YEE PALK

Description

Biographical informationYee Palk (余保) Freddie was born in March 1867 in Canton, China. He migrated to Western Australia in 1889. He was five feet two and three quarter inches in height.

He worked as a tailor at Roebourne from 1889 to 1931.

In 1900, he sought clarification under the Immigration Restriction Act to bring his wife C. Yee Palk (aged 29 in 1900) and two sons Yee Tonk (aged 14) and Yee Long (10) to Western Australia from Hong Kong. As he had been in the colony before the 1897 Act was introduced, permission to bring his wife and children was not required. (Sro, S675, Cons 527, 2247/1900).

Up until March 1902 he was a partner in Soon Son and Cousins, a shop in Port Hedland. The business was dissolved and discontinued. Up until March 1902 he was also partner in the Sun Kam Long Co. tailor and outfitters business. He sold his stake in the Sun Kam Long Co. to Yee Yep.

He used the income from these two former businesses to establish his own tailors and outfitters business at 37 Roe Street (Lot 170), Roebourne. Adverts run throughout 1902 record him selling the ‘latest European styles’. By the 1920s, the store was selling groceries and it is likely that it was also a bakery from this time or earlier (InHerit Place Number 08669). His market garden was located behind the store on the banks of the Harding River. The memoirs of EH Tuslove, a resident of Roebourne in the 1920s, state ‘I often went to Yee Palk’s for green groceries and would see several men in the room noisily playing Mah Jong and smoking... everyone firmly believed they were smoking Opium.’ In 1928 the Yee Palk store was linked to the Roebourne telephone exchange for the first time.

He travelled overseas five times: 1899; October 1907 to June 1909; January 1918 to March 1919; and March 1926 to August 1929.

He died in July 1943 at the age of 75 and was buried in Roebourne Pioneer Cemetery [N.B: Oz Burials incorrectly records his death as being in 1963 (a typo?) and this has caused confusion, even in InHerit Place Number 08669; if he had died in 1963 then he would have been 95 at that time!]

Even after his death the bakery continued in his name. In 1955 the local health authority reported on Yee Palk’s bakery: ‘Approx 50 loaves of bread made each week. The shop does a very limited trade.’ Today the site is a registered heritage site: Place Number 08669.

[Probably the brother of YEE YEP]Other nameYee Palk (differentiated name)余保Yee Pal Freddie (also known as)Date of birthMarch 1867Date of death1st July 1943

Document

AAC-Box-004-Binder-2-0020

Wife and Family of Yee Palk - 1900

Yee Palk 1899-1789

Yee Palk 1900-1915 naturalisation

Yee Palk shop advert 1902

Person

SOON SON

YEE MOW

YEE YEP

Organisation

Soon Son & Cousins, Port Hedland

Sun Kam Long Co., Roebourne

Yee Palk aged 50 in 1917 from his CEDT paperwork (source: NAA: K1145, 1917/103)

Family

Other relativeYEE MOWSOON SONYee Jong

Connections

Subject (person)YEE YEPSubject (organisation)San Kam Long Co., RoebourneSoon Son & Cousins, Port HedlandSubject (place)RoebourneSubject (topic)Chinese heritage in Western AustraliaShop keeperTailorRelated collectionAnne Atkinson CollectionRelated linkNAA CEDT File 1907NAA CEDT File 1917NAA CEDT File 1924NAA CEDT Extension File 1929NAA Immigration File 1917-1932 <Not digitised #4317325 & 4317211>InHerit Place Number 08669Yee Palk linked to telephone exchange

Item information

ContributorSchool of Social SciencesSource of informationAsian immigrants to Western Australia, 1829-1901 (Atkinson, 1988)Notification of sale of interest in Sun Kam Long & Co.Additional research by Ron Milton

Significant place

RelationPlace of birthPlaceCantonDate1867

Significant place

RelationImmigrated toPlaceAustraliaDate1889 (WA)

Significant place

RelationTravelled toPlaceRoebourneDate[date unknown]

UWA Collected

YEE PALK

THE UNIVERSITY OF WESTERN AUSTRALIA