In two different towns in Victoria, a hidden Chinese culture lurks behind the forgotten gold-rush fields and the picturesque mountains and valleys that surround them. The Great Alpine Road and Mount Hotham separate the two towns, which are very different from each other. The first town found on the northwest side of the Great Alpine road is Beechworth. The other town is at the foot of Mount Hotham on the southeast.
Beechworth is large compare to Omeo. It is shaped for the most part along a cross-like section of four main streets with a beautiful rotunda in the middle. The main street contains many shops, including the Beechworth Bakery, the Candy shop, a newsstand, and various pubs . One of the side main streets has a Beechworth Honey store, a micro-brewery, a small winery, an organic produce shop, various coffee shops and a couple of clothing stores. The east side street has the information center and the historical precinct – which contains a replica of the Beechworth courthouse, the holding cells, and the telegraph office. On the backside of the information center is the Burke Museum, which has a small Chinese Heritage Collection, and a replica of early 20th century Beechworth. The top portion of the town has a few pubs.
Meanwhile Omeo is a small and empty town, with only a few shops running down the main road that runs through the heart of the town. The shops are only open for about a few hours each day, and almost no one can be seen walking around the town. The houses are spread far apart away from the town, and the buildings that line the main street of the town are old. The only significant builds being the main hotel and restaurant, and the courthouse.
However, both towns were once home to hundreds of Chinese immigrants, mostly men who came to these regions in search of gold. The stories of the Chinese in this region dates back to the 1850s and 1870s.
In Beechworth, the Chinese population increased after 4 July, 1857, after the Chinese miners in the Buckland Valley of Victoria were driven out by European miners. According to Beryl Witkowski, the historian at the Burke´s Beechworth Museum, Beechworth was a friendly place for these displaced Chinese. In that same year, Beechworth built its first Chinese Protector´s Office to protect and create peaceful relationships with the Chinese community, which settle near what is today known as Lake Sambell. The Chinese built their own town during their time in the area, and had their own shops and buildings.
Witkowski described the relationship between Beechworth and the Chinese as well accepted. She said that the small amount of written record of that time show that the Chinese participated in carnivals and donated money to build the local hospital. Many of the Chinese died during the mining years, and those that survived either returned to China or became local garden farmers.
Today you can visit several sites throughout Beechworth that conserve pieces of the Chinese culture in the area. Some of these sites include:
1) The Burke Museum: Located in the middle of Loch Street, this museum was built in 1863 and today holds both cultural and natural heritage of the history and people of Beechworth. On the back-left corner of the museum, you can find a small collection of Chinese artifacts including two banners that are currently being restored, weapons, and houseware. The display also includes a small historical component of how the Chinese came to Beechworth, and when they left the area in the late 1870s.
2) The Beechworth Cemetery and Chinese Burning Towers: Located on the outskirts of town off the Beechworth-Wodonga Road, the cemetery holds a chinese section with several Chinese towers that were built in 1857. The towers were used by the Chinese to honor their dead ones, and indicates that many of the Chinese who settle in the area where from southern China or Canton. A shrine was later built in 1883 in front of the towers. You can visit these towers today, and see the graves of the Chinese who died in Beechworth. One of the most notable graves is that of Henry Ah Yett, the last Chinese person to be buried in the Chinese cemetery. Yett died in 1932 after living in Beechworth for over 70 years , and having worked as a gold miner and then market gardener.
In Omeo, the Chinese history is almost unheard of, but as a large gold rush town in the 1850s there is some trace of Chinese in the area. According to Debbie Swift, a librarian and information center specialist in Omeo, there is a few records of the Chinese presence, and a few Chinese descendants still live in the area. In Omeo, there are fewer places to see the Chinese heritage of the area as most were destroyed or dismantle after the end of the gold rush.
The Chinese in Omeo settle in the region between 1861 and 1868. Historic records of Omeo´s Dsitrict Goldfields, indicate that the Chinese immigrants began arriving by June 1864 in larger numbers, but many were unable to work in the winter months due to the cold weather. According to Swift, these meant that the Chinese who settle in the area had come from southern China. By 1866, large groups of Chinese migrants had settled in the region near Livingstone Creek, which run on the left side of the town. By 1870, the Chinese Population had increased and a new Chinese town was built on Livingstone Creek.
Nevertheless, Omeo had more sites that Beechworth were you can find traces of the Chinese presence in the area.
1) The Oriental Claims Historic Area invokes the idea of Chinese miners in the area, but outside of this vision, this area simply refers to a 19th Century mining company that was established in the area by Europeans and was used from 1876 to 1904. However, the area and its name also acknowledge the presence of the Chinese community that once inhabited the area. In this area, you can take a walking detour of about 45 minutes along what today is known as Ah Fong´s Loop, and which passes through the sites worked by the Chinese.
2) Omeo Pioneer Cemetery: Located in the corner between the Great Alpine road and Bilton Street, the Omeo Pioneer Cemetery has a special section dedicated to all the Chinese miners that died in the area.
Found in the historical records at Petersen´s Gallery in Omeo, Victoria. Photo by Paula Garcia.
3) Petersen´s Gallery: A old wooden mansion on the top of the hill, Petersen´s Gallery hold as small room filled with Chinese replica paintings, and a small handwritten history of the Chinese Heritage in Omeo.
In both towns, the Chinese Heritage is almost forgotten, but can still be found peeking underneath the quiet country air.
Boston University Sydney Travel Writing 2014 