Brisbane, Queensland, Chinatown
The rudimentary archway made of Australian maple, with the branches of trees that have not been cleaned, is obviously just recently completed.
The high-rise Chinese-style cornices on the archway make people feel like home.
The streets here are relatively narrow. There are tall and low wooden buildings on both sides. The Chinese people with black hair, black eyes and yellow skin are constantly flowing. There is a strong smell of fireworks in the streets and lanes, which is the unique flavor of the familiar Chinese food.
The Chinese workers who were squeezed in the carriages were agitated. After more than a month of drifting on the sea, birds faded from their mouths.
When you smell the familiar scallion pancakes, pork blood porridge, and fried dough sticks, they spread out in the streets and saliva crazily. Everyone can't bear to look around.
Queensland's Chinatown is a large-scale Chinese settlement. There are more than 30,000 Chinese gold prospectors living here. All of them are strong young men. The oldest is not more than 50 years old. It is the first group to come to Queensland. Chinese workers.
Among them, less than a hundred of them married local white women and got married. Most of them were the best of the early gold prospectors. They have left dangerous gold mines to develop in Chinatown and have accumulated a lot of wealth.
Other Chinese gold prospectors are mainly young men in their twenties and thirties. They have all flocked to them in the past two years, hoping to realize their dream of becoming rich overnight.
Look at the sky, it's about noon.
Most of the gold prospectors work in gold mines that are not far from Brisbane City. They will not return until the evening. Lunch is a simple bite.
Therefore, there are not many people in Chinatown. There are some dark-skinned Indo-Island women flooding them. They frequently greet the Chinese men who come and go, appearing to be full of spirits.
"The workers belonging to the Pinielli mine have arrived on the ground. Everyone is coming down and move faster. I am the foreman Liu Dadao who manages you. You have opened your eyes to see clearly. Don't admit your mistakes tomorrow morning."
Liu Dadao with a cowhide belt on his waist stood on the carriage and shouted loudly. He was a strong man with a beard, about 30 years old, and directed 42 Chinese workers from the Pinelli Mine to get off several carriages.
"All of you remember;
The head tax of £10 per person entering Queensland is paid by the Penelli Mine. This money needs to be paid by the sand gold that you scoured at the gold mine. Every month, one more pound of interest will be paid until the payment is cleared.
Before this
You are all living in cages, boarding, lodging, and carriages to and from the gold mine are arranged by the Pinielli Mine, and the related expenses are borne by you.
Don't leave in vain. It's 140 miles from the nearest town, and there are no people living along the way, and there are ferocious beasts everywhere.
Don't blame me for not reminding you, those of you who have just arrived can ask someone to inquire about it. Those who left without permission have died in the wilderness, without exception.
One word of advice, working honestly is the right way.
If you are lucky, and you can get a large amount of dog head gold on the road, then you can make a fortune. "
When we arrived in Chinatown, naturally, the Chinese boss who operated the caged house came out with his buddies, and asked the Chinese workers to carry their luggage in and settle down.
The so-called cage house is a small room in a house divided into cages with wooden boards, only the size of a bed.
The influx of Chinese workers in Queensland's Chinatown, houses that can survive the severe cold season immediately became tense, and cage houses came into being.
Standing at the street
Li Fushou leaned against the large baggage and did not leave. He said to the three people who had been following him; "Think carefully about yourself, whether you should follow me or go to the mine to pan for gold. You have to get it by yourself."
"Master Li, I heard that the gold mine is very dangerous. Even if I have luck to dig a large piece of bullhead gold, I am afraid that I will get it back without the blessing to enjoy it." He Shoutian resolutely said; "I can't make a lot of money. I just want to eat a bowl of stable rice with the young master."
Fan Asheng, who has a strong stature, is just 20 years old this year. He is a solid man with a simple temperament. He also decisively said; "Young Master is a person with great abilities. I am willing to follow Young Master."
Only Liu Shuan hesitated and said with a blushing color on his face; "Lee...Master Li, I still want to go to the mine to try my luck.
"It's okay, it's all voluntary to go or stay." Li Fushou took out a shilling silver coin and handed it to Liu Shuan, and said with a smile; "You also help a while in the morning, this is your reward."
"Master Li, this is not necessary, I didn't help." Liu Shuan waved his hand, but his eyes were fixed on the shiny silver coin in Li Fushou's hand, revealing a fiery look.
"Hehe...everything goes into one yard. This is the money you deserve. I like to make things clear. I don't want to owe favors for a little thing. That stuff...too tired."
Li Fushou grabbed his hand and put a shilling silver coin in Liu Shuan's hand, with a faint smile on his face and said; It's easier to settle the bill."
Standing behind He Shoutian and Fan Asheng looked at each other silently, they knew the meaning of Li Shaoye's words;
In the future, the road will be headed towards the sky, and each side will be the same.
In addition to these two people, there is a fellow named Menlanzi who is willing to follow Li Fushou, because Menlanzi had been an apprentice in a restaurant for several years before coming to Australia. The cook.
