A fresh pair of eyes | When Bathurst had its own Chinatown

But what many people do not know is that the Chinese started arriving in Bathurst before the Gold Rush.

From the early 1840s, dozens of Chinese shepherds and field hands started arriving in the Bathurst region, but it was after the discovery of gold near Bathurst in 1851 that arrivals from China really took off.

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Among the many people who arrived from overseas to make their fortune were thousands of men from China.

Chinese gold-seekers went to Victoria first and then began coming to the New South Wales goldfields in 1856. Chinese immigration to NSW reached its peak in 1858 and more than 12,000 Chinese were counted in the 1861 NSW census.

In 1861, out of a male population of 15,000 in Bathurst and surrounding areas, almost 8000 were Chinese men. In towns like Sofala and Hill End, there were more Chinese than European men on the goldfields!

Competition for gold caused friction and enmity towards the Chinese. Over several months at Lambing Flat (present day Young), anti-Chinese demonstrations turned violent. Miners attacked the Chinese settlements, killing several people and wounding many others.

Other clashes followed throughout the Central West. In 1861, the NSW Government responded by enacting legislation to restrict Chinese immigration and severely curtail the rights of those already here.

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By the 1870s, alluvial gold had run out. Most of the Chinese prospectors began to move on to newly discovered goldfields elsewhere in Australia or return to China. Hundreds, however, decided to stay and settle in Bathurst. Thus began the next phase of Chinese involvement with Bathurst, or "Baa-daa-see" as the Chinese called it in Cantonese.

There were sufficient Chinese residents and businesses in Bathurst in the 1870s for an area known as Chinatown to emerge - roughly stretching from Durham Street down to the Macquarie River and from George to Stewart streets. Along the Macquarie River and its tributaries, the Chinese cultivated superbly productive market gardens.

These market gardens flourished and by the late 1880s, Chinese growers were regularly winning prizes at the Bathurst Show. With increasing prosperity for some Chinese in Bathurst, their future looked secure.

A Chinese society was established, and a Chinese Masonic Lodge was erected on the corner of Durham and Rankin streets. The Chinese gave generously to the Bathurst hospital and individuals enlisted in the Boer War contingent.

Unfortunately, anti-Chinese sentiment across Australia and continuing restrictive immigration did not allow for new, younger arrivals from China - especially females.

Around Bathurst, the almost exclusively male Chinese population became older and started to decline. A few did marry local women and some of their descendants still live in Bathurst today. By the census of 1901, only 218 elderly Chinese men were left in the Bathurst region.

It is time to celebrate the Chinese contribution to the community and economy of the Bathurst region. Bathurst Regional Council could consider erecting interpretive signage around the old Chinatown precinct to acknowledge its historical existence. Perhaps a few street signs in the old Chinatown area could become bilingual as well.

Local resident Dr Juanita Kwok wrote her PhD thesis on the history of the Chinese in Bathurst. Copies of her PhD thesis, The Chinese in Bathurst - Recovering Forgotten Histories, are available to read at Bathurst Library or by searching Charles Sturt University Research Output online. I am indebted to her for her assistance in producing this article.