AH KIM (2)

Description

Biographical informationAh Kim (2) was born in about 1861 in Hong Kong. He migrated to Australia in 1872 and lived in Darwin Northern Territory for 24 years before moving to Western Australia in about 1895. He was 5 feet 1.5 inches tall with a tattoo of a horse's head on his left forearm.

In about 1895 he moved to Western Australia and worked as a cook in Wyndham before becoming a market gardener at Mugg's Lagoon, Wyndham. He lived with an Aboriginal woman, Inji (known as Lily), with whom he had seven children. Lily is said to have been Gajerrong. He applied to marry her in 1906 and the marriage was finally approved in 1908 at Wyndham (BDM 1908/3600001). He and Lily worked a 9 acre farm in Mugg's Lagoon and they ran a store.

In 1919 Ah Kim sent two of his sons, Ah Kim Toong Choi and Ah Kim Tyson to Darwin and then China with a guardian - Chung Lee. They lived with their Chinese grandfather and went to school in China. In 1920 he applied to leave Australia for 36 months so as to take his son, Ah Kim Fung Lay, to school in China. He travelled to China between April 1921 and June 1922.

After their mother died, the three daughters, Winnie, Orange and Lemon were taken away from Ah Kim by the Department Aborigines. They were sent to the half-caste native settlement at Moore River. He never saw the girls again.

Ah Kim died in Wyndham in 1945.

Other nameAh Kim, 1861- (differentiated name)Ah KhimGeorge Ah KimDate of birth1861Date of death1945