Charlie Houng on Yee

Charlie Houng On Yee (餘洪安). also known as Charlie Yee (7 July 1905 – 24 January 1996), was a Chinese-Australian man who worked as a tailor, gardener and businessman in Darwin, Northern Territory.

He was a resident of Darwin during the Bombing of Darwin and was subsequently evacuated from there for the remainder of World War II and, on his return, became a very involved member of the Chinese community. He would later lose his home in Cyclone Tracy. This laundry business predominately served army and bank personnel and government workers. This was hard and hot work as they used copper boilers, scrubbed the clothes by hand and ironed with wood-heated irons. Despite this they struggled to make money.

During the war Myrtle and their four sons (Ron, Raymond, Ken and Maurice) where evacuated to Brisbane where they stayed with family and then Sydney. Yee stayed in Darwin as he was an able-bodied man and expected to remain. During the Bombing of Darwin, on 19 February 1942, he was riding his bike down the Stokes Hill Wharf and, as a keen amateur photographer, was able to photograph the impact. He was also able to help remove a woman from rubble and later, in the chaos, his bicycle and camera where stolen.