Wing Hing Long: From store to museum

by Janis Wilton

Welcome to a journey through time.

As you step into this store, you step into an experience which links past, present and future.

In visiting Wing Hing Long you encounter:

the rise and decline of a tin mining town and community
the buildings, fittings and flavour of a rural general store from early in the twentieth century
the importance and diversity of the contributions made by Chinese-Australians to rural commerce and life

Wing Hing Long is in Ruby Street, Tingha, northern New South Wales. For details about visiting hours phone: (02) 6723 3156

Introduction

Wing Hing Long was established in the late nineteenth century as one of a number of stores servicing the tin mining communities of the district. Tin was first discovered in the early 1870s and saw a boom in population and productivity which peaked in the late nineteenth century and which slowly declined as the mining booms went bust.

An advertisement in a 1900 edition of the Inverell Times described the services offered by Wing Hing Long:

The noted cheap store of Tingha. Groceries, drapery, ironmongery, tobacco, pipes and everything that goes to make up a new stock. Prices defy competition. [i]

Here was a typical general store in rural New South Wales - here you could buy anything and everything. It was a bustling and busy place and, at this time, the building with its new timber walls and iron gabled roof demonstrated that the town itself had moved from the slab huts and shingle rooves of a temporary mining community to more permanent structures.

This was a store with a sound business and good prospects for the future.

In 1918, Jack Joe Lowe became the owner of the store.[ii] Born in China in 1882, he had landed at Cooktown around 1900, and spent time in Sydney and Gunnedah before arriving, with his wife and eldest son, in Tingha in about 1915.[iii] J.J. Lowe was the fifth Chinese owner of the property. The first was Ah Lin, identified as a storekeeper from Inverell. He purchased the land from George Fearby in 1881. Subsequent Chinese owners were Jock Sing of Glen Innes (1883-1887); Ah Bow, a miner from Tingha (1887-1899); and Charles Hing, a storekeeper from Tingha (1899-1918).[iv] It is unclear which of these early owners built the store, but building materials and styles suggest that it was constructed some time during the 1880s.[v]

Jack Joe Lowe advertised his services both as a herbalist and as a general store.[vi] His wife, Fong Quain Lowe, ran a cafe adjacent to Wing Hing Long. His five children - Edgar (Ned) (b.1914 in Gunnedah), Marjorie (b. 1915, Tingha), Mavis (b.1917, Tingha), Ronald (b. 1917, Tingha) and Verdon (b. 1920, Tingha) - grew up working in Wing Hing Long and in other commercial ventures which J.J. Lowe acquired in Tingha. These included another smaller general store referred to as 'the top shop' and the Palace Picture Theatre.[vii] The family lived on the premisses of Wing Hing Long. They used the residence at the back of the store, and rooms near the store office at the rear of the hardware section.[viii]

Like other Chinese stores in rural areas at the time, Jack Joe Lowe employed a number of Chinese staff, including some overseas-born Chinese who were sponsored as shop assistants under the 1901 Immigration Restriction Act. They were provided with accommodation, board and a salary. Their living quarters were in the sheds underneath the family residence and, for a time, a couple of the Chinese employees also slept in the upstairs section of the store. The conditions of their sponsorship entailed that they were bound to work at Wing Hing Long.[ix] Over the years the store also employed many local residents.

In 1939 Jack Joe Lowe moved to Tamworth where he and his youngest son, Verdon, established a business of the same name. The store in Tingha remained in family ownership. After the Second World War, Jack Joe Lowes daughter, Mavis Pratt, took over management and ultimately ownership of the store, and continued in that position until her retirement in early 1998.

In early 1998 the store and most of its contents were purchased by Guyra Shire Council for community management as a living museum. This transfer of ownership was achieved with the assistance of the Golden Threads Project, the commitment and negotiating skills of Ron Pickering and the Tingha community, the cooperation of the Pratt family, and the financial support of the NSW Heritage Office and the NSW Ministry for the Arts.

