Whether it was a poll tax of $20 on each Chinese entering Victoria by ship that was introduced in 1855, anti-Chinese riots in the Buckland Valley in 1857, anti-Chinese riots in Lambing Flat (now Young) in 1860, or the White Australia policy designed to exclude Asian immigrants that lasted from 1901 until 1973, Australia has a long history of anti-Chinese feeling.

It is therefore a surprise to find that Fook Shing, a native of Guangdong in Southern China, was one of the original 28 police detectives operating in Victoria from the 1860s to 1886.

The anxiety felt in government circles at the onset of the gold rush led to the adoption of plain-clothes policing in the colony.

Unlike Britain, where detectives were discouraged from wearing plain clothes and liaising with criminals, Melbourne’s detectives moved within the criminal community.

They relied on surveillance and informants then known as ‘fizzgigs’.

Fook Shing arrived in Victoria at the height of the gold rush in the early 1850s and, while working on the Bendigo goldfields, acted as a local headman for the Chinese miners there.

Most Chinese on the goldfields were from Guangdong.

In Bendigo, he ran a touring theatre company and a brickworks. Through canny trading in these and other businesses, Fook Shing became wealthy.

By the later 1850s, he had become a naturalised Briton, as Colonial citizenship was then known, and had married Ellen Mary Fling.

In the 1860s, Fook Shing moved to Melbourne’s Chinatown. There, initially, Victoria Police relied on Fook Shing as an interpreter.

Subsequently, in that same decade, he was appointed a police detective, third class.

At the time, police in the colony were mostly Irish and struggled with Chinese faces, names and