The history of Chinese immigration to Australia dates back to the earliest days of the British Colony, not long after Australia was established in 1788. The earliest recorded Chinese immigrant in Australia was Mak Sai Ying in 1818. But early 19th-century Chinese immigration was sporadic and limited to arrivals on trading ships that had passed through Asia on their way to Sydney Cove (Cushman 1984).

In the 1840s when Australia faced the curtailing of the supply of convict labor, the Colonial authorities experimented …