Lambing Flat and the Chinese on the NSW goldfields

Gold drew people to New South Wales from every corner of the world, and among the largest groups were miners from southern China, mostly from Guangdong province. Many arrived through Victorian ports and walked north, or came via Sydney, working the rivers and old diggings with patience and skill. Their presence — and the hostility it provoked — shaped the history of the goldfields and of Australia’s immigration laws.

The Chinese on the goldfields

Chinese miners commonly worked in organised groups, often under a headman, and many were bound by credit arrangements to merchants who paid their passage. They were known for reworking ground that others had abandoned, for market gardening that fed the diggings, and for building temples, stores and joss houses in camps across the colony. Many intended to return home with their earnings; others stayed, married and settled in country towns, where their descendants still live.

European miners often resented them. The objections were partly economic — competition for water and ground — and partly rooted in the racial attitudes of the time. Language and cultural differences fuelled suspicion, and agitators on several fields campaigned to drive the Chinese away.

The Lambing Flat goldfield

Gold was found at Lambing Flat, on the Burrangong run in the south-west slopes, in 1860. The rush grew quickly and the field attracted thousands of diggers, including a large Chinese population. Tension rose over access to ground and water. From late 1860 European miners organised “roll-ups” — mass meetings and marches — to expel the Chinese from parts of the field.

The June 1861 attack

The worst violence came on 30 June 1861. A large crowd of European miners, accompanied by a band and carrying a painted canvas banner reading “Roll Up — No Chinese”, marched on Chinese camps at Back Creek and elsewhere. Tents were burned, possessions stolen and many Chinese miners beaten; some had their pigtails cut off. Hundreds fled. Pastoralist James Roberts of Currawong station gave shelter to a large number of the refugees on his property, an act still remembered locally.

The Riot Act and the police camp

Police arrested several men involved. On 14 July 1861, a crowd gathered at the police camp to demand their release. The Riot Act was read, and in the confrontation that followed police fired on the crowd. A miner, William Lupton, was killed and others were wounded. The police temporarily withdrew from the field, and the government sent soldiers, sailors and artillery from Sydney to restore order. Few of the attackers were ever convicted.

The 1861 restriction law

The riots added pressure for legislation. Later in 1861 the NSW Parliament passed the Chinese Immigration Restriction Act, which imposed a poll tax on Chinese arrivals and limited the number who could travel on each ship. It was repealed in 1867, but similar measures returned in later decades, and the attitudes on show at Lambing Flat fed into the restrictive immigration policies adopted after Federation in 1901.

A town renamed

In 1861 the settlement was renamed Young, after the then Governor of NSW, Sir John Young. Today Young is best known for its cherries, but it confronts the Lambing Flat story directly.

Remembering today

• Lambing Flat Folk Museum holds the original roll-up banner, one of the most significant and confronting objects of the gold era.
• The Chinese Tribute Garden at Chinaman’s Dam is a peaceful garden acknowledging the Chinese contribution to the district.
• Elsewhere on the trails, look out for Chinese sections of cemeteries, the remains of market gardens and, in Victoria and northern NSW, surviving temples.

Young sits on our Ben Hall Gang Gold Trail, so the Lambing Flat sites fit easily into a drive between Yass and Forbes. See the heritage chronology for how the riots fit into the wider story of the NSW rushes.