Made in Australia : Chinese Junks and Sampans in Northern Queensland1880-1910
Compliments to Stephen Gapps for this Article.
https://www.academia.edu/37863748/M..._and_Sampans_in_Northern_Queensland_1880_1910
From the 1870s to 1910s Australia’s northern coastal areas during this period a fleet of junks and hundreds of sampans were built by Chinese workers. At Townsville, Innisfail, Cairns and Cooktown in Queenslandand at Port Darwin in the Northern Territory, Chinese vessels were constructed for use in rivers and coastal waters, generally for transporting produce or in connection with mining.
The article also highlights the critical nature of sampans and junks in northern Australia during this period, through reports of their use by colonial authorities in such various roles as flood rescue, mail delivery, and as police boats. Chinese junks and sampans do not feature in the cannon of post 1788 Australian ship and small boat building. This paper argues that they should take a prominent place as the only significant non-European or Indigenous Australian watercraft in the national maritime story.
The Chinese presence in northern Queensland stemmed to a large extent from the Palmer River goldrush of the early 1870s. The closest viable port was the mouth of the Endeavour River which was hastily surveyed and harbour facilites constructed.. Given the associations with the ‘great navigator’ -the booming township was named Cooktown. Ironically, the first ship of any kind to be constructed in Cooktown was a Chinese junk.
New Year’s day,1901a Water Picnic on the river.’ What was an unusual local touch to the Geraldton celebrations was that ‘400 Chinese punts’ were to take part in the procession.
Not every trip was a success however. An 1878 voyage reportedly ‘netted seventeen bags of fish’, but the ‘Cooktown junk’ as it was often called, had broken an anchor and lost a boat of 10 . Another report from 1879 mentioned how the vessel limped back to Cooktown with the loss of a mast and the rudder. Yet another time, both masts had to be cut away for the junk to survive a violent storm. A different problem was also noted - how Ah Gim had difficulties keeping his crew awake at night when on watch, and one news report suggested this was due to their ‘universal panacea’, opium
During the 1880s, the adventures of Ah Gim and the Wong Hing included taking a mining exploration party to New Guinea, and rescuing several stranded crews. 22 in one case, Captain Brunel of the whaler Swan was left marooned on Lizard Island by his mutinous crew.
Brunel mentioned how he was rescued by the Wong Hing and that ‘Captain Ah Gun’ treated him ‘with the greatest kindness’
Boats were critical to the colonisation, settlement and trade in the north. As goldseeker turned merchant Taam Sze Pui noted when he arrived at Geraldton in 1882.
https://www.academia.edu/37863748/M..._and_Sampans_in_Northern_Queensland_1880_1910
