ANTI-CHINESE RIOT IN THE GOLD RUSH

by Harry Primikyrlidis

Figure 1
The Buckland riot was the culmination of anti-Chinese sentiment amongst European gold
miners during the gold rush. What triggered the riot were problems such as racial intolerance,
concerns over law and order, competiveness over gold, and the question over whether
Europeans and Chinese could co-exist in the Buckland valley. The Buckland riot could be
seen as equally significant as the Eureka stockade because of the similar magnitude of
violence that occurred.i The story of the riot is certainly a tragedy that needs to be more
widely recognised within Australian society.

1
 The Story of the Buckland Riot

Figure 2 - The Buckland valley near the camp (1862). The Buckland valley is near the
present day town of Bright, in north- eastern Victoria.

The Buckland Riot occurred on July 4th in

1857.
What became the riot started as a
premeditated attack launched by [European]
gold miners. Mob violence raged along
approximately ten miles (20 Km) of the
Buckland River valley for five hours, from
11.00 am until 4.00 pm, without much
abatement. Almost all but a few of the Chinese
population retreated to a relatively safe
distance from their attackers, with some
Chinese escaping even further afield. The
victims were intimidated, frightened, brutally
beaten and robbed. Chinese property,
including a recently dedicated temple of
worship, was destroyed and set ablaze.ii
Many of the Chinese that had been
expelled, had insufficient clothing or
shelter to protect themselves from the
bitterly cold winters of north eastern
Victoria.iii Many were destitute and in a
state of array, and somehow had to find
another place to resettle temporarily. Even
though the surviving Chinese were
eventually able to recover from the
displacement, they had to recover from the
traumatic effects of the riot.

2
 What caused the Buckland Riot

What lead to the violent riot, was the
strong sense of anti-Chinese sentiment
amongst European gold miners. Firstly, the
Europeans viewed the Chinese miners as a
cultural and racial other. Secondly, the
Europeans were concerned over the large
numbers of Chinese working on the
goldfields in Victoria and New South
Wales during the gold rush. The Chinese
population of the Victorian goldfields in
the 1850s was close to 30,000.iv In the
Buckland Valley in July 1857, Chinese
made up three quarters of the population.v
Thirdly, another reason for the anti-
Chinese sentiment was that the Chinese
were viewed as a competitive threat to
European gold miners in the contest for
gold.vi The Chinese men were hard
working, industrious and very successful
at looking for gold, opening many stores in
the Buckland valley and other gold mining
towns around Victoria.

Figure 3 - conflict between European and Chinese gold miners

3
 OTHER CAUSES OF THE RIOT

Diann Talbot argued that other factors Even though the Europeans had genuine
frustrated the European miners, before the concerns over the problems on the
fateful day of the riot. Firstly, one of the Buckland goldfield, the actions of the
key motives appears to be the reluctance of riotous mob were unjustified.
the European mining community to share
the fast declining spoils of the Buckland
goldfield.vii Secondly, Another
contributing factor was their
overwhelming frustration over the apathy
shown by the government in regulating
law and order in the valley.viii The
European gold miners felt that many of the
Chinese were mining illegally without
miners rights and protection tickets, and
there were many quarrels between
Europeans and Chinese over claims.ix
Before the riot, the Victorian colonial
government was ignoring requests by
Buckland Europeans and wardens in
Beechworth to send officers (wardens) to
the Buckland goldfields to mediate the
unrest between the European and Chinese
gold miners.x
Thirdly, It is also possible that the
Bucklanders feared they would be
dispossessed by the Chinese miners
flooding into the narrow valley.xi Talbot
argues that the Ovens and Murray
Advertiser tried to foster anti-Chinese
sentiment because the Europeans had not
constructed one place of worship in the
Buckland river valley, whilst the Chinese
constructed a temple there, in 1857.xii

Figure 4 - Jonathon Thomas Bell was one of the ringleaders of the riot. Bell wanted all
Chinese to be expelled from the Buckland valley.

