Memorials

There are a number of general memorials to the history of the Chinese in various localities.

While much of mainstream Australia remains largely unaware of its Chinese heritage, there have been efforts—particularly at the local level—to memorialise specific aspects of Chinese Australian history. Some of these efforts are seen in cemetery memorials, which will be discussed in a separate essay. Beyond those, there are notable examples such as the memorial at Lambing Flat, several general commemorations in Bendigo, including in the Bendigo Gardens, and the Robe Memorial, which features two or three monuments dedicated specifically to the landing of Chinese migrants during the gold rush. Various other memorials across the country similarly reflect attempts to acknowledge, at least in part, the role of Chinese Australians in the nation’s history.

However, these commemorations often tend to treat Chinese Australian history as something separate—a distinct episode rather than an integrated part of the broader Australian story. For example, the Robe Memorial highlights the arrival of Chinese migrants who walked from South Australia into the Victorian goldfields, yet it rarely notes that tens of thousands of South Australians themselves also made that same journey across the border in search of gold. The continuing tendency to isolate Chinese history from the general narrative of Australian development is therefore an issue that still needs to be addressed.

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