In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, two visions of a white tropical Queensland vied for ascendancy. One was based on the principle of white dominance.

Henry Ah Foo’s Oriental Store, Marshall Street, Goondiwindi, 1906.

Collection of the John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland image 60940

Trade and commerce were key components of the nineteenth century Chinese community of Queensland, and there was a range of business types. At the apex were the large general stores.

 Affoo Family Band, c1894. Collection of Ah Foo Family

Jimmy and Evelina Ah Foo, c1900. Collection of Ah Foo Family

Chinese workers travel by banana punts in the Innisfail district. Collection of John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland

Collection of John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland image 60933

Chinese merchants travel by wagon through the Darling Downs, c1875. Collection of John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland

Collection of John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland image 63654

Chinese milkman on horseback in Cooktown. Illustration by Frank Mahoney from Andrew Garran (ed), The Picturesque atlas of Australasia, Sydney, Picturesque Atlas Publishing, 1886. Collection of the National Gallery of Australia

Chinese marching to the Palmer River goldfield. Such images have become imbedded in Queensland folklore, but do not represent the totality of Chinese movement in the nineteenth century. Originally captioned ‘The Chinese invasion, North Queensland’, in the Illustrated Australians News, 2 July 1877. Collection of the National Library of Australia.

Collection of the National Library of Australia.

Images of Chinese gangs traipsing doggedly through the wilderness, or of the itinerant Chinese pedlar or vegetable seller, have become embedded in the folklore of Queensland.

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