This document summarizes Kate Bagnall's presentation on Anglo-Chinese Australians and their experiences with the White Australia Policy between 1900-1930. It discusses several Anglo-Chinese families who traveled between Australia and China, and includes examples of government records that documented their mixed heritage and exempted some from restrictive immigration tests. The challenges they faced in having their dual identity legally recognized is highlighted through birth certificates and other official documents.

1. Paper trails
Anglo-Chinese Australians and the
White Australia Policy
Kate Bagnall
The 5th WCILCOS International Conference of Institutes and Libraries for Chinese Overseas Studies
Chinese through the Americas
16–19 May 2012, Vancouver, B.C., Canada
Panel S26: Pacific connections—Chinese in Australia and New Zealand

2. ‘That famous
fighting family’
Five of the eight sons of
William and Jane Flood Sam of
West Wyalong, NSW, went to
fight in World War I
Wyalong Advocate, 24 June 1919
Undated newspaper clipping, c. 1915

3. Percy and William
Flood Sam
Fourteen-year-old Percy and
his seventy-year-old father,
William, before their
departure for China, 1915
NAA: SP42/1, C1915/4032
NAA: SP42/1, C1915/4058

4. Part of the
West Wyalong
community
William Flood Sam was
described as ‘a good
hardworking sober man’
and ‘a man of first-class
character’.
Jane Sam was a said to be a
‘highly esteemed resident’
of the district.
NAA: SP42/1, C1915/4058
West Wyalong Advocate,
19 October 1944
Australian Town and Country
Journal, 1 January 1898

5. Application letters by Jane and William Flood
Sam for son Percy to travel to China, 1915
NAA: SP42/1, C1915/4032

6. Percy Flood Sam
Percy’s handprint and
photograph were taken and kept
on file so he could be identified
on returning to Australia, 1915
NAA: SP42/1, C1915/4032

7. Immigration
Restriction Act
1901
‘An Act to place certain
restrictions on Immigration
and to provide for the removal
from the Commonwealth of
prohibited Immigrants.’
NAA: A1559, 1901/17
foundingdocs.gov.au/item-did-16.html

8. Invisible Australians: ‘The real face of White Australia’
invisibleaustralians.org/faces/

9. Anglo-Chinese families and individuals
Compiled mostly from records in
travelling from Sydney, 1900 to 1930s NAA: SP42/1, SP726/2, A1
Ablong Flood Sam Joy Lett Tin Hop
Ah Bow Fong Kum Moon Julum Hoong Ling / Sams Tong
Ah Chee / Archie Fong Look / Young Yan Kee Loung / Long Way
Ah Gin / Jong Gutt / Gett Fong Tong Kee Chong Lum Liu Williamson / Too Tong
/ Mon Howe
Ah Hee / Yee / Choy Go Hing Kee Chong / Sun You Mon Hoy Win
Hing
Ah See Goudy Ky Ling Kiy Chung Moy Hing Win James
Allen / Gum Hip Chong Kong Sing Muller / Ah Tack Wong Young / Yau Kong
Brown Hongue Kum For Poy Yee Lee / Soderblom
Ching Hoy Hooklin La Gog Quon Yee Wing
Chong Dye Hoon Lee (Henry) Reece Yee Ying
Chun Quan Hop War Lee (Thomas and Tom) Shung / Chung /Chang Yen Hop / Daley
Chung Hoy Lee / Kwok Soong Yet / Reid
Chy Wong Jipp / Moy Hing Lee / Quing Lee Speance / Ah Lum / Yin
Moon Tong Young
Cleary Johnson Lee Hin Mun Sung Yee Yin Poon
Finn / Tracey Jong Wah / Lee Lee Kee Chong Tart Lum Bew / Yum Sume
Lumbewe

10. Eastern & Australian Steamship Company’s Tourist Guide to China, Japan…, 1899

11. ‘One of our most
vigilant officers’
Customs Inspector
J. T. T. Donohoe worked out
of Customs House at
Sydney’s Circular Quay.
He was said to know ‘more
about the Chinese than any
other European in Sydney’.
Sydney Morning Herald,
20 September 1898
Customs House, Sydney, c. 1900
www.powerhousemuseum.com/col
lection/database/?irn=31441

12. nla.gov.au/nla.news-article72209407
nla.gov.au/nla.news-article10657524
nla.gov.au/nla.news-article79398785
nla.gov.au/nla.news-article74307041

13. Ethel Edith
Go Hing
Two of the four pages
of Ethel Go Hing’s file,
1915
NAA: SP42/1, C1915/6424

14. Birth certificate register NAA: SP726/2

15. Albert Edward Lee
Certificate Exempting from
Dictation Test, 1909
Baptismal certificate, 1901
Birth certificate, issued 1909
NAA: ST84/1, 1909/21/21-30
NAA: SP42/1, C1909/1908

16. Horace La Gog’s birth certificate, 1888, made no
reference to his (Chinese) father because his parents
Horace La Gog were not married.
(born Horace Clary) NAA: SP42/1, B1906/3520

17. Alfred Ablong
‘I have heard rumours of
parents selling the birth
certificates of their children
born in Australia of mixed
parentage… I can only think
that this has been done with
my own certificate.’
NAA: SP42/1, 1914/64
nla.gov.au/nla.news-article15451089

18. Walter Way
Photographs of four-year-old
Walter Way attached to the
back of his memorandum of
adoption, 1902
Photographs of the boy who
returned as Walter Way in
1911
NAA: SP42/1, C1912/906

19. Herbert
Melbourne
Hooklin,
aka Mun Kee
‘I have personally examined
Mun Kee, who has the typical
appearance of a full-blooded
Chinese in contradistinction to
his reputed brothers who
show distinct evidence of their
European descent.’
– Dr Reid, Chief Quarantine
Officer-General, 1916
NAA: SP42/1, C1916/4059

20. Ohho
Kong Sing
‘… owing to the special
circumstances of his
case, the ordinary
Certificate was not
issued nor the Fee of
£2 collected.’
NAA: SP42/1, B1905/1616
Australian Town and Country
Journal, 23 March 1889

21. kate.bagnall@gmail.com
chineseaustralia.org
invisibleaustralians.org