During my recent doctoral research on the Mount Alexander Chinese I was struck by the lack of individual life stories in Chinese-Australian history. Notwithstanding Mei Quong Tart,¹ the renowned Sydney businessman and his Melbourne counterparts Lowe Kong Meng and Louey Amoy, there is a notable absence of Chinese figures in historiographical narratives of the mid-nineteenth century in Victoria - and indeed Australia. This is especially the case on the Victorian goldfields, despite census records revealing that in 1859 ten percent of the colonial population came from Southern China.² Furthermore, mining wardens' reports indicate that in some mining districts, including the Mount Alexander diggings in and around present-day Castlemaine, one in four adult males was Chinese. Understandably it came as a pleasant surprise to learn at the Castlemaine Historical Society that an extensive trial record of a key Castlemaine pioneer, James Acoy, was still in existence.³

This article evaluates the cultural relations of Castlemaine society in the 1850s and 1860s using an analysis of James Acoy's conflict with the Chinese community over the introduction of the Chinese residence tax in 1859 and his later trial for corruption that dominated diggings society in 1869. It argues that Acoy was not necessarily a corrupt man, but more a victim of circumstance caught between Chinese and European cultures.

James Acoy stood at the centre of the cultural exchange on the Mount Alexander diggings - an exchange balanced between conflict and cooperation. He was a key personality in nineteenth-century Castlemaine goldfields society.⁴ Representing on the one hand the Chinese miners, previously relegated to the periphery of goldfields' experience, and on the other the European administration, he is a liminal figure.⁵

Acoy, also known as Ah Coy, had departed from the Portuguese port of Macau and was 22 years old when he arrived in Sydney in 1852 on a barque named either Eagle or Grey Eagle.⁶ There is some conjecture over this date as both Cronin and Rolls have suggested that Acoy was one of the earliest Chinese arrivals to the Victorian goldfields. If their assertion is correct then he originally came out to work as a contract or coolie labourer at the age of 11 or 12.⁷ Although this explanation is unlikely, given his documented arrival in Australia during the gold-rush era, it would explain his mastery of the English language when the gold rushes began. However, his prison record suggests that he had been a seaman who had travelled on the Grey Eagle from California to Sydney in 1852,⁸ and this may offer a different explanation for his excellent command of English.⁹

If the date of his arrival in Sydney is accepted as 1852 (the date given on both his naturalisation record and his criminal records) then the following year James Acoy caught a steamer to the colony of Victoria where he promptly made his way to the Mount Alexander diggings.¹⁰ He probably had a brief experience of alluvial mining, then became a butcher at Fryers Creek and was soon engaged by the Chinese diggers at Forest Creek to act as an interpreter and perhaps also as a headman (see below).¹¹ Later his role was formalised, at least in the eyes of the colonial administration, when he was employed by the Victorian Government as an official interpreter. He also proved to be a successful businessman, accumulating considerable wealth and property over the course of his life.

The term headman is two-fold in its meaning and requires explanation in order to explain the social status and privilege that Acoy enjoyed in Castlemaine society. In one sense it represented a figure of social and political authority within the Chinese community.¹² In a more official government sense it was a rank, subordinate to that of interpreter in the Victorian colonial administrative apparatus (see image below). This second understanding of the term was applied specifically on the Victorian goldfields. Being a headman or interpreter in the government as well as headman in the Chinese community seems to have been quite common amongst the Chinese on the Mount Alexander diggings. Often the terms were used interchangeably and as a result the nebulous meaning of headman makes situating these men culturally in Castlemaine society difficult. One possible explanation for the confusion is that the European authorities attempted to place an arbitrary administrative model and corresponding lexicon onto a group within the community which adhered to a different set of power relations and cultural practices. The nexus between the cultural role of the headman amongst the Chinese and the administrative role that was carried out by officers of the Crown was often problematic for the Chinese government employees. This was apparent in court proceedings and during the implementation of the entry poll tax and the residence tax: Chinese government employees were expected to play a key role in collecting the taxes and administering the system. This source of tension was central to the situation Acoy confronted in Castlemaine.

The problem is particularly evident in Acoy's contribution to the Reverend William Young's Report on the condition of the Chinese population in Victoria (1868), in which he commented on Chinese society in the Castlemaine district. Acoy directed his concern at the detrimental effects of opium, not at the Chinese community. His solution to the problem of importing the drug into the district was that 'when ships arrive with the drug' the authorities should intervene so as 'not to permit it to be landed'. This put the onus of responsibility firmly on the government. Likewise in his call for the establishment of schools for the teaching of the English language - claiming 'it is probable that some of the Chinese would attend' - his expectation of government assistance is apparent.¹³ Such comments do not mark Acoy as a collaborator with the European administration; rather he served as a conduit between Chinese and Europeans on the goldfields.

Although Acoy is just one individual, the events of his life contradict the sojourning mentalité so arbitrarily applied to Chinese immigrants. Between 1853 and 1856 he lived as part of the semi-permanent mining community on the rich alluvial Fryers Creek diggings. As early as 1855 he married Caroline Fischer, a 17-year-old spinster of German descent.¹⁴ Four years later he took out citizenship, publicly expressing his wish to settle in the district.¹⁵ This was only seven years after his arrival in Sydney, and at his naturalisation ceremony he expressed his commitment to his adopted country, commenting that he wished 'to settle in Victoria for life' and was 'wishful of becoming a landowner'.¹⁶ James and his wife then moved into Castlemaine, initially to a makeshift tent dwelling. In 1862 they built a house on an allotment (later 5 Bowden Street), with a distinctive regency verandah, that became widely known around the district as the family home.¹⁷ The Bowden Street house on Camp Hill was where James and Caroline reared ten children.¹⁸ This heritage-classified house above the town still stands and former neighbours can remember the youngest two daughters, both of whom lived to be over 100 years old.¹⁹