Chinese Lepers in Victoria - A case of Charity and Cultural Clashes
This book was originally planned as a short story about Bendigo’s special leper, Ah Woo, who in 1900’s lived near the White Hills Cemetery at the Ironbark Chinese Camp. We thought he was our last leper but there was so much more to this Victorian story that it was not complete without research on all the lepers in other Victorian communities and the different levels of authorities that controlled their environment. Ah Woo was responsible amongst many other duties of assisting with all the Chinese funerals and burials in the district during his seven years of residence. He would have visited our cemetery on many, many occasions. He probably hoped to be buried near the prominent brick funeral tower and under the beautiful weeping branches of the evergreen peppercorn trees which were then only 20 years old. Much has changed since his time and we must try and preserve the past. We owe it to all the pioneers buried in this beautiful peaceful rural cemetery.
White Hills cemetery is not just a burial ground with a bit of natural bush. It is a repository for a great deal of our history, both known and some yet to be discovered. Many people struggled to assist our thousands of paupers whose stories have not yet been written or celebrated. We wish to record the trials and tribulations endured by lepers in Victoria, their unrecorded burials, and their unmarked graves. Certainly none have a tombstone but in the White Hills cemetery and the Old Ballarat cemetery over 50 years ago their spirits together with all the other Chinese were remembered with a common memorial stone.
This book has been produced with a grant of $650 from the Victorian Community Foundation – Holsworth Local Heritage Trust. This has enabled us to donate a book to every Historical Society and Library in towns or cities where we have been able to prove that a Victorian leper lived or died. We have only produced 100 copies as we hope that other researchers will stumble over more information on Chinese lepers presently unknown to us in Victoria. With this assistance we shall then be able to update and present more details in the future.
Copies can be purchased at $25 plus $2.50 postage from Helen Bruinier, President, Friends of the Bendigo Cemeteries Inc. 1A Plante Crt, Bendigo, Victoria 3550
Chinese lepers in Victoria - 94 A4 pages CONTENTS
Introduction
Government Regulation for the Chinese on the Goldfields 1856
Lepers in Ararat, Beechworth, Mount Alexander and Sandhurst goldfields 1857 – 1869
Winds of Change in Ballarat Districts 1857 – 1869
Map of Ballarat East 1861 & View of Golden Point Chinese camp 1865
Melbourne’s solutions to Community pressure 1860 – 1870
What happened outside Ballarat between 1870 – 1884
1881 Health Notice sent to Bendigo City Council
Charity and Cultural Clashes in Ballarat 1870 – 1884
Jayne’s Alternative Medicine Advertisement
Hoyle’s Pacific Vegetable Wonder Advertisement
Ballarat Leper Group Photograph 1876
PT NEPEAN QUARANTINE Station
THE FINAL SOLUTION 1885 – 1900
Letters from Sergeant Fahey to Bendigo Council Jan/Feb 1889
DESTINY and DEATH – CHINA or CREMATION 1890 – 1899
Photograph of Leper Cremation
THE LAST VICTORIAN LEPERS 1900 – 1930
Photographs of old Ironbark Camp
Conclusion
INDICES:
Victorian towns with lepers
Lepers sent to Point Nepean
Leper Deaths at Pt Nepean from Death registers
Victorian Doctors attending lepers 1855 – 1905
Chinese interpreters & missionaries assisting lepers
Sources page 94
Tags: Ballarat, Bendigo, Campbells Creek, Castlemaine, Leper, Quarantine station, Queenscliff, Victoria, Victoria Police, Victorian History
