Post by nzbc on Aug 7, 2008 21:21:30 GMT 12
members.trump.net.au/ahvem/Fisheries/Abalone/abalone1.html
Cox describes how the Californian fishery grew from the arrival of Chinese gold miners and I wondered whether there was a similar experience in Australia. The first Chinese arrived in Tasmania in 1830 many years before the discovery of gold in either California or Australia, but many more arrived after 1852. The population was never large but up to 1500 lived here in the 1880s. Most were involved with tin mining in the northeast but some took an interest in fishing. Ah Yow arrived from Melbourne in June 1872 to establish a fishing station and fish curing depot at Ilfracombe on the Tamar. Kwok Sing caught and distributed fish among the north-east community. In 1860 Ling Chew set up a fishing station near the mouth of the Derwent to fish for crayfish that were dried and sent to the goldfields in Victoria.
There were also some Chinese involved in whaling and I suspect that it was this group who began the first commercial harvesting of abalone. Shore based whalers had stations all around the south east coast of Tasmania including on both Maria and Schouten Islands. The Chinese had begun an abalone fishery on the east coast before 1876. Messers Young, Sing and Chan fished for abalone around Maria Island, dried the flesh and also sent it to the miners in Victoria. Most of the Chinese were Cantonese but Thomas Dunbabin, whose father held the lease on the Island, said these three were tall northerners. Their promising business was snuffed out when the Victorian Government imposed punitive inter-colonial tariffs but their pioneering efforts are remembered by the name Chinamans Bay the site of their fishery. Dunbabin says Sing married Fanny Skinner. In fact her marriage in Hobart in November 1875 was to Ah-Sin Yung who is described as a fisherman on the marriage certificate, Yung was then 43 years old, Fanny was not yet 16. The couple lived on the Maria Island until Yung died around 1897. Yung and Fanny had five sons and two daughters on Maria Island between 1877 and 1892. Most of the births were registered by the Police constable at Triabunna who would occasionally visit the Maria and note that Ah-Sin and Fanny (sometimes called Annie) had another child. By 1899 Fanny had moved to Triabunna and had her eighth child Tasman. His father was Robert Castle who Fanny married in 1902. She died there in June 1915 and I suspect that there are some living relatives of this pioneer of the industry.
Cox describes how the Californian fishery grew from the arrival of Chinese gold miners and I wondered whether there was a similar experience in Australia. The first Chinese arrived in Tasmania in 1830 many years before the discovery of gold in either California or Australia, but many more arrived after 1852. The population was never large but up to 1500 lived here in the 1880s. Most were involved with tin mining in the northeast but some took an interest in fishing. Ah Yow arrived from Melbourne in June 1872 to establish a fishing station and fish curing depot at Ilfracombe on the Tamar. Kwok Sing caught and distributed fish among the north-east community. In 1860 Ling Chew set up a fishing station near the mouth of the Derwent to fish for crayfish that were dried and sent to the goldfields in Victoria.
There were also some Chinese involved in whaling and I suspect that it was this group who began the first commercial harvesting of abalone. Shore based whalers had stations all around the south east coast of Tasmania including on both Maria and Schouten Islands. The Chinese had begun an abalone fishery on the east coast before 1876. Messers Young, Sing and Chan fished for abalone around Maria Island, dried the flesh and also sent it to the miners in Victoria. Most of the Chinese were Cantonese but Thomas Dunbabin, whose father held the lease on the Island, said these three were tall northerners. Their promising business was snuffed out when the Victorian Government imposed punitive inter-colonial tariffs but their pioneering efforts are remembered by the name Chinamans Bay the site of their fishery. Dunbabin says Sing married Fanny Skinner. In fact her marriage in Hobart in November 1875 was to Ah-Sin Yung who is described as a fisherman on the marriage certificate, Yung was then 43 years old, Fanny was not yet 16. The couple lived on the Maria Island until Yung died around 1897. Yung and Fanny had five sons and two daughters on Maria Island between 1877 and 1892. Most of the births were registered by the Police constable at Triabunna who would occasionally visit the Maria and note that Ah-Sin and Fanny (sometimes called Annie) had another child. By 1899 Fanny had moved to Triabunna and had her eighth child Tasman. His father was Robert Castle who Fanny married in 1902. She died there in June 1915 and I suspect that there are some living relatives of this pioneer of the industry.