Bowl pieces from Ah Toy's garden, Palmer River, and an inventory card

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Type: Bowls
Place: Palmer River, Queensland, Australia
Materials: Adhesive - non specific, Ceramic, Graphite, Ink, Paper
Collection: Professor Ian Jack collection no. 1
Accession number: 2011.0018.0034

Description

Four pieces of ceramic rice bowls (one of which is made of four re-assembled pieces glued together), and an accompanying paper inventory card that reads in part 'AH Toy's GARDEN / 1982 / 3A/10'. The ceramic pieces appear to derive from two separate bowls.

About the collection

The Professor Ian Jack collection contains artefacts and documentation of an archaeological expedition to a market gardening and gold mining site on the Palmer River goldfield, north Queensland. The glass bottles, ceramics, horse shoes, horse hobbles, matchboxes and gardening implements are evidence of the isolated existence of Chinese immigrants in one of the most remote goldfields in Australia. Photographs, site drawings, oral histories and archival research further document the presence of market gardeners on the site between 1884 and 1934. News of the Palmer River goldfield was made known in August 1873 and within weeks hundreds of miners were travelling to a region hitherto unknown to settlers. Until 1877 it was one of the richest alluvial fields in Australia but its isolation hindered the development of reef mining. Almost 20 000 Chinese miners immigrated to the Palmer field, vastly outnumbering the European population. Market gardens, all operated by Chinese gardeners, were vital for fresh food. The main food source for the indigenous inhabitants came from the creeks and rivers - now greatly disrupted by gold mining. Although the conflict has been exaggerated in some subsequent accounts, there was undoubted violence and fear between the European, Chinese and Aboriginal populations of the region.

Read live from the Museum's Collection API (12/11/2026, 6:47:58 am). Record last updated by the Museum 2025-02-23. Licence: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/.