To a large extent, the nature of the primary sources used by historians determines the history that is written – the centrality of the primary source is key to the historical representation. This principle makes the writing of a conventional history of the Chinese on the Mount Alexander diggings difficult (irrespective of its desirability) given that there is no surviving central body of archival documents from the community itself: many of the Chinese diggers were illiterate. Yet, in considering the Chinese experience on the Mount Alexander diggings, there are other sources of information available – cultural landscapes, material culture and popular memory – which offer a contrasting history to that derived from contemporary local newspaper accounts and official records.
The images which accompany this entry are visual records of Chinese working life and practice that are not present in the written historical record of the district.
