Palmer River Goldfield Joss House Sites帕默河金矿区华人庙宇遗址群

Type

Overseas Daoist Temples

Location

Australia · Queensland · Palmer River Goldfield · Palmer River basin, North Queensland, including the mining towns of Maytown, Thornborough, and Georgetown

First built

1870s · Abandoned between the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries as the goldfield was exhausted; all are sites, with no above-ground structures remaining

Overview

The Palmer River goldfield was Australia's largest alluvial goldfield; in the 1870s tens of thousands of Chinese miners flooded in, at one point making up the great majority of the goldfield's population, and built a number of joss houses in mining towns such as Maytown, Thornborough, and Georgetown. These temples were mostly of timber or simple brick-and-stone construction, their principal deities Guandi, Guanyin, and various sainted spirits, and they also served as venues for community meetings and mutual aid in funerals among fellow villagers. As the goldfield was exhausted and the Chinese Immigration Restriction Act was enforced, the mining towns emptied out, and the temples fell entirely into disuse between the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries; it should be stated clearly that what is referenced here is a group of sites rather than surviving temples. Research suggests that between 110 and 140 joss houses may have existed in Australian history, of which only nine survive today in some form; the dense concentration and total disappearance of the temples along the Palmer River is the most concentrated illustration of this rise and fall.

Highlights

• A group of Chinese temples in Australia's largest alluvial goldfield
• Including the mining towns of Maytown, Thornborough, and Georgetown
• All abandoned; only sites remain
• An estimated 110–140 joss houses once existed in Australian history, of which only nine survive today