Hearing Li Fushou raised his mouth to open the restaurant, the door fence immediately changed his mind to follow, and couldn't drive away.
Everyone has his own ambitions, don't force it.
For a gold prospector who is determined to be a cook, what is more tempting than the call of a restaurant owner?
Li Fushou paid the entry poll tax for 4 persons, including himself, and his bulging wallet suddenly lost 44 pounds, which is 11 pounds per person.
In addition to the 10 pound inbound poll tax for each Chinese worker, the extra pound per person is the handling fee charged by the Penelli Gold Mine. Even if the time has only passed for half a day, it will be charged as a month. It is totally unreasonable.
If someone else might be distressed, Li Fushou paid all the fees without frowning, and got 4 tax payment certificates.
In this foreign country, things that can be solved with money are nothing.
When Li Fushou left the wharf, he could clearly feel the greedy eyes of the Australian men onlookers, and even the unruly cowboys rode horseback to the vicinity of Chinatown before leaving in anger.
This is a savage continent full of evildoers, not a garden of Eden with tenderness.
When the strength is weak, holding a large amount of cash in his hand is undoubtedly an extremely dangerous thing. It is easy to be shot, and it is easy to be targeted by idle criminals.
After Li Fushou helped the other three pay the head tax, according to the average income level of Queensland workers, the three followers would have to serve at least two years to pay off the debt.
This means that he has three more stable and reliable manpower to use, which is far more worthwhile than the British pound lying in the pocket.
Seeing Li Fushou's generous spending of £44, the cage house owner Fatty Chun, who was standing not far away, immediately paid attention and asked other Chinese workers in a low voice. He quickly noticed Li Fushou's extraordinaryness.
"Brother Li, can I take a step to speak?" Fatty Chun raised his voice and shouted to Li Fushou and his party of four.
"Uh, you are..."
"Hehehe, I'm Fatty Chun, the owner of this inn. I have been in Australia for more than 10 years. I used to pan out for gold at the Victoria Gold Mine. Now I am setting up a small business in Brisbane's Chinatown to make a living."
"Long admiration for a long time, we have first arrived at the treasure land, please give me more suggestions." Li Fushou bowed his hands in a salute.
"Then sit down for a cup of tea and talk slowly."
"Okay, it's better to be respectful than fate."
The Huagong Inn in Fatty Spring is two three-story wooden buildings. The property was originally purchased for 72 pounds and 6 shillings. Now, with the rise of Queensland's gold rush, the value has more than doubled.
As the owner of the inn, Fatty Chun himself lives in a small wooden house less than 10 square meters on the third floor. Because of the orientation of the room, there is not a trace of sunshine in this still warm September.
All other rooms are rented separately to make money. When busy, even the masters live in the hall. The inn guys move to Fatty Chun's room and live together in order to make more money.
In the narrow wooden house, the fragrance of tea swirls around.
Li Fushou took a sip of the piping hot tea soup and felt the comfort from body to heart. He just had a chat with Fatty Chun, which gave him a lot of knowledge about the current situation in Queensland and Chinatown, and he was worthy of this trip.
Queensland is an autonomous state established in Australia in 1859. It has only been 17 years and has a total area of 1.72 million square kilometers. It is the second largest autonomous state in the entire Australian Dominion and is located in the northeast.
Now the city where the gold prospectors are located is called Brisbane, which is a new city that emerged from the gold rush. It is the capital of Queensland and the largest city in the autonomous state.
The entire city has a population of less than 100,000, of which more than half are gold prospectors, and about 20% of the population are engaged in agriculture and animal husbandry, mostly white farmers and cowboys.
The population composition is dominated by European immigrants and Chinese, about 6:3. The remaining 10% of the population are indigenous and Southeast Asian descent from the South Pacific island countries, as well as a small number of adventurers from the Americas. The composition is very complicated.
Due to their introverted character and poor sociability, Chinese workers have very few sexual relations with the local white ethnic group. Most of them live in Chinatown and form their own small circles. The complete Chinese-style community, Chinese food and life, often cause the mainstream white ethnicity because of estrangement. Hostility.
The reason is very simple. Most of these Chinese gold prospectors are young men, with a down-to-earth temperament and willingness to work, and the harvest in the gold mines is far more than that of the white gold prospectors.
In addition, the Chinese have fewer vices of eating, drinking, prostitution, and gambling, so they can save a lot of money and send them home, which of course will cause others to be jealous.
In the first eight months of 1876, Chinese workers in Queensland sent back £715,000 worth of gold, which is equivalent to more than 20 pounds per Chinese worker. This is a lot of money.
Into 1876
Queensland white gold diggers and Chinese are increasingly conflicted, and vicious fights continue. Many Chinese gold diggers have disappeared inexplicably. More than 170 people have been killed and injured. Most of the victims are Chinese gold diggers.
The local police in Brisbane did not arrest any white murderer. This made the situation in the gold mines large and small in the Palmer River Basin in Queensland suddenly tense, and the irreconcilable conflict between the two parties became more acute.
(End of this chapter)