of service.
As a fifth generation Australian with Chinese and English heritage he has developed a strong interest in genealogy. His family history research has embraced research in China, England, New Zealand and Australia. He is a Board Member and Director of the Society of Australian Genealogists, President of the Chinese Australian Historical Society and Patron of the Queensland Military Historical Society