Biographical informationCHEONG Mon Hong was the wife of Yee Lock Quan Sing.
Mother of Hedland Yee Lock Quan Sing and George Hedland Quan Sing. Her sons were born in 1935 and 1937.
In 1926, Hem Cheong opened a tailor shop in Olivia Terrace, Carnarvon advertising that it was situated 'next to Yee Lock Quan Sing & Co.' It is possible she met Yee Lock through a Carnarvon-based connection. (Northern Times, 17 December 1926, p. 4.) [Curiously, a 1940 file note on Hem Cheong can be found on Kinton and Susy Quan Sing's Immigration file - NAA Item ID: 4317581 - perhaps further evidence of a long-standing and/or familial connection?]
She was only able to visit Australia (file reference 36/837?) and had to leave the country. Australian immigration determined that she was not eligible to return to Australia. She left Australia with her husband and two young sons in April 1937, just a matter of weeks after her second son was born.
When deciding whether to grant a CEDT to her newborn son, the Immigration Department gave several reasons for their decision including:
“Australia is held in very high esteem by the Chinese race and experience has shown that any privileges granted them by the Commonwealth Government have promulgated rapidly. If the children born in Australia of one or more Asiatic parents admitted on Certificate of Exemption are entitled to all the privileges of children born of parents domiciles in Australia, it appears obvious that, in a few years, the Asiatic population of the Commonwealth will be considerably augmented by Asiatics permitted to enter Australia for a lengthy, though limited, period.” (Refer to Immigration file link below.)
