Why this Chinese family has been celebrated in Tasmania for more than 150 years

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In 1873, James Chung Gon came to Australia as a young man in search of gold but found tin instead in Tasmania. Throughout 151 years, his family have become a household name on the 'Apple Isle'.

Not every newborn baby makes it onto the front page of their local newspaper, but Mei Ling Chung Gon was an exception. When she was born in Hobart in 1940, a local Tasmanian newspaper, The Mercury, published a picture of her and her Australia-born mother, Gladys Sym Choon, describing her as "a precious Chinese-Australian infant". As the first-born of her generation in the Chung Gon family, Mei Ling said she has lived in the spotlight ever since.

After arriving in Launceston, the family would go to the Chung Gon Grocer's on Elizabeth Street, where James lived in the residence above the shop. "We'd walk through the fruit shop and would be sitting there on his big armchair and in front of him would be the Chinese checkers or snakes , ready for us to play," she said. On Sunday, Mei Ling and her would walk down Elizabeth Street to the Gateway Baptist Church, where James was a lay preacher.

 

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