Pig Oven, Croydon
Date Published
: Pig Ovens, Festivities, archaeology
: Far North (Qld)
: Croydon (QLD)
: c.1920
Remains of a pig oven associated with the Croydon Joss House
Remains of a pig oven associated with the Croydon Joss House
The Croydon pig oven is an exceptionally well preserved one.
“Twenty six metres to the south east of the temple foundations are the remains of a stone or 'pig' oven. The oven, built of local stone, was held together with a mixture of mud and broken termite mounds, to form a wall 600mm thick. It was 2.2 metres in diameter and stood well above the present 1.2 metre height.”
Chinese Temple and Settlement Site, Queensland State Heritage Register.
"Pig ovens must then be seen not as communal ovens to feed large parties of miners or labourers, but as a central element on special occasions, particularly with imported traditions of funeral rites and observances around remembering the dead and tending to their graves."
"It can be demonstrated from the historical record as well as by archaeological discoveries that pig ovens were in widespread use across Australia by Chinese from the mid-nineteenth to the mid-twentieth centuries."
Juanita Kwok, A reassessment of Chinese pig ovens in Australia, Journal of Australasian Mining History, Vol. 21, October 2023, p.98 & p.110.
Pig oven, Croydon
Plan of pig oven, Gordon Grimwade
