Weston Bate Memorial Lecture
Tales from the Courts: The Chinese-Australian Community in Ballarat, 1860-1890
When gold was discovered in Victoria, people from around the world rushed to the Ballarat goldfields, including thousands of Chinese migrants.
Historian and Senior Lecturer Dr Sophie Loy-Wilson uncovers the hidden history of Ballarat’s Chinese community through goldfields court cases.
Using detailed maps, witness lists, and deposition testimonies, Dr Sophie Loy-Wilson will reveal how these cases help us reconstruct old Ballarat, highlighting the intricate cross-cultural ties that shaped its multi-ethnic communities from the 1860s to the turn of the century.
About the speaker
Dr Sophie Loy-Wilson is Senior Lecturer in Australian History at the University of Sydney where she specialises in the history of the Chinese Australian community.
Her published books include Australians in Shanghai: Race, Rights and Nation in Treaty Port China and Labour History and the "Coolie Question". She is currently completing a book based on her research into Chinese-Australians in the Australian legal record.
Image: Court Room Scene, Charles Lyall c.1854, State Library Victoria Collection
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