In acquiring the store, the decision was to maintain it as much as possible as it was early in 1998. The buildings, fittings and contents provide a visual account of the way the store - and indeed the town - has evolved over a century of service.

The store and its stories:

The Building

The main part of Wing Hing Long was probably built in the 1880s with extensions and alterations occurring in the early part of the twentieth century. It was one of the few buildings in the main street of Tingha which survived fires.

The buildings retain the weatherboard walls and galvanised iron rooves of this time, and the wear and tear evident in them is indicative of the rise and decline of the business and of Tingha itself.

The two storeyed residence and sheds at the back of the store have also changed very little. The store owners lived upstairs. Downstairs was storage space for goods and living quarters for some of the Chinese employees who worked in the store before the Second World War.

Ruby Street, Tingha, following a fire which destroyed the buildings next to Wing Hing Long in 1912.

Residence at the back of the store, about 1918.

View of residence, 1998.

Wing Hing Long today.

Residence at the back of the store, 1998.

View of residence, 1998.

Inside the store today

The walls, fittings, furniture and layout of the store date mainly from the early part of the twentieth century. The tone and texture tell stories of the rise and decline of the store - and the town. The goods on display include a mixture of groceries sold in the store in the 1990s and of hardware, clothing, grocery and other items dating from the 1950s. The signage and advertising offer similar stories.

Like other Chinese owned general stores in regional areas, Wing Hing Long also imported and sold goods especially for members of the local Chinese community. Some of these goods have survived.

The front grocery section.

One of the cashier's pulleys.

Signage on the front of the cashier's office.

Display in the main showroom, 1997.

Fabulon and Mortein cylinder advertising and display stands.

Meatsafe.

Peter Pratt recalled that this was where the cheese was stored:

The cheese used to come in big blocks. There was a cheese board with piano wire attached for cutting through the cheese.

The main showroom.

Newman and Finlan drycleaning cabinet.

Toy display, 1988

Part of the hardware section.

Packing case for incense sticks.

Sylko display box.

Shoes on sale at Wing Hing Long in the 1960s.

Documents

The Wing Hing Long Archives have a variety of documents which tell stories about the goods and services provided by the store, the people who worked there, other business interests of Lowe family members and Chinese community networks which stretched across the state and to Hong Kong and China.

A letter in Chinese and on Wing Hing Long letterhead from J.J. Lowe to Mr Kwok Chuen of the Wing On Company in Hong Kong.

The date is about 1936. The letter concerns arrangements for the sponsoring of J.J. Lowe's nephew to come to Australia.

Rent receipt books from the 1920s for other properties owned by J.J. Lowe in Tingha.

Aladdin Lamps Catalogue.

People: Lowe and Pratt Families

The people directly associated with Wing Hing Long included owners and their families, employees and customers. Their experiences and memories offer different stories about the store, its place in their lives and the history of Tingha. Local Tingha resident, Alma Payne, whose late husband Athol (Dink) Payne was a long time employee of Wing Hing Long, for example, observed:

You could buy shoes, and clothing, and everything .. You didnt need to go to town [Inverell] You didnt have to go anywhere.

Mavis Pratt, owner of the store from the early 1950s and daughter of Jack Joe and Fong Quain Lowe who owned the store prior to that, remembers how the store was the focus of her life. As a child and adolescent she worked there after school, as an adult it provided the livelihood for her family. Her son, John Pratt, recalls that the tradition continued:

We were shop kids We basically went to school, came home, worked in the shop. Went to bed. Got up, go to school, come back and work in the shop.

Fong Quain Lowe and Jack Joe Lowe about 1912.

Jack Joe Lowe was born in Guangdong Province, China, and arrived in Cooktown, Queensland in 1900 aboard the S.S. Empire. Prior to his arrival in Australia, he had spent about 8 years in Hong Kong and declared that, while there, he worked as a clerk. In Australia he spent time in Queensland, Sydney, Inverell and Gunnedah (Connadilly Street) before moving to Tingha in about 1914 with his first wife, Fong Quain Lowe and his eldest son, Edgar (b.1914 in Gunnedah).

