On 18 September 2013, I presented a paper on the transnational Chinese family in Australia as part of the Australia in the World seminar series organised by Marilyn Lake at the University of Melbourne.
You can read (a slightly revised version of) my paper (pdf, 1.3kb) or have a look at my slides.
From the Hobart Town Police Report of Monday, 15 January 1838:
Caroline Sye complained of her husband, a Chinaman, for ill-usage, which she failed to prove; and as she insisted she would not live with him, she was allowed to retire to the factory on probation, and on receiving a good report to be favored with a country residence.
(Published in the Colonial Times (Hobart), 23 January 1838, p. 8.)
In Sojourners (p.33), Eric Rolls tells of another convict woman, Hannah Howard, who was released into the care of a Chinese man, Ahong (who was also a convict but had been granted his ticket of leave), after their marriage in 1851 in Launceston. Her ticket of leave was granted soon after.
What a very curious place colonial Australia was.