ABSTRACT
The migration of Chinese to Australia stimulated by the discovery of gold triggered a white racist discourse in the second half of the nineteenth century. This chapter discusses how this anti-Chinese discourse was developed by exploiting environmental and ecological anxieties, rather than simply an economic or cultural bias, against the specific activities of Chinese immigrants. Gold rushes began to subside starting in 1861 and Chinese emigration to Australia also slowed. Among all the Chinese agricultural activities, market gardening was the most significant contribution to Australian society. The Chinese were able to offer their contribution to the shaping of the Australian environments, adapting their skills and techniques to it and participating with the other European immigrants in the making of modern Australia. In late 1870s and early 1880s, a concern about the expected growth of Chinese immigrants created new anti-Chinese propaganda. The most arbitrary and horrible condemnation was that the Chinese immigrants would cause epidemics.
