Ping Que

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Ping Que (* probably 1837 ; † 1886 ) was a Chinese from Guangzhou , a gold prospector and businessman who found recognition in the Northern Territory of Australia both among Europeans and Chinese.

Life

Ping Que reached Victoria on June 23, 1874 with the steamer Cornwall from Hong Kong at the age of presumably 17 years . He lived in Creswick for almost 20 years and worked in gold mines in the area, also acquired interests in Mitchell's Golden Freehold Mining Company . In 1873 he applied for naturalization , which was granted to him on December 18 of that year.

In 1875 he moved to the Northern Territory. He traveled with the Claude Hamilton , the first ship to sail from Adelaide along the Queensland coast to Darwin . Que became the foreman of the Chinese coolies and acquired mining rights to numerous gold mines, so that the miners had to cede parts of their finds to him. He also set up other trading businesses in the gold fields, including a transport company. His business developed positively and in 1877 he ran five mines that yielded more than 500 ounces of gold annually for him, as well as a trading business.

In 1882 he had mines on the Margaret River , in the Union and Pine Creek areas ; he did not operate other mines himself, but leased them. He employed sixty people in the so-called Number Five Mine alone . In addition, he owned a few shops and a butcher's and was at the height of his success as the most enterprising miner in the Territory (German: the most entrepreneurial mine owner in the Northern Territory).

In 1883, Ping Que became a member of the Port Darwin Camp Progress Association and the Mining Board . When European businessmen raised the price of water carried to the mines to £ 345, Ping Que organized a riot among European and Chinese miners, which led to a sharp drop in prices. Historians describe him as a competent and clever businessman with an honorable reputation and was valued and recognized by both the Chinese and the Europeans. He employed about 100 Chinese people who brought water from Southport to the gold fields.

In 1886 Ping Que traveled to China, where he died under unknown circumstances. In an obituary by the Northern Territory Times, the Times described him as far and away the smartest mining man we have yet met in the Territory (by far the most capable miner we have met in the Territory so far).

Others

The "Que Lane" in Gungahlin , a district of the Australian capital Canberra , was named in 1992 after Ping Que.

literature

  • David Carment, Robyn Maynard and Alan Powell: The Northern Territory Dictionary of Biography , Vol. 1: To 1945 (Darwin, 1990)
  • Timothy G Jones: Ping Que: mining magnate of the Northern Territory 1854-1886. Journal of Chinese Australia, Vol. 1, May 2005

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ ACT Land and Planning Authority