Ah Hong

Ah Hong (–1952) was a Chinese-Australian miner, cook and market gardener who spent most of his life in Alice Springs, in the Northern Territory of Australia. He a well-regarded figure in an era of considerable prejudice towards Chinese people in Australia.

Early life

Hong was born in Canton, now Guangzhou, around 1857, and little is known of his early life. His descendants believe that he travelled to Australia some time in the 1870s. He was also, at some point, engaged by the Winnecke survey party (see: Charles Winnecke).

In 1892 Hong settled in Alice Springs, then known as Stuart, and established a market garden on Todd Street on what is now the site of Megafauna Central. At his garden Hong grew a variety of vegetables and raised chickens. He sold his produce using a horse and cart, travelling as far as Arltunga. Walter Smith recalled his visits there and said it was a time of great excitement for him as a boy and that Hong had the best garden in the area; Smith said that "fresh fruit and vegetables were not a luxury so much as a necessity for good health". He also said that, because of the distances involved there was a premium on the produce.

Hong met and married Ranjika, a Western Arrernte woman, and they ran the garden together with the help of Bulabaka, one of Ranjika's three sons from a previous relationship. Hong and Ranjika had three children together: Dempsey, Ada and Gloria. As children of a 'mixed marriage' they were exposed to significant amount of racism. Education for his children was important to Hong and he sent his two eldest children, Dempsey and Ada, to school in Oodnadatta (selling his interests in Alice Springs)

Hong died in 1952, at the approximate age of 102 and, when he died the remainder of the Ah Hong fund was donated to the Australian Inland Mission to be used to support other older men.

Many of Hong's descendants live in and around the Northern Territory and Alice Springs.

A short biography of Hong was written by Alice Springs based historian Adele Purvis and is available as a part of NTRS 1/P1 at Library & Archives NT.