Ah Hong ( - 1952) was a Chinese market gardener who spent most of his life in

Alice Springs Alice Springs ( aer, Mparntwe) is the third-largest town in the Northern Territory of Australia. Known as Stuart until 31 August 1933, the name Alice Springs was given by surveyor William Whitfield Mills after Alice, Lady Todd (''née'' Al ...

, and was a well regarded figure in an era of considerable prejudice towards Chinese people in Australia. Ah_Hong

Early life

Hong was born in Canton, now

Guangzhou Guangzhou (, ; ; or ; ), also known as Canton () and alternatively romanized as Kwongchow or Kwangchow, is the capital and largest city of Guangdong province in southern China. Located on the Pearl River about north-northwest of Hong Kon ...

, around 1857 and little is known of his early life. His descendants believe that he travelled to Australia some time in the 1870s.

Life in the Northern Territory

When Hong first arrived in the

Northern Territory The Northern Territory (commonly abbreviated as NT; formally the Northern Territory of Australia) is an states and territories of Australia, Australian territory in the central and central northern regions of Australia. The Northern Territory ...

, some time in the 1870s, he first worked in the

Top End The Top End of Australia's Northern Territory is a geographical region encompassing the northernmost section of the Northern Territory, which aside from the Cape York Peninsula is the northernmost part of the Australian continent. It covers a ra ...

on the Pine Creek goldfields and then the North Australia Railway before moving to

Central Australia Central Australia, also sometimes referred to as the Red Centre, is an inexactly defined region associated with the geographic centre of Australia. In its narrowest sense it describes a region that is limited to the town of Alice Springs and i ...

as a cook for the crews building the Overland Telegraph. He later described witnessing many of the thousands of fellow Chinese immigrants dying in the harsh labor conditions of railway construction. Once in Central Australia, he first worked as a cook at Bond Springs Station and then, briefly, as a miner at

Arltunga Arltunga is a deserted gold rush town located in the Northern Territory of Australia in the locality of Hart about east of Alice Springs. It is of major historical significance as the first major European settlement in Central Australia. Earl ...

. In 1892 Hong settled in Alice Springs, then known as Stuart, and established a market garden on Todd Street on what is now the site of Megafauna Central (see: Todd Mall). At his garden Hong grew a variety of vegetables and raised chickens. He sold his produce using a horse and cart, sometimes as far as Arltunga. Hong met and married Ranjika, a Western Arrernte woman, and they ran the garden together with the help of Bulabaka, one of Ranjika's three sons from a previous relationship. Hong and Ranjika had three children together: Dempsey, Ada and

Gloria Gloria may refer to: Arts and entertainment Music Christian liturgy and music * Gloria in excelsis Deo, the Greater Doxology, a hymn of praise * Gloria Patri, the Lesser Doxology, a short hymn of praise ** Gloria (Handel) ** Gloria (Jenkins) ...

. As children of a mixed marriage they were exposed to significant amount of racism. Education for his children was important to Hong and he sent his two eldest children, Dempsey and Ada, to school in Oodnadatta before the establishment of the first school in Alice Springs in 1914 where the children were taught, with other Aboriginal children, by

Ida Standley Ida Standley (19 January 1869 – 29 May 1948) was the first school teacher in Alice Springs, Australia. For 15 years, from 1914 to 1929, she worked at The Bungalow. Standley was appointed Order of the British Empire, MBE for her services to ch ...

The Bungalow The Bungalow was an institution for Aboriginal children established in 1914 in Alice Springs in the Northern Territory of Australia. It existed at several locations in Alice Springs (then called Stuart), Jay Creek and the Alice Springs Telegr ...

. Following the death of Ranjika in 1918, Hong took his children to China to be cared for by his family there. After a year long journey, Hong spent a year there before returning alone to Alice Springs. Once in Alice Springs again, Hong established a market garden on a new site, on Gap Road, where he also established an eating house for single men who were welcome to 'roll out their swags' in the garden for the price of a meal and built a large stone oven to become one of the town's first bakers. Hong died in 1952, at the age of 102.

Legacy

Hong was highly respected in the community of Alice Springs. When he died, the Centralian Advocate described his passing as marking a milestone in local history: Many of Hong's descendants live in and around the

and Alice Springs. Hong Street in Gillen (a suburb of Alice Springs) is named for him.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hong, Ah People from Alice Springs 1850s births 1952 deaths People from Guangzhou Chinese emigrants to Australia