New Gold Mountain Xin Jin Shan

Artist Bern Emmerichs

Date2020

Object number00055466

NameCeramic Tile

MediumCeramic

DimensionsOverall (with frame): 330 × 631 × 35 mm, 4710 g
Overall (ceramic): 299 × 1201 × 8 mm

ClassificationsArt

Credit LineAustralian National Maritime Museum Collection

Terms

DescriptionFramed ceramic tile by Bern Emmerichs titled 'New Gold Mountain Xin Jin Shan'. It is one in a series of three works (00055464 and 00055465) that addresses the arrival of Chinese miners to the Australian goldfields in the 1850s. Chinese miners referred to the Australian gold fields as ‘Xin Jin Shan’, or New Gold Mountain, as opposed to California which was known as ‘Jiu Jin Shan’ or Old Gold Mountain. The town depicted here is Creswick, a gold mining town in Victoria that boomed in the 1850s. On the right is a written petition to the Creswick council to repair a road in Black Lead where the Chinese Camp was located. It has 32 signatories of Chinese residents plus that of Hannie Kay, the Chinese interpreter of the town.HistoryIn these related works, Emmmerichs reflects on an important period when social and immigration policy were designed to control Chinese migration to the Australian colonies. Acts were passed to restrict arrivals in Victoria in 1855 and in 1857 in South Australia. In 1855 The Victorian Act was passed to specifically limit Chinese migration to the goldfields via Victorian ports with the application of prohibitive passenger limits, a poll tax of 10 pounds per Chinese passenger and a heavy import duty on opium. To avoid these restrictions and payments, ship owners began to sail to free ports in South Australia with Chinese passengers then faced with the trek overland and life on the goldfields camps. On arrival at the goldfields, Chinese miners often found themselves as targets of hostility and suspicion. At the Victorian town of Creswick, approximately 11 kilometres from Ballarat, the Chinese community settled in an area known as Black Lead. Although the associated buildings appear to have been simple wooden structures, there existed a social and commercial hub with boarding houses, smiths, food stalls, barbers, tailors, doctors, chemists, herbalists, and fresh produce grown and sold. Black Lead residents were also willing and able to take part in the process of the wider local government. The petitions that survive that were sent to Creswick Borough Council regarding the living conditions and infrastructure of Black Lead evidence this. The petition referenced by Emmrichs in 'New Gold Mountain Xin Jin Shan' asks that the council fix an overflowing ditch across the road and to repair the public footpath. The Chinese community had already spent 100 pounds to get this footpath started, and requests that the council also spend the money to repair this overflow and 'offensive' problem. Emmerichs also shows Henry 'Hannie' Kay and his wife Frances 'Fanny' Kay on this tile. Hannie, from Penang, was a miner in Creswick and applied to be the Chinese court interpreter there, as a 'half caste who speaks Malay as well as several Chinese dialects'. In 1864, Hannie married Frances Cooper and together they ran a number of businesses around Creswick. They also became community advocates, petitioning to improve living conditions and the names of one or both of them appear on petitions presented by Chinese residents to the council about water supply, drainage and access conditions. SignificanceThese works by Victorian artist Bern Emmerichs are significant contemporary imaginings of events that are not widely documented in historic imagery, in this case the Victorian and South Australian colonial government's legislation to restrict the arrival of Chinese miners to the goldfields in the 1850s. This legislation saw the brief rise of Robe in South Australia as an alternative entry-point for the trek overland to Victoria - the 'new gold mountain'.

This series allows reflection on this important period, its immediate aftermath, and its place in the history of Chinese immigration and government policy in Australia.