Researcher Richard de Fegely with an image of Chinese architecture
Kim Waters
A QUEENSCLIFF resident has uncovered the hidden influence of early Chinese immigrants on his hometown.
Former state MP Richard de Fegely said his research had discovered that traditional Chinese food preserving and boat building methods changed the local fishing industry forever in the 1860s.
The immigrants’ skills at drying fish for consumption were particularly important in a colony yet to obtain dry ice, while their construction techniques were adapted to Queenscliff’s historic couta boat fleet.
Mr de Fegely said an influx of Chinese immigrants arrived during the 1850s to escape a “devastating” opium war in their homeland before moving on to Victoria’s goldfields.
“I assume that when the goldfields started drying up they drifted down to the Bellarine Peninsula.”