4
Low Police numbers in Buckland valley on the day of the
riot

The Victorian colonial government clearly
did not implement sufficient preventative
measures, to stop the violence on the day
of the riot. There were inadequate numbers
of police on the day of the riot.xiii Only two
constables Duffy and Gilroy were in the
Buckland valley during the riot.xiv
Eventually, Robert O Hara Burke and a
detachment of officers from Beechworth
arrived in the Buckland valley two days
.
later to restore law and order.xv Eleven
ringleaders of the mob were arrested.xvi
Eventually, four of the ringleaders were
convicted and sentenced to nine months
imprisonment for causing an affray and for
stealing.xvii The other ring leaders were
acquitted from their alleged charges.xviii No
person was charged for murder and
manslaughter.

Figure 5 Police superintendent Robert O Hara Burke.

5
The press negative depictions of the Chinese gold miners

after the Buckland riot.

Figure 6 - The Press continually referred to the Chinese miners and field labourers as
pagans, celestials, long tailed cowards, Mongolians and a people lacking moral
decency.

6
There were a few examples from two newspapers which
published narratives of the riot.
Wed 8 July 1857 Ovens and Murray
Advertiser (Beechworth, Vic: 1855-
1918).

and for his sake will add that we have
been supplied with testimony of the
directest kind to the truth of certain recent
incidents on the Buckland, illustrating the
gross immorality of the Chinese
populationxix Even though the displaced
Chinese were the victims, the author of the
article clearly tries to depict the Chinese
miners and field labourers as an unsavoury
group of people.
they gave the Chinese time to pack
their swags, then burnt their tents, and
drove the terror stricken mob of long-
tailed cowards along the creekxx. The
author refers to the fleeing Chinese as
cowards, because they did not fight back
against the violent mobs. The Chinese
seemed like a placid people that kept to
themselves. The author seems to be
condoning violence as a masculine virtue,
and seems unsympathetic to the plight of
the departing Chinese.
This addition was totally unnecessary, as
we hear of only a single instance in which
one of the celestials endeavored in vain
to encourage his countrymen to show
fightxxi.
Mon 13 July 1857 Mount Alexander
Mail (Vic: 1854 1917) P. 2 Riot At
Buckland.
The Chinese question has entered on a
new phase. Exasperated by the
perpetual interference of the
Celestials the Buckland diggers of
European origin have taken the law into
their own handsxxii Pursuing the
miserable Mongolians down the river,
each of their encampments and its tenants
in its turn was served in the same wayxxiii.
The comment above seems to allude to the
social Darwinist categorisation of race.
The author chooses to refer to the Chinese
as Mongolians (Mongoloid race?).
The press undoubtedly played a role in
raising anti-Chinese sentiment on the
goldfields. After the Buckland riot, the
press still depicted the fleeing Chinese as
villains. European miners may have seen
the Chinese as a scapegoat. Many turned
on the Chinese when life may have been
becoming more economically difficult, in
finding enough gold to sustain a
meaningful livelihood. It has to be
remembered that there were also tens of
thousands of migrants from other parts of
the world. The European gold miners did
not worry as much about the presence of
other migrants, as compared to the Chinese
presence. The Chinese were also judged on
their physical differences and appearances:
their long pig tails, unique clothing and
hats.
Figure 7 Chinese men were
continually judged on their appearance
in the nineteenth century.

7
Contested history and folklore

Following the Buckland riot, it was

officially confirmed that four Chinese men
had died during the riot. However there is
a possibility that many more Chinese had
died. According to folklore there were
stories of dozens, and even hundreds
of Chinese men being killed.xxiv Following
the riot there were still unconfirmed
reports of a large amount of Chinese men
missing, whether they had been murdered,
died from drowning in the river, or were
still hiding from the uncontrollable mob.xxv
Another piece of folklore relates to the
discovery of dozens of skeletons in an out
of the way gully close to the Mt Buffalo
Ranges. Identifiable as Chinese by their
pigtails, it was thought that they had fled
to the secluded valley in an effort to elude
the rioters only to perish from the hunger
and cold.xxvi Today, that place is referred
to as Skeleton gully.xxvii Whether the
stories are true or embellished, it is another
aspect of the riot which we will never find
out fully. We may never find out the real
story on how many Chinese died.

