Chinese in the Territory

The contribution of the Chinese to the Northern Territory has been varied and significant.

The first Chinese arrived in the Northern Territory in 1874 through recruitment by the government to work on the goldfields and later the building of the railway line from Palmerston (Darwin) to Pine Creek. Subsequently they worked their own small claims, often picking over claims abandoned by European miners as unprofitable. They established market gardens and engaged in industry and commerce. As market gardeners they were generally the only source of fresh vegetables and fruit, both on the gold fields and in the towns.

In his pamphlet The Northern Territory and its gold-fields (1875) George Newman advocates the 'absolute necessity of introducing skilled Chinese coolies' because of the high cost of wages for European miners and laborers, who also suffered in the heat of the tropics. He further suggested that these Chinese should be drawn from Victoria where many had been working for years. The Northern Territory Administrator Bloomfield Douglas insisted that the coolies be brought in from Singapore. After this first shipload, most of the Chinese that came to the Territory came from Kwantung province or Hong Kong. Not all were laborers: skilled workers and merchants came too. Many European businessmen resented the intrusion of Chinese merchants, fearing competition; there was also fear of the vices and disease that might be introduced. The 1897 cyclone which levelled Darwin, destroyed houses and businesses regardless of race: in the rebuilding process there emerged a unity of purpose.

The Chinese formed the major part of the population in the late 1880s (in 1888 for example the Chinese population was 7,000 and the European population was between 1,000 to 2,000). The White Australia policy and the depression of the 1890s, however, meant that by 1910 the population figures had changed dramatically and were more evenly balanced between the Chinese and the Europeans. The government repatriated those old Chinese who wished to return to China, but many of the Chinese in the town were born in Australia and were assimilating well. Old prejudices were beginning to disappear with a new generation of Europeans in the Territory. Full acceptance was shown with the election in 1966 of Harry Chan as mayor of Darwin and as president of the Northern Territory Legislative Council.

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