Migrants


This section contains racist and offensive material. As a folklore collector I believe I have an obligation to record such material and, hopefully, it will provide opportunities for others to understand how such material is created and transmitted. Of course, most of the items come from Australia's early days and that needs to be taken into account.

  • Sydney Folklore Project CONTENTS


  • SECTION 11: Migrants

    Ching Chong
    Quoted Hal Porter Bairnsdale 1920s
    Tune: Dan Tucker

    Chinee Cook
    AUSTRALASIAN SKETCHER 1875
    87/599

    Anti Chinese ditty
    Qld Examiner 1895

    The advent of the cow
    Will rid us of the Chow.


    WA Proverb

    Necessity is not only the mother of invention but the father of half-castes as well

    On Chinamen

    Pat Pong, John, Johnny etc, Chink, Ding Bat, Canary John�

    Mad as a Chinaman

    Meaner than a goldfields Chow

    Awkward as a Chinaman on a bicycle

    Sister Lilly
    Supposed memorial notice


    John Chinaman


    Chop, Chop, Chop
    From Robyn Ridley 1970 whose mother sang this ditty
    as a child in then rural Glenhuntly, Victoria.


    Chinaman's Track
    From Spangles in the sawdust by R P Whitwoth, 1880.


    Street cry
    Hobart town crier 1846

    If I had a piece of pork
    I'd stick it on a fork
    And give it to a Jew boy
    Jew boy, Jew.

    Daly River Oh
    Recorded Robyn Ridley 1970 (with apologies) different from S&K; version


    Blacks
    Ridley family

    God made little niggers
    He made them in the night
    But he made them in a hurry
    And forgot to paint them white

    The AUSTRALIAN STAR. 1879
    June 30 1877

    Advice from the Palmer State (Qld) state that hundreds of Chinese are in the last stages of destitution and those hundreds more are pressing on to the goldfields. The Wardens ask for additional police protection, owing to the threatening attitude of the Chinese outside the camps.

    This item is typical of the racist songs popular with Music Hall artists around the turn of the nineteenth century. Many were blatantly anti-Jewish and used 'long, hooked nosed' stereotyped and also placing the Jewish character as mean and financially conniving. All very ugly by today's standards and rightfully so.

    Sail On The Rippling Stream
    (topical song.)
    Written by LANCE LENTON and Sung by CHAS MAYLOR
    (Air�" Birds and Blossoms.")
    AUSTRALIAN MELODIST NO 20
    Mitchell library 784.8/A


    For "Nix," Not Me; For "Nix" I Bar.
    AUSTRALIAN MELODIST NO 21
    Written by Lance Lenton
    [Parody on " Finiculi-Finicula.")



    FROM 'FORTY-FIVE YEARS EXPERIENCE IN NORTH QUEENSLAND' 1861-1905
    W R O Hill.
    Published Brisbane 1907.

    This interesting book also had a chapter on the great fight between Heenan & Sayers � I have collected two songs on this fight. (Refer AFU � Joe Watson and Cyril Duncan)

    The following song was composed and sung by the author at a charity concert in Cooktown about 1878. It is typical anti-Chinese.

    The Palmer Local
    Tune: The Abyssinian Girl



    Shop Here Before the Day Goes
    Recorded by W Fahey in 1978 from a senior citizens in Paddington

    A Paddington deli owner, frustrated by his customers shopping at the new Italian corner store (circa 1960s) placed a large sign on his window declaring 'Shop here before the Day Goes'. He made the front page on the daily newspapers.


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