References:
Naturalisation file of Jack Joe Lowe, 1939-1959, Australian Archives (NSW): N59/956.
Janis Wilton and Joe Eisenberg, Interview with Mavis and John Pratt, Tingha, February 1998.

Edgar (Ned), Jack Joe Lowe, Mavis and Verdon Lowe at Verdun's wedding to Dorothy Que, Tingha, 1943.

Peter Pratt in front of empty packing cases at the back of Wing Hing Long, about 1950.

Peter, Mavis and John Pratt, behind the front counter at Wing Hing Long, 1998.

Mavis Pratt (nee Lowe) with her eldest son, John, about 1949

John Pratt and friend in front of a Wing Hing Long delivery truck, about 1950.

Employees

In the early twentieth century, Wing Hing Long employed a number of local residents including Chinese-Australians and a number of overseas born Chinese. By the 1950s, the store still employed a number of staff. John Pratt recalled:

There were five full timers here, even in those days. Peggy Roberts used to work up in the cash office up top... Billy Single ... worked in here [inside the store]. Athol Payne used to also work in here but he used to go out and get the orders ... and old Athol would go round on his pushbike and get the orders.

Footnotes

[i] Inverell Times, 4 July 1900.

[ii] Certificate of Title , Land Titles Office of NSW, Register Book Vol. 867, Folio 105..

[iii] J.J. Lowe, Application for Registration as an Alien, 7 October 1939. Australian Archives (NSW): N59/956.

[iv] Certificate of Title, Land Titles Office of NSW, Register Book Vol. 552, Folio 5.

[v] Tim Shellshear, Inspection Report, Wing Hing Long and Co. Store, Tingha. December 1997.

[vi] See, for example, Inverell Argus, 7 March 1924. A number of local residents have memories of his services as a herbalist.

[vii] Janis Wilton and Joe Eisenberg , Interview with Mavis Pratt, Tingha, January 1998.

[viii] ibid.

[ix] ibid. See also Ann Turner, Interview with Arthur Gar-Lock Chang, 1991. Australian National Library Oral History Collection, TRC 2724, for an account by one of the overseas-born Chinese sponsored by J.J. Lowe, and Janis Wilton, 'Chinese country stores' in Kerrie MacPherson (ed), The Asian Department Store, Curzon Press, Richmond, Surrey, 1998, pp. 90-113 or Janis Wilton, 'Chinese whispers in New South Wales', History Today (UK), 47/11, 1997, pp. 45-51 for the impact of the immigration legislation on Chinese employed in country stores during this time.

Bibliography

Books and Articles

Brown, Helen. Tin at Tingha, The Author, Armidale, 1982.

Brown, Helen. 'Pioneer settlement and mining at Tingha.' Armidale and District Historical Society Journal 36, 1993, pp. 54-61.

Collins, Jock et. al. A Shop Full of Dreams: Ethnic small business in Australia, Pluto Press, Sydney, 1995.

Kingston, Beverley. Basket, Bag and Trolley: A history of shopping in Australia, Oxford University Press, Melbourne, 1994.

Loh, Morag and Winternitz, Judith. Dinky-Di: The contributions of Chinese immigrants and Australians of Chinese descent to Australias defence forces and war efforts, Australian Government Printing Service, Canberra, 1989.

Markus, Andrew. Explaining the treatment of non-European immigrants in nineteenth century Australia, Labour History, 48, May 1985, pp. 86-91.

Schofield, Claire. Bundarra: Stepping stone of the Gwydir, The Author, Inverell, 1979.

Stacker, Julie and Stewart, Peri (compilers), Chinese Immigrants and Chinese-Australians in NSW, Australian Archives, Canberra, 1996.

Symes, James. Report on an excursion to Elsmore, Tide of Time (Inverell and District Historical Society newsletter/journal) 2, June 1968, pp.3-4.

