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The Chinese Environmental Experiences in the Australian Gold Rushes

Fei Sheng, History Department, Peking University

The migration of Chinese to Australia was part of a global migration stimulated by gold discoveries around 1850 around the Pacific Rim.  However the environmental interaction of Chinese with the new frontier and the European migrants was still limited.  The research analyses the deep ecological factors which spurred the migration inside China at a time when the discovery of gold as a natural resource in Australia created an ideal migration destination.  The research reveals how the Chinese immigrants applied their native environmental experience in a white settler colony.  Through unique mining methods and market gardening, the Chinese transformed the indigenous landscape and shaped their ‘New Gold Mountain’ in Australia. 

Although the Chinese environmental experience benefited both themselves and other migrants, there were also negative results.  Environmental cooperation was eclipsed by environmental conflicts between Chinese and white miners.  Both cultural and natural factors confined the spread of the Chinese environmental experiences in Australia gold rushes.  More significantly their environmental experience in an Australian context was also a result of the existing racist policies.  With a broader perspective the paper demonstrates how different migrants interacted with the Indigenous environment respectively and with each other.

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