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robbery’ from the Customs bond store of several cases of opium, much of which belonged to the Hang Gong
business. Arthur, who was a prominent sportsman and cricketer, was also the probable discoverer and certainly the
owner of the successful and profitable Wheel of Fortune tin mine at West Arm. When he died of throat cancer in
Hong Kong on 21 August 1907, the Times wrote that he ‘was a prominent merchant in Port Darwin some years ago
but suffered financial reverses. The discovery of the rich Wheel of Fortune tin mine at West Arm, however, two or
three years ago, gave him a considerable lift up the ladder.’
One of Arthur’s sons, Willie, married Yam Yan’s daughter, who went on to become a prominent woman
leader in the Darwin Chinese community before she died tragically in 1930. One of Hang Gong’s two daughters,
Jane Elizabeth Tye, established a very impressive reputation in the community as a skilled and dedicated midwife.
Several of Hang Gong’s descendants, some of whom took the name Lee, are still Territory citizens, proud of their
early connections with the Top End’s Chinese community.
T G Jones, The Chinese in the Northern Territory, 1990; personal research notes; genealogical records; family records held by A O’Neil and
the Hassan and Tye families.
BARBARA JAMES, Vol 2.
HANG GONG, SARAH nee BOWMAN (1844–1911), interpreter, midwife and matriarchal pioneer, was born
in London, England, in April or May 1844 to Thomas and Sarah Bowman. She arrived in Australia in about 1861,
probably with at least one sister, Elizabeth. Family information suggests that Thomas was a brewer and the family
lived in the Creswick area of Victoria.
It is not clear how or exactly when Sarah became involved with the Chinese merchant with whom she spent most
of her life, but it was probably shortly after the family arrived in Victoria. At the age of 20, on 30 November 1864,
Sarah had a son, Thomas, followed in January 1867 by another son, Arthur Edward, whose father was registered
as Hang Gong, a 29-year-old Chinese businessman and miner in the Creswick and Ballarat regions of Victoria.
Although it is uncertain from family records whether Sarah and Lee Hang Gong ever formally married, it is clear
that they lived as man and wife from at least 1867 and it is likely that Hang Gong was also the father of Sarah’s
first son, Thomas.
In 1873 Sarah’s sister Elizabeth, then 18, married a 40-year-old Chinese merchant (butcher), Lee Long Hearng,
who had been born in Sung Ding, the same province in China in which Lee Hang Gong was born. In July 1869
Sarah had a daughter, Jane Elizabeth, followed by Cissy a few years later. A son, Herbert Doral, was born in about
1876 and another son, Ernest Howard Lee, in about 1878. All appear to have been born in the Creswick-Ballarat
region, where Hang Gong apparently became a successful merchant and Sarah very likely practised nursing and
midwifery.
Probably lured by mining discoveries, the family moved to the Territory by 1881 where Hang Gong established
himself in business in Southport and in Palmerston’s Cavenagh Street and soon became partner with another
Chinese merchant, Yam Yan.
Sarah was first mentioned in Territory records in February 1881 as the midwife/nurse who registered the birth
of a son, Arthur, to a Southport stonemason, Alfred Spurgin and his wife Emma Jane.
She next emerges as a lobbyist to the Government Resident, Edward Price, to whom she wrote in August 1881
asking that two of her sons be given work as court interpreters. She put her case in a letter which was written in
a neat and articulate style, stating ‘Having two sons who can both read and write Chinese well, I beg to ask as a
great favour if you could give them employment as interpreters or any other situation where their services might
be useful if their ages are 15 and 18 respectively.’ This does not appear to have happened immediately but by May
of 1884 Arthur had joined the police force and was often mentioned in court cases as the interpreter for Chinese
brought before the courts.
On 18 March 1882 Sarah placed an advertisement in the Northern Territory Times and Gazette saying she was
‘open to an engagement as stewardess for steamer or to attend on any lady going south who would require service
as a lady’s maid.’ It is not clear whether she received a reply to this advertisement but shipping records show her
back in the Territory in June of the same year, indicating that she did take a trip south. A month later her daughter,
Selina, about whom not a great deal is known, was listed as leaving for southern ports.
On 22 April 1882 the Palmerston District Council resolved to accept the offer being made to it by V V Brown,
representing the owner of Allotment 523, Smith Street, which Sarah was then occupying. A Palmerston resident,
Walter Harrison, took Hang Gong to court, claiming he owed him 50 Pounds for removing a house that Harrison
claimed to be leasing. Sarah successfully sought the court’s permission to appear for her husband, whom she said
could not speak English. She told the court she had purchased the house from a Mr Robinson with the intention of
removing it and had partly done so when she received the notice from Mr Harrison claiming she owed him money
for the parts removed. She claimed she had not removed any timber and that the white ants had eaten most of it
anyway. The court found in favour of Harrison and ordered Sarah and Hang Gong to pay him 35 Pounds.
In March of 1883 Sarah and one of her daughters, probably Jane Elizabeth, left south by ship. It is not known
when Sarah returned but she is recorded as again leaving by ship on 20 August 1884. It seems likely that she
spent some time over the next few years in New South Wales with her daughter Jane Elizabeth, who had married
a Chinese man, George Tye, in the mid 1880s and was busy raising a family. It is also likely that Sarah passed on
her nursing and midwifery training to her daughter, who was to become one of the Territory’s most well known
midwives.
When Lee Hang Gong died in Palmerston in 1892, Sarah continued her midwifery and nursing work as
evidenced by the fact that her name appears in several Territory birth registers as the nurse in attendance, including