FONG HENLY

Description

Biographical informationFong Henly (aka Fong Hsing Li Kuang) was born in February 1876 in Canton, China. He migrated to Australia in June 1896. He was five feet ten inches in height.

He was an experienced tailor. When he arrived in Darwin, Australia in June 1896 he established a merchant business. He later went gold prospecting with a few friends in Tennant Creek, Katherine and Daly Waters in the Northern Territory. In order to supplement their meagre diets, the Chinese prospectors often planted lotus roots at various water holes so that when they came by again there would be a ready food supply.

The gold prospecting did not pay well and, by the early 1900s, Fong Henly returned to tailoring and moved to Western Australia. He was based first at Cossack and then from at least 1916 to 1935 in Napier Terrace in Broome.

He travelled overseas three times: March 1917 to October 1919; January 1922 to November 1923; and May 1935 to June 1938. On his first return visit to China in 1917, he married and he brought his wife and son to Broome from 1923-1935.

During World War II Fong Henly was evacuated to Perth. His business in Broome was burned down in June 1946, so he remained in Perth. In his 70s he managed to survive as a casual worker for some of the Chinese restaurants in Perth and lived out his life in a room at the rear of Hop Hing & Co, 124 James Street.Other nameFong Henly (differentiated name)Fong Hsing Li Kuang (also known as)Date of birthFebruary 1876

Photograph of Fong Henly aged 40 in 1916 from his Exemption from Dictation Test paperwork (NAA: K1145, 1916/148)

Significant place

RelationPlace of birthPlaceCantonDate1876

Significant place

RelationImmigrated toPlaceAustraliaDateJune 1896

Significant place

RelationTravelled toPlaceBroomeDate[date unknown]

Connections

Subject (organisation)Hop Hing & Co., PerthSubject (place)CossackDarwinNapier Terrace, BroomeSubject (topic)Chinese heritage in Western AustraliaProspectorTailorShop keeperRelated collectionAnne Atkinson CollectionRelated linkNAA CEDT File 1916NAA CEDT File 1921NAA CEDT File 1929NAA CEDT File 1935NAA Immigration File 1921-1938 <Not digitised #4317416>

Item information

ContributorSchool of Social SciencesSource of informationAsian immigrants to Western Australia, 1829-1901 (Atkinson, 1988)Karrakatta Walking Trail Information

UWA Collected

FONG HENLY

THE UNIVERSITY OF WESTERN AUSTRALIA