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Chinese Australians who remember life in Australia prior to World War II are now in their 80s and 90s. They are our last link to our early gold rush immigrants and last opportunity to learn about life in Australia in the 1930s under the White Australia Policy. Too many of these elders are passing away before we are able to learn about what their lives were like. This oral history project captures the memories of ten of these Australians. Funded by Public Records Office of Victoria, Local History Grant.
Chinese-Australian Historical Images in Australia (CHIA) is a joint project between the Chinese Museum, the Asian Studies Program at La Trobe University and AUSTEHC (Australian Science and Technology Heritage Centre) based at the University of Melbourne. It is supported by the Australian Research Council (ARC). The project falls under the ARC Linkages scheme.
The project aims to bring together historical analysis with online database technology to provide an overview of the extant photographic images of Chinese in Australia and develop a sophisticated research tool that can be used by the general public. The final online database allows users to examine not only copies of historical photographs of Chinese Australians but also the historical context (including the people, organisations, places, events and concepts) associated with these photographs. One of the secondary aims of the project was to use the database structure developed as a way of cataloguing the Chinese Museum's picture collection.
The database also allows for hyperlinking into other online image databases, including all participants of PictureAustralia www.pictureaustralia.org.
In conjunction with the University of Melbourne the Museum is undertaking research into the Mt Alexander diggings in Castlemaine. |
