CHINESE COMMUNITY
Imigrants from China and its diaspora communities lived in Illawarra from at least the 1850s. Henry Osborne of Marshall Mount engaged labourers from Amoy to operate his dairies. Other migrants came after labouring on the goldfields. Australia colonies, and later the Commonwealth, implemented legistlation to restrict immigration especially by non-Europeans, Ethnic Chinese were particularly affected. Single men who migrated found it difficult to bring wives from their homeland. Some overcame the restrictions, others returned to their homelands and many remained unmarried or wed European spouses.
Most migrants remitted money to their overseas families. A fortunate few were able to remit enough wealth to buy land and build houses in preparation for retirement. Prior to World War 2, There was a small Chinese community in Illawarra mostly centred on Wollongong. They operated market gardens and shops, sold haberdashery and other wares door to door, and laboured on farms.
Some of the families who lived in the district at various times included:
Ah Nam; Chew Hoan; Chi; Chie; Chinchu; Ching Won; Chuchin; Dan; Dion; Gam; Hang Wang; Hong; Hoong Sing Leong; Hor Miar; Lee Wah; Loung; Ong Ing; Pow; Sha Hu; Sang Ho; Tansey; Tanzi; Twa-hie; Wah Gow; Wong Gee
| WAH GOW, Joe | Wollongong store owner and community leader |
| Brief sojourn in your native land | Michael Williams. Master of Letters thesis 1998 |
| Chinese Commerce in Wollongong 1850s-1950s | Journal article by Peter Charles Gibson 2015 |