Van Leeuwen, Michael. New gold mountain - the Chinese at Rocky River.' Armidale and District Historical Society Journal 27, 1984, 23-28.

Wiedemann, Elizabeth. 'Tin fever ... the Inverell district in the eighteen seventies', Tide of Time, 6, 1972, pp. 3-10.

Wiedemann, Elizabeth. World of its Own:Inverells early years 1827-1920, Devill Publicity, Inverell, 1981.

Wiedemann, Elizabeth. Holding Its Own: The Inverell district since 1919. Inverell, Inverell Shire Council, 1998.

Wilton, Janis. Hong Yuen: A country store and its people, Armidale CAE and Multicultural Education Coordinating Committee, NSW Department of Education, 1989.

Wilton, Janis. 'Identity, racism and multiculturalism: Chinese-Australian responses' in R. Benmayor and A. Skotnes (eds), International Yearbook of Oral History and Life Stories, Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp.85-100.

Wilton, Janis. Chinese whispers from northern New South Wales, History Today, (UK), 47/11, November 1997, pp. 45-51.

Wilton, Janis. Chinese stores in rural Australia in Kerrie MacPherson (ed.), Asian Department Stores, Curzon Press, Richmond, Surrey, 1998, pp.90-113.

Wilton, Janis. The walls speak, dont they? Heritage places and contested memories: a case study, Oral History Association of Australia Journal, 22, 2000, forthcoming.

Zhao, Karl. Memories of a difficult past, History (Magazine of the Royal Australian Historical Society), 63, March 2000, pp.10-11.

Theses and reports

Campbell, Elizabeth. A history of tin mining in the Inverell District 1871-1914 and its effects on the development of the town and district. BAHonours thesis, University of New England, 1968.

Hawley, Grant Sydney. Small town community attitudes: a geographical study of the tin mining townships of Tingha and Emmaville. BAHonours thesis, Department of Geography, University of New England, 1973.

Miles, Jinx; Brooks, Ken and Wilton, Janis. Conservation and Management Plan for Wing Hng Long and Co Store, Tingha. National Trust of Queensland prepared for the NSW Heritage Office, 2000.

Williams, Michael. Chinese settlement in NSW: a thematic history. Report for the Heritage Office of NSW, Sydney, 1999.

Wilton, Janis. Chinese Voices, Australian Lives: oral history and the Chinese contribution to Glen Innes, Inverell, Tenterfield and surrounding districts during the first half of the twentieth century. PhD, University of New England, 1996.

Newspaper and Magazine Articles

Fitzgibbon, Wendy. 'Grant to turn Tingha store into museum', Armidale Express, 18 February 1998, p.2.

Glascott, Joseph. In Tingha they tied the Chinese by their pigtails, Sydney Morning Herald, 30 April 1984.

'Historic "corner store" prepares to pull tourists', Armidale Express, 20 November 1998, p.7.

McKenzie, Andrew. 'After 35 years, time to take stock', Brisbane Courier Mail, 13 December 1984.

Meade, Kevin. 'A little local history leaves Tingha', The Australian, 30 December 1996.

'New future for piece of history', The Inverell Times, 9 January 1998, p.6.

O'Brien, Geraldine. 'Last of the proper old shops gives town spirit', Sydney Morning Herald, 18 October 1997, p. 3

'Tingha museum', The Armidale Independent, 19 February 1998, p.2.

'The Wing Hing Long store: exploring our Chinese heritage', Heritage NSW (quarterly newsletter of the NSW Heritage Office and Heritage Council of NSW), 5/1, April 1998, p. 13.

Other

Sites and Scenes, (CD-Rom) NSW Department of Education and Heritage Office of NSW, Sydney, 1999.

Wilton, Janis. Wing Hing Long inventory entry. NSW State Heritage Register. http://www.heritage.nsw.gov.au/

Search form

Main menu

You are here

Wing Hing Long: From store to museum