Nineteenth Century Chinese Temples in Australia: History, Religion and Heritagisation

Nineteenth Century Chinese Temples in Australia: History, Religion and Heritagisation

In the nineteenth century, Chinese gold prospectors built between 100 and 200 joss houses (temples) in Australia, from Darwin in the north to Weldborough, Tasmania, in the south. In 1988, nine were still standing, though some were in poor repair. In the nineteenth century, non-Christian places of worship were unpopular and missionaries sought to convert the `heathen Chinese'. In the twentieth century, the major threat to their survival was declining congregations (as non-White migrants were prohibited from entering Australia under the White Australia Policy). From the 1960s onwards, some surviving temples were restored. Yet they remain vulnerable to racism (Sze Yup Temple in Sydney was set on fire by an arsonist in 2008), neglect (in 2024old electrical wiring caused afire atthe See Yup Temple inMelbourne), and modern development (in the 1960s the Castlemaine, Victoria temple was demolished). This article examines the material history of the Chinese in Australia, noting the White preference for a 'heritage' presentation (as at the goldfields theme park Sovereign Hill near Ballarat, Victoria, where the joss house is a reproduction, or at Launceston Museum, where the dismantled Weldborough temple was erected as an exhibit) rather than actual knowledge of the history, archaeology, and lived religion of historic Chinese settlers in Australia.