Figure 8 - Mt Buffalo Plateau.

8
 Emotional impact on fleeing Chinese

The emotional impact on the fleeing

Chinese would have been everlasting
because of the trauma of displacement,
assaults, loss of property and attempts to
live through the bitterly cold weather.
Kevin Wong Hoy argues that the
Buckland Chinese were driven into
weather conditions unsuitable for people
without passable shelter, food or the means
to sustain body warmth.xxviii
The Ovens and Murray Advertiser writing
about the fleeing Chinese, stated that
Many of them were without blankets,
and had sought the inefficient protection of
a bark verandah during the night; others
lay huddled together under empty drays
and wagons, and all appeared in the most
abject state of misery and distress.xxix
Proceeding on our way we passed
twenty or thirty hordes of the fugitives,
camping the night under the shelter of half
blankets, mia-mias, and sheets of bark.xxx
Diann Talbot mentions today that the
Buckland valley does have an eerie feel to
it, and that visitors should spare a thought
for what may be the ghost of a cold
Chinese man in the old disused
goldfield.xxxi

Figure 9 The Buckland River in its

peaceful setting today, was the scene of
the tragic riot in 1857.

9
 2007 Memorial of the Buckland riot

Figure 10 - 150th anniversary of the Buckland

riot. In commemoration of the Chinese who
died at the Buckland Valley, a memorial
stele was dedicated to their memory on the
1st of July 2007.xxxii

Two hundred descendants of the Buckland

Chinese, and many members of the Australian
community from Bright, attended the opening of
the memorial. The memorial was a way of
healing our past through the sincerity of apology
and prayer.xxxiii The event organiser, local
historian Diann Talbot, said that the tourist and
farming community is ready to face its
past.xxxivThe memorial was a positive step in
recognising the riot, and for this tragic historical
story to never be forgotten.

Nanette Moore was the granddaughter of the racial intolerance of extreme right wing
Pan Look, a Chinese man who was one of groups toward other racial, cultural and
2000 Chinese men expelled from the religious groups.
Buckland valley in 1857.xxxv Pan Look
also had a store which was destroyed Figure 11 - Nanette Moore visits
during the riot.xxxvi The Buckland valley Chinese tombs at Buckland Cemetary.
cemetery and memorial, is a very
emotional place for Chinese Australians
who were descended from Chinese gold
miners and labourers who worked in north-
eastern Victoria, during the gold rush
around the mid to late nineteenth century.
Victoria has come a long way since the
dark day of the Buckland riot. The riot was
an unnecessary act which demonstrated an
intolerance of the perceived other,
Chinese gold miners during the nineteenth
century gold rush. Another riot of this
magnitude did not occur again. A history
of the Buckland riot can serve as a lesson
to current and future generations, the need
to seek more peaceful solutions when our
society has to deal with problems such as

10
ENDNOTES
i
Buckland Riots, Monument Australia, www.monumentaustralia.org.au.
ii
Kevin Wong Hoy, Murder, Manslaughter and Affray: making a cold case of the Buckland Riot, 4 July 1857,
Deeper Leads: New approaches to Victorian goldfields history, Ballarat Heritage Services, Ballarat, 2007, p.
146.
iii
Ibid, p. 133.
iv
Ian Welch, Our Neighbours but not our Countrymen: Christianity and the Chinese in Nineteenth Century
Victoria (Australia) and California, The Journal of American-East Asian Relations, Vol 13. Special Volume
Christianity as an issue in the History of U.S. China Relations (2004-2006), Brill,
http://www.jstor.org/stable/23613281, p. 154.
v
Kevin Wong Hoy, Deeper Leads: New approaches to Victorian goldfields history, p. 133.
vi
Dan Webb, Mt Buffalo National Park(Edited text of a talk given to the Royal Historical Society), Victorian
Historical Journal, Vol. 69, No. 2, November 1988, p. 102.
vii
Diann Talbot, The Buckland Valley Goldfield, Specialty Press, Albury, 2004, p. 87.
viii
Ibid.
ix
The Age May 20, 1857, from Talbot, The Buckland Valley Goldfield, p. 88.
x
Diann Talbot, The Buckland Valley Goldfield, pp. 87-89.
xi
Ibid, p. 87.
xii
Diann Talbot, The Buckland Valley Riot, Splash ABC, splash.abc.net.au/home#!/media/2428448/the-
buckland-valley-riot.

