Bendigo - Golden Dragon Museum
We stayed Friday and Saturday night at the Globe Guesthouse in Castlemaine:
(photo from booking.com)
We booked the guesthouse through booking.com. If you need to find accommodation for a holiday use this link and you'll get a discount, plus they'll throw me a kickback. Win all around!
(image from Google Maps)
Saturday morning we headed to Bendigo, 40km to the north, to the Golden Dragon Museum. The museum documents the history of Chinese immigration to the Bendigo area. The history is one of disgraceful laws targeting Chinese people, being met by tenacity, resourcefulness, and charity.
(one of the two main galleries in the Golden Dragon Museum)
The financial imposts on prospectors in the 1800s famously culminated in the Eureka Stockade in Ballarat, where the diggers staged an armed rebellion. If things were bad for the European diggers, they were worse for the Chinese.
In the 1850s European settlers were uncomfortable with the number of Chinese arriving to work in the goldfields. The Victorian government imposed a 'head tax': every passenger of Chinese origin had to pay 10 pounds to disembark a ship in Victoria. They also imposed rules like allowing only one Chinese person (applied to both passengers and crew) per 10 tons of cargo on a ship.
To avoid these extra taxes and imposts, Chinese immigrants would leave the boat in South Australia and walk the rest of the way, up to 800km, to the goldfields.
Beginning in 1871, the Chinese community assisted with fundraising for local charity by joining in the Bendigo Easter Procession. The first reports of a Chinese dragon being part of the procession date from 1892. Still on display at the museum is Loong, the 29 metre long dragon used in these easter parades.
The museum has become the home of many stunning Chinese artefacts, which are well worth a look.
Next to the museum is a walled Chinese garden, which is included in the entry price.
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