Mei Quong Tart, or Quong Tart (1850-1903), as he was known, was a famous figure in Sydney in the late nineteenth century as a merchant and philanthropist.
Quong Tart was born at Hsinning (Sun-ning), Canton Province, China, the son of Quong Tart,1State Library of NSW, https://www.sl.nsw.gov.au/learning/who-was-quong-tart. Accessed 17 Feb 2023 a dealer in ornamental wares. 2Australia Dictionary of Biography, https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/mei-quong-tart-4181. Accessed 17 Feb 2023 He came to Australia at the age of 9 with an uncle, who had charge of a shipload of about 300 miners3Chris Woodland. Araluen. A History through Photographs c. 1840 – 2000. Snap Printing, Williamstown, VIC. 2014. p33 headed for the Braidwood goldfields.
Quong Tart was taken in by a local family, the Simpsons, from whom he learned English (which he spoke with a Scottish accent 4Stories from Sydney’s Lunar Festival, https://newstories.net.au/mei-quong-tart-the-entrepreneur-who-started-sydneys-first-cafes. Accessed 15 Feb 2023). Encouraged by his guardians to acquire shares in gold claims, he was wealthy at 18. After the Simpsons moved to Sydney, he built a beautiful villa residence at Bell’s Creek and erected a school and a church at his own expense for the benefit of the European miners and their families 5The University of Sydney, The Life of Quong Tart or, How A Foreigner Succeeded in A British Community. Compiled and Edited by Margaret Tart 1911. https://adc.library.usyd.edu.au/data-2/fed0048.pdf Accessed 17 Feb 2023.
On the goldfields, he became the Government Interpreter for the districts of Braidwood, Araluen and Majors Creek, remaining friendly with both Chinese and Europeans.
In July 1872 Quong Tart discovered a very rich reef at Bell’s Creek 6Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 – 1954), Tuesday 9 July 1872, page 6 and by August 1872, “160 oz. 16 dwts. of gold were obtained from a crushing of 11.5 tons of quartz from Quong Tart’s reef, at Bell’s Creek… The cost of raising this quartz was merely a trifle as we have been informed that the proprietor has not paid more than £20 for the labour, and the whole of which was obtained within a month.” Large returns were noted continuing in 1874 and 1875 7Sydney Morning Herald (NSW: 1842 – 1954), Tuesday 14 April 1874, page 8 from Quong Tart’s claim, Golden Gully, Bells Creek. 8Australian Town and Country Journal (Sydney, NSW : 1870 – 1919), Saturday 26 June 1875, page 5
In September 1875 the Freeman’s Journal 9Freeman’s Journal (Sydney, NSW: 1850 – 1932), Saturday 25 September 1875, page 12 describes nearly “100 leading residents of Braidwood, Araluen, Major’s Creek, and other parts of the district (says the Dispatch) [who] met together at Bell’s Creek at the invitation of Quong Tart, celebrating the completion of a water-race he has been cutting”. Quong Tart was able to wash away a tremendous quantity of earth at Bell’s Creek, using the water race, and enabling the removal of a clay deposit through the utilisation of means of horses and carts. This was the first attempt at Bells Creek to strip the top layer, as was done in Araluen Valley.
The Evening News 10Evening News (Sydney, NSW: 1869 – 1931), Tuesday 9 October 1877, page 2 details that Quong Tart “will afterwards have sufficient fall to wash away the earth beneath the clay by mean of his race, and will thus have a great advantage in being able to [process] the washing stuff, in place of carting it and putting it through boxes as in the Valley. He is also doing a little in reefing by getting out a parcel of stone from the rock, from which, after taking the free gold from it, he intends to save the mundic [fool’s gold] and send it away to Sydney or Melbourne for treatment, having been very successful with two or three parcels which he formerly raised and had treated in this way.” In 1878 the richness of the Bell’s Creek reefs was noted with a crushing from Quong Tart’s Belmore reef yielding 13oz of gold, as well as mundic [fool’s gold], which is treated to enable extraction all the gold.11Australian Town and Country Journal (Sydney, NSW : 1870 – 1919), Saturday 13 April 1878, page 22
On 11 July 1871 he was naturalized and was the first Chinese Australian to be elected to an Oddfellows’ Lodge 12Racism No Way, https://racismnoway.com.au/teaching-resources/mei-quong-tart. Accessed 17 Feb 2023., in Araluen. In 1885 became a Freemason and in 1877 he was appointed to the Board of the Public School at Bell’s Creek.
In 1881 Quong Tart visited China to see his family and on returning to Australia he started business as a tea merchant in Sydney. In 1886, he married Margaret Scarlett, a young Braidwood school teacher who was related to the Hylands of Araluen, and they eventually had six children.
In 1887, the Imperial Government of China awarded him the status of a Mandarin of the fifth degree, with blue feather, in acknowledgment of his service to the Overseas Chinese community and to European-Chinese relations in Australia.
In 1898 Quong Tart opened the Elite Hall in the Queen Victoria Markets in George Street Sydney, now the Queen Victoria Building. It was a very luxurious tea house and restaurant which could hold 500 people. He opened a number of tea houses in the busy city centre, offering tea, coffee, sugar and cocoa for sale, along with ‘a cup of delicious tea and light refreshments’.
Quong Tart’s successful career and life came to a tragic end in 1902. A botched robbery at his Queen Victoria Markets shop resulted in him sustaining injuries from which he would never recover.
Quong Tart was a true celebrity of his time. He would attend social functions dressed either in Mandarin robes or in a kilt and sporran. He could tell jokes and anecdotes, recite Robert Burns’ poetry or sing Scottish ballads. When he died in 1903, he was farewelled with a huge public funeral and thousands of mourners turned out to pay their respects. He was survived by his wife, two sons and four daughters. A portrait bust sculpture, erected in 1998, is located at Hercules St, Ashfield, mounted on a brick pedestal, and commemorates Mei Quong Tart (1850-1903), Chinese merchant and philanthropist. 13Monument Australia. https://www.monumentaustralia.org.au/themes/people/industry/display/20126-mei-quong-tart-. Accessed 17 Feb 2023..