Imagine, it is the mid 1800's and you live in China. You've heard that there is a gold rush going on Australia and you've decided to try your luck. You're getting ready to leave China and collecting up things to bring with you. Your whole village is involved and they've sent people to the gold fields before. They've told you to take some items with you to trade, and amongst them is a ginger jar.
When I took these ginger jars to show the children, they were really excited to be able to hold something which had been bought out to the gold fields, and which a real miner had held and used. Every child in Australia learns about gold, and often they visit one of the goldfields on a school trip. Despite this, and the amount of items which are around from the era, very few of the children had actually ever held something from 'the goldrush'. They'd only ever seen them in museums and held modern versions. They were also excited to think that these ginger jars were firmly associated with the Chinese miners who they had learned so much about. Ginger jars are most frequently found around the Victorian gold fields.
There were a huge number of Chinese miners on the gold fields both in Victoria and elsewhere in Australia. In the 1850's China was really poor and very violent. As a result, many Chinese decided to try their luck on the gold fields. Some tried America, but the American miners forced them off the gold fields so in 1853, the fist shiploads of Chinese miners arrived in Australia and at the Victorian gold fields. They weren't always welcome, but they bought with them a wealth of items to trade, including silks, silver and ginger jars. By 1854, within the first few years of gold being discovered, there were at least 3000 Chinese miners on the goldfields in Victoria.
Often when the Chinese people came to Australia they couldn't actually afford the fare for the sea journey so they took out loans instead. They were promised endless wealth when they got to Australia so they didn't think that the loan would be a problem. Unfortunately, often the endless wealth was not be found on the gold fields, or at least not from mining though they often made a living by setting up shops. Often only the father came to Australia and it was his wife and children who had to pay back the loan. The loans lasted two years and during that time the wife and children were required to work. If at the end of the two years the loan was not repaid the family could be sold into labour until they repaid the debt! If you would like to learn more about the voyage to Australia for Chinese miners, click here.
When they arrived in Australia, Chinese miners lived aside from the others. They often worked in groups and took over old claims which had 'run out' of gold, reworking them and collecting what had been missed. They preferred not to mine underground because they might offend the mountain gods. To many of the other miners, the fact that Chinese miners could 'make a go' of old alluvial claims was cause for suspicion. Add to this their different customs and ways of working, and prejudice and racism on the goldfields became a problem - there were even anti-Chinese riots in some places! The Chinese are even thought to have built their own temple on the Bendigo gold fields, which is still standing today. If you would like to learn more about the temple, click here. In 1885, to try to limit the number of Chinese miners a law was passed requiring Chinese people coming to Victoria to pay 10 pounds tax plus 1 pound protection money. Added to the debts from the voyage, this made things difficult. Despite this, the Chinese were not deterred. They landed in South Australia instead of Victoria and walked to the Victorian gold fields! If you'd like to learn more about the Chinese on the gold fields, click here or here.