The close proximity of mining claims meant that undermining and earth collapse were frequent occurrences. Many of the claims the Chinese worked in were old, abandoned by European miners and made dangerous because of worn or insufficient timbering, undermining or rain. Sludge, the waste created in separating the gold from heavy clay through cradling or puddling with water, was such a problem on the Bendigo goldfield that by 1857 it was making mining increasingly difficult for all miners.³⁴ Every available unused hole or drain was filled with slime, and sometimes, when an earth fall took place, a flow of sludge followed. Drowning and falling into shafts accounted for other deaths. The alluvial ground was well dug over and formed a rabbit warren of open shafts, some of them very deep.

Living Conditions
It is apparent from evidence given by witnesses [or from surviving records] that Chinese miners worked hard, from sunrise to sunset, on their claims,³⁵ but after the working day was over, they retired to a community of fellow Chinese. From April 1855, when a Chinese Protectorate was established in Bendigo, until 1861, when the system began to break down, most Chinese lived together in several separate settlements.³⁶ One description of Chinese villages on Back Creek and at White Hills, shortly after the introduction of the Protectorate, reveals a well-ordered and self-sufficient community. The villages were:

...built in large squares, consisting generally of forty to fifty tents with wide streets between each square. The village at Back Creek consists of two of these squares and at the White Hill of three or four. A thousand men must be located at the latter place ... They have their own stores -- butchers, bakers, carpenters, coopers and blacksmiths' shops. Cradle making seems to be carried on to a large extent ... Fruit and confectionery of a somewhat equivocal appearance are everywhere exposed for sale. Their dwellings have a cleanly and comfortable air about them, though they are hardly fitting residences for more civilised beings...³⁷

The Chinese residents generally lived with one or more relatives or mates in a calico tent, with the sleeping quarters separated from the kitchen. Tents were situated very close together, and relatives or friends frequently occupied neighbouring tents. A rare accidental death illustrates several aspects of Chinese living conditions. On 10 March 1857, A'Jim, who resided at Spring Gully, was visiting his friend Lee Hing Quy at Ironbark Village. Lee Hing Quy gave his bed to A'Jim and made up a bed for himself in the kitchen in front of the tent. He forgot to tell A'Jim that he had a loaded pistol underneath the pillow. A'Jim took out the pistol and was fiddling with it when it accidentally discharged. Hearing a cry from the tent next door, A'Jim went in to investigate. The tent housed four men, two of whom were sleeping in the same bed 'heads and points'. The bullet had wounded one man in the foot, and also penetrated Chang Yik Low's skull, killing him instantly.³⁸ One witness told the jury that all the men had known each other from boyhood.

This inquest reveals a picture of a supportive community. It shows the generosity of Chinese towards their own countrymen. A'Jim  had given up his bed for his visitor. The Chinese, although they lived in villages, did not live under harsh restrictions, but were free to pay social calls and stay with their friends. The crowded living conditions are illustrated by the close proximity of tents and the men sleeping in the same bed. Lastly, the predilection for loaded pistols for self-protection and protection of their precious gold, applied equally to Chinese as to European.³⁹

Health
Half of all Chinese inquests conducted on the Bendigo goldfields from 1854 to 1865 were on people deemed to have died from natural causes: illness or disease. Heart disease was the primary cause of death, followed by lung and intestinal diseases. Heart disease was usually of long standing, and frequently complications such as lung congestion, which remained untreated, shortened the life of the victim.⁴⁰ Heart disease often afflicted even those who were very young. A'Cock, a native of Amoy, was only twenty-five when he died suddenly in June 1857 from an attack of pulmonary apoplexy brought on by heart disease.⁴¹ Some historians have suggested that elders of Chinese villages chose their young fit male family members to send to the goldfields, yet the inquest evidence shows that older and unfit men formed part of the cohort.⁴² Of the sixty-two known ages, the average age of deaths from natural causes investigated by inquest was thirty-seven. The prevalence of disease of long standing, (in eighteen inquests this is specifically mentioned), suggests that some Chinese were unwell over a long period of time, and some, like A'Theam, had been unable to work since their arrival at the goldfields.⁴³ In some cases the debilitating conditions of the sea voyage from China, or the journey overland to the goldfields from Melbourne, Adelaide, Guichen Bay or even Sydney, made necessary by Victoria's restrictive legislation, may have exacerbated an already present disease and resulted in fatigue from which the victim was unable to recover.⁴⁴

Many of the Chinese smoked opium, which was legal and readily available. Opium relieved pain and relaxed mind and body, but taken in excess was an addictive drug that could exacerbate illness.⁴⁵ Opium smoking is sometimes mentioned in the inquest records as a contributing factor to death, but in only one instance is it blamed as the sole cause.⁴⁶ In the case of Ah Choy, who died of ulceration of the bowel in 1863, Dr Atkinson concluded that his habit of smoking opium excessively would have 'favoured any disease that attacked the body'.⁴⁷

The inadequate living conditions of some Chinese also hastened their deaths from illness. When William McEwen, surgeon, was called to Golden Gully to perform the post mortem on He Lun, he was horrified to find his emaciated body lying on the ground in a 'small, thin calico tent', unfit for anyone suffering from tuberculosis to reside in. He Lun was 49 years of age.⁴⁸ Inadequate nourishment and lack of medical attention because of poverty sometimes caused unnecessary deaths, outraging juries who blamed the uncaring Chinese or the authorities who did not intervene.