xiii
Diann Talbot, The Buckland Valley Goldfield, p. 93.
xiv
Ibid.
xv
Diann Talbot, The Buckland Valley Goldfield, p. 102.
xvi
Ibid.
xvii
Ibid.
xviii
Ibid.
xix
The Affray At The Buckland, Ovens and Murray Advertiser (Beechworth, Vic: 1855-1918), Wed 8 July 1857,
from Trove, http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/113015930.

xx
Ibid.
xxi
Ibid.
xxii
Expulsion of the Chinese, Mount Alexander Mail (Vic: 1854 1917, )p. 2, Mon 13 July 1857, from Trove,
trove.nla.gov.au.
xxiii
Ibid.
xxiv
Ibid, p. 105.
xxv
Kevin Wong Hoy, Deeper Leads, p. 136.
xxvi
Diann Talbot, The Buckland Valley Goldfield, p. 105.
xxvii
Dan Webb, Mt Buffalo, p. 108.
xxviii
Ibid, p.144.
xxix
Ovens and Murray Advertiser, July 8, 1857, from Trove.
xxx
Ibid.
xxxi
Diann Talbot, The Buckland Valley Goldfield, p. 106.
xxxii
Kevin Wong Hoy, Deeper Leads, 152.
xxxiii
Ibid.
xxxiv
Carolyn Webb, Chinese heritage proudly recalled, The Age, June 23, 2007, www.theage.com.au.

xxxv
Ibid.
xxxvi
Ibid.

11
Figure List

Figure 1 Andrew Swift, drawing of fleeing Chinese miners during the Buckland riot, Bright Historical society,
2003.
Figure 2 - The Buckland near the camp (1862), Henry Bowyer Lane, pictures collections State Library of
Victoria, image H38465, 1862, digital.slw.vic.gov.au/10381/158018.
Figure 3 Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales, Doctor Doyles Sketchbook, John Thomas Doyle
& Samuel Thomas Gill, location number PXA 1983 circa 1862-1863, Watercolour
sketches, Might versus Right, Lambing Flat Riot 1861, Volume 2, Folio 14, digital.sl.nsw.gov.au.
Figure 4 portrait of Jonathon Thomas Bell, collections Burke museum, out of D Talbot, The Buckland Valley
Goldfield, Specialty Press, Albury, 2004.
Figure 5 watercolour portrait of Robert O Hara Burke, William Strutt, National Library of Australia, ca 1860,
catalogue.nla.gov.au.
Figure 6 The Riots At Buckland, Sat 18 Jul 1857 The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW: 1842 1954), p. 6,
from The Ovens and Murray Advertiser, Wed 8 July 1857,from Trove,
http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/12998322.
Figure 7 Bryson Mrs, Internet Archive Book Images, Wikipedia Commons, the free media repository, Child life
in Chinese homes, (1885), Religious Tract Society, London,
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4e/Child_life_in_Chinese_homes_%281885%29_%28147
55098426%29.jpg. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/file:Child_life_in_Chinese_homes_(1885)-
(14755098426).jpg.
Figure 8 Zoltan Olah, Wikipedia Commons, the free media repository, Mt Buffalo Plateau,
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/file:mt_buffalo_plateau.jpg.
Figure 9 Michael Gorey, Wikimedia Commons, the free media repository, Buckland River Victoria,
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/file.Buckland_River,_Victoria.jpg.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikimedia/commons/2/2d/Buckland_River%2C_Victoria.jpg.
Figure 10 Buckland memorial stele, June 2007, Chinese Australian Family Historians of Victoria Incorporated,
arrow.latrobe.edu.au.
Figure 11 Joe Armao, Fairfax Syndications,Chinese heritage proudly recalled, The Age, June 23, 2007,
www.theage.com.au.

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Gorey, Michael, Wikimedia Commons, the free media repository, Buckland River Victoria,
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13
14