Lawrence Chinese Camp and Poon Fah Joss House劳伦斯华人营地与番花庙

Type: Overseas Daoist Temples
Location: New Zealand · Otago Region · Lawrence · The former Chinese camp site outside the town of Lawrence; the temple building was moved into the town in 1947.
First built: 1860s to around 1904 · The Poon Fah Joss House still stood within the camp as of 1904; it was moved from the camp into the town of Lawrence in 1947; it is listed as a Category 2 Historic Place on the New Zealand Heritage List.
Heritage status: Heritage New Zealand List Category 2

Overview

Lawrence was the starting point of the Otago gold rush in New Zealand (gold was discovered in Gabriel's Gully in 1861), and the Chinese camp outside the town was once the largest Chinese settlement in all of New Zealand, home to several hundred people at its height, with shops, gambling houses, an association hall and a temple within the camp. The temple was named the Poon Fah Joss House; a photograph from 1904 still shows it standing within the camp, making it one of the few Chinese temples in New Zealand attested by both images and documents. In 1947 the temple building was relocated into the town of Lawrence for other uses, and is listed as a Category 2 Historic Place on the New Zealand Heritage List; the local trust organization has long sought resource consent to move it back to its original site within the camp. It should be noted honestly that the temple's present state is the relocated building itself, not its original condition on its original site; the Chinese camp itself has become an archaeological site. Together with the Arrowtown settlement, this temple ranks as one of the two most important surviving sites of New Zealand's Chinese gold-rush history.

Highlights

The largest Chinese gold-rush camp in New Zealand
The Poon Fah Joss House still stood within the camp in 1904
Relocated from its original site for other uses in 1947
Listed as a Category 2 Historic Place on the New Zealand Heritage List
There are plans to move it back to its original site

References