A Chinese shopkeeper on the Atherton Tablelands

Abstract

Chinese-run stores were a vital part of the regional communities that developed throughout Australia in the nineteenth century. Functioning variously as supply stores, post offices, banks, cook-shops, hotels and hiring depots, they helped to maintain links between regional areas and metropolitan centres, connecting local businesses to overseas markets. Chinese immigrants were a dominant part of this retail trade across the country. By 1901, there were 800 people of Chinese descent working in Queensland shops, while the South Australian census listed 400 Chinese shopkeepers for the same year.