| Historical notes: | The land on which Wing Hing Long is situated was originally part of the land granted (by Crown Grant) to William Millis, James Tysoe, William Moore, Samuel Wilkinson and Francis Tait on 11 December 1879. In 1881 the property was purchased by Ah Lin, a storekeeper of Inverell. From this date until the sale of the property to Guyra Shire Council in early 1998, the Wing Hing Long store and residence were owned by Chinese immigrants and their descendants. Ah Lin was followed by Ding Chee, a butcher from Vegetable Creek (now Emmaville) (1883); Jock Sing from Glen Innes (1883 to 1887); Ah Bow, a miner from Tingha (1877 to 1899); and Charles Hing, a storekeeper from Tingha (1899 to 1918). In 1918 another Chinese immigrant, Jack Joe Lowe, became the owner of the property. He owned and managed the store until 1939 when it was transferred to his eldest son, Edgar Lowe. In 1951, J.J. Lowe's daughter, Mavis Pratt, bought the property and ran the business until early 1998.
The history of ownership is a reminder of the long and continuous association of Chinese-Australians with the town of Tingha, and with establishing and managing general stores in regional New South Wales during the late nineteenth and first half of the twentieth century.
The town of Tingha was created in the early 1870s. It was a private town built for the large increase in population caused by the discovery of rich tin deposits in the area. By the 1880s the town and its surrounding district had a population of around 4,000. Among the new arrivals were many Chinese who, at the peak of the mining boom, numbered around 900. Most came as miners. Some provided services required by the miners. Among these were stores usually established initially to provide the goods and services (including Chinese cooking ingredients, letterwriting services, banking services) required by the Chinese residents. Then, as the number of Chinese diminished, the stores extended their customer base to the broader local community. The subsequent histories of these stores reflect aspects of the rise and decline of general stores throughout regional areas and, indeed, the rise and decline of particular towns and communities. They also reveal aspects, which can be attributed specifically to their place as Chinese-Australian owned stores. Wing Hing Long in its fabric, its archival and movable heritage collections, and in its history provides a unique insight into this part of New South Wale's heritage.
From research to date, it seems that the main section of the Wing Hing Long store was built some time in the 1880s or early 1890s. The building materials and construction still extant appear to date from this period (Shellshear 1998). A photograph taken in about 1900 (see image 1) shows that, by the turn of the century, the store was an established business. Newspaper advertisements from the time indicate the services provided: 'The noted cheap store of Tingha. Groceries, drapery, ironmongery, tobacco, pipes and everything that goes to make up new stock. Prices defy competition.' (Inverell Times, 4 July 1900).
Wing Hing Long, like so many general stores in country areas, continued to provide and develop this mixture of goods and services throughout the first half of the twentieth century. Oral histories and newspaper advertisements offer evocative descriptions. Mavis Pratt, for example, recalled that when she was growing up in the 1920s and 1930s the store offered 'Grocery, drapery, materials, ... hats, children's' wear, shoes, wallpapers, furniture, linos, dredging goods, ... explosives for dredging.' (Interview with Mavis Pratt, January 1998). A 1924 local newspaper advertisement (Inverell Argus, 7 March 1924) reminded that the owner, J.J. Lowe, also offered his expertise as 'The Noted Chinese Herbalist' able to treat a variety of complaints.
The store itself was divided into different departments. Surviving signage, fittings and furnishings along with recorded memories provide clear indications of the goods displayed and sold in the various sections of the store. The cashier's box and cashier's pulley, also still in place, provide a demonstration of how payments were made. At its height in the first half of the twentieth century, this was a thriving business with between ten and fifteen staff members who included overseas-born Chinese and local residents (both Chinese and non-Chinese).
The presence of overseas-born Chinese among the staff was a product both of Chinese traditions and of the restrictions imposed by the 1901 Immigration Restriction Act. For Chinese outside China, providing opportunities for family and clan members was important. This meant assisting them to migrate to find work. Under the 1901 legislation one of the few areas of employment open to new Chinese immigrants was as shop assistants sponsored by their compatriots. As with other Chinese general stores at the time, Wing Hing Long provided Chinese employees with accommodation, board and a salary. Their living quarters were in the sheds underneath the family residence and, for a time, a couple of them 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.
After the Second World War the store continued as a thriving and viable enterprise into the 1960s. Mrs Pratt's sons, John and Peter, remember how as young children they helped with the packaging of bulk goods out the back of the store, and the collecting and delivering of orders around the town. However, the business was slowly undermined by declining job opportunities, the decreasing population in the town and the improved roads and communications. This meant that there were fewer local customers and those who did remain, had easier access to the expanding supermarkets in the nearby larger town of Inverell. The goods and services offered slowly contracted until, by the 1980s, Wing Hing Long was primarily a grocery store with business and displays concentrated in the main room of the store.
In 1997 Mavis Pratt decided it was definitely time to retire. In early 1998 the store and most of its contents were purchased by Guyra Shire Council for community management (by the Tingha Progress Association) as a store museum. This transfer of ownership was achieved with the assistance of the Golden Threads Project, the cooperation of the Pratt family, the commitment and negotiating skills of Ron Pickering and the Tingha community, and the financial support of the NSW Heritage Office and the NSW Ministry for the Arts.
Since the transfer of ownership, necessary maintenance and repair work has been done on parts of the building, computer databases have been established for accessioning and cataloguing the movable heritage and archival collections, and initial work has been done on the collections. Wing Hing Long opened in its new guise as a community managed store museum in January 1999. |