Short Story: Culture, Language, and Identity in Australian History

This short story, set during the Australian Gold Rush around 1880, follows Martin, a porter who loses his job and ventures to Bathurst in search of gold. He encounters a growing conflict between Australian and Chinese miners, fueled by economic hardship and prejudice. After the government passes the Chinese Restriction and Regulation Act, Martin and his fellow miners exploit a gold mine, only to become trapped. They are rescued by Chang, a Chinese miner, leading Martin to re-evaluate his prejudices and recognize the shared humanity and hard work of the Chinese immigrants. The story highlights the importance of cultural understanding, challenging xenophobia, and promoting equality. The author used research on the Gold Rush era and the Chinese Restriction Act to ensure authenticity and language devices like allusion and imagery to represent the role of culture.

Running head: A SHORT STORY
English
-A Short Story
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1A SHORT STORY
Part A:
Martin was a hard working porter working in the Sydney port. Around the turn of
1880, in the midst of political unrest and economic crisis, Martin lost his job at the port. At
his 40’s martin was already struggling to support his family, and his wife Michonne started
working for rich families as house help for the additional income. The family income was
barely enough to feed themselves and their children Beth, Laura and Gordon. After being laid
off, Martin failed to find a suitable job in Sydney and Michonne fell sick after several months
of overtime as a maid. It was during this time, martin came to know about the ‘Australian
Gold Rush’ where large deposits of valuable Gold was found by the miners in The Blue
Mountains and Bathurst regions of New South Wales.
Unable to find any stable employment in Sydney, Martin decides to move to Bathurst
to look for gold, with the hope of improving their living situations. Martin and one of his
fellow worker Carl Grimes then moves to Bathurst to prospect for gold. There they settled in
a small miner’s colony near the Queen Charlottes’ Creek. After moving to Bathurst, martin
learns about a growing conflict between the Australian miners with a growing population of
Chinese immigrants, who have reached the coasts of Australia in search of Gold. Martin soon
noticed that the stories of vast mines of gold in the region were an exaggeration and the
available gold was hard to find and located inside the mines which are hard to access. In the
mining camps, Martin and Carl befriend fellow miners Richard Flitwick, Hank Gordon,
Eugene and Negan. The group starts to discuss how the Chinese workers are becoming a
problem for the Australian miners as they are mostly ready to work for lower wages, work for
much longer hours and have fewer demands from their employers. Due to this more and more
labor jobs were given to the Chinese. Moreover, the Chinese miners were also depleting the
gold reserves of the place, as a result of which the Australian miners were failing to find the
gold anymore.

2A SHORT STORY
Meanwhile words spread that east to the Macquarie River a mine was discovered by
the Chinese which has large deposits of gold, while Martin and other miners kept on failing
to find any substantial gold deposits in their region. Increasingly feeling frustrated for not
being able to find gold, martin and other miners started protesting to the authorities against
the Chinese, and wanted those mines to be ceased from the Chinese to allow the Australian
Miners to mine there. After months of protesting, the government passes the Chinese
Restriction and Regulation Act in 1881. This law essentially excluded all non Europeans to
mine in the Australian fields without a proper permit and documentation and gave the
authorities the right to forcefully evict Chinese families from the region.
With the hope to capitalize this situation, Martin, Carl, Richard, Hank and Eugene
visits the gold mine on the banks of Macquarie river after a colony of Chinese miners were
evicted from the region. Reaching the mine, martin and fellow miners realize that the mine
was very dangerous, and they had to enter the mine to find the gold deposits. The miners
soon clear the entrance to the mine and enter it to find some deposits of gold. This convinces
that the mine must have more deposits in the deeper pockets and starts making the mine
deeper. After weeks of hard work, the miners were able to reach a new deposit of gold and
they were thrilled with the discovery.
During this time the area was hit by a particularly bad spell of monsoon rains that
caused massive floods in the river plains. This caused a part of the mine to cave in while the
miners were still inside and caused the entrance of the mine to be cut off, thereby trapping the
miners. The miners tried for several hours to get out of the mine, but to no avail and in the
ensuing struggle, falling debris caused a fatal injury to Carl, killing him immediately and
severely injuring Eugene, while Martin, Negan and Hank tried desperately to escape the mine
and save Eugene.

3A SHORT STORY
Meanwhile, a Chinese family still living in the region, hiding from eviction notices
something was wrong with the mine. Chang as 45 year old miner moved to Australia from
China along with his wife Chi Chi, his children Yamcha and Gohan and his two brothers
Wang and Ming to escape from the imperial atrocities in China. Even with the escalating
tensions against the Chinese, Chang decided to continue staying in Australia as he felt that it
was still safer for him and his family. Chang worked hard every day, along with his brothers,
tolling on the fields, working on road construction and working as cheap labors anywhere
they could find a work. They did not complain of their difficult lives, or that they never had
enough to eat, but instead kept on working hard to make the ends meet.
Chang noticed that the gold mine caved in and noticed the tents of the miners.
Concerned that something bad has happened, Chang and his brother started to look for
survivors and soon figured out that the miners have been trapped inside the mine. Chang
found a miner’s map in the camp from which he could deduce the location where the miners
might be trapped. Chang and his brothers worked incessantly for more than 24 hours, creating
another entry to the mine to rescue the trapped workers. The miners were finally rescued by
Chang and offer the wounded miners to stay in his house until the miners recovered, even
though it put him and his family at risk of being discovered by the authorities and evicted.
Martin and his friends soon realize that the Chang is a hard working individual, who
toils in the mines and fields for more than 15 hours every day, without taking day offs or
leaves, living under difficult conditions and had a strong sense of responsibility to their work
and duties. Martin also realized the strong family values of Chang, as he refused to abandon
his family during their hard times and worked extra hard to get them out of China and bring
them to Australia in hopes of a better life. Martin realized that Chang and his brother worked
harder and longer than them, the European miners and refused to take break and always took
care of their families, no matter how difficult the times got and always showed hope and

4A SHORT STORY
optimism, even at times of great turmoil and had a very strong sense of companionship for
which they would even risk their own lives to save the lives of their companions.
Living with Chang and his family for the next few days, Martin and his fellow miners
started to develop respect towards them and started to see that the Chinese and the European
miners were not very different from each other and were essentially the same people, seeking
for the same thing- gold, with the same intentions, securing a stable financial future for their
families. The group soon realized that the demand to restrict the entry of Chinese into
Australia was an entirely foolish demand that stemmed from a lack of understanding of the
Chinese people and a sense of alienation towards them. As Martin, Richard, hank, Eugene
and Negan recovered from the incident, mourned the death of Carl, they made a pact among
themselves to advocate for the rights of the Chinese immigrants and help them as Chang’s
family did with Martin and his friends after they returned to their homes and helped Chang
and his family find a safe shelter and helped Chang and his brother get job as railroad
workers.

5A SHORT STORY
Part B:
What elements of character were most important to you to represent your understanding of
the relation between language, culture and identity?
To represent my understanding of the relation between language, culture and identity,
the elements of character that were most important included the personality and personal
values and ethics of the people as well as the cultural history.
What research did you undertake to achieve the authenticity of voice and accuracy of
setting and context?
In order to achieve the authenticity of voice and accuracy of the setting and context, I
researched extensively on the ‘Gold Rush’ era of Australia and the passing of Chinese
Restriction and Regulation Act in 1881.
What language devices did you use in your imaginative text to represent the role culture
has played in reflecting and/or shaping who you are? Assess how effective these devices
were in conveying this.
In order to represent the role culture has played in reflecting or shaping who I am, I
have used language devices such as allusion, diction and imageries. These devices were
effective in my opinion to convey my feelings properly.
Explain how your prescribed text has influenced your representation and the elements that
have shaped your short story (refer to ‘The Castle’)
The film ‘The Castle’ was about how families can be affected when they are forced to
evict their own homes and how that can be emotionally difficult for the families to deal with.
The plights of the Chinese families in the wake of passing the Chinese Restriction and
Regulation Act in 1881 were also very similar which have influenced my short story and the
way its characters were represented.

6A SHORT STORY
Bibliography:
Griffiths, P., 2012. The strategic fears of the ruling class: the construction of Queensland's
Chinese Immigrants Regulation Act of 1877. Australian Journal of Politics & History, 58(1),
pp.1-19.
Kennedy, A., 2012. Outwitting Billy Hughes and the White Australia Policy: Chinese-
Australians and the First World War. Sabretache, 53(4), p.15.
Yarwood, A.T., 1962. The ‘White Australia’policy. A re‐interpretation of its development in
the late colonial period. Australian Historical Studies, 10(39), pp.257-269.