The latest issue of the Royal Historical Society of Victoria’s newsletter (History News, Issue 278) includes info on three new Chinese-related publications. Details are copied below.

George Ah Ling, Donald’s Friend

Donald History and Natural History Group of the Music, Literature and Art Society Inc., Box 111, Donald, 3840, 2008, pp. iv + 40. ISBN 1 876978 36 8

From the 1920s, George Ah Ling was a much-loved market gardener living alone in Donald. He died in 1987 and this book celebrates his life by publishing the recollections of those who knew him as well as some photos of George at work in his garden and with his horse and cart.

The Chinawoman by Ken Oldis

Arcadia with State Library of Victoria, Melbourne, 2008, pp. 261, $34-95. ISBN 978 1 74097 164 5

The murder of an English prostitute in Melbourne on 1 December 1856, the subsequent investigation, trial and conviction and hanging of two Chinese for her murder, and the flaws in the justice system that were revealed, are all fully examined in a most engaging and analytical narrative. The case involved both Redmond Barry as judge and Charles Hope Nicolson as detective, and is significant in the anti-Chinese hysteria of the late 1850s. Very well-documented but regrettably and surprisingly, no index.

Chinese in Echuca-Moama, a chronicle 1850s-1930 by Carol Holsworth

…an interesting collection of stories and reports about the early settlement and the involvement of the Chinese community in this exciting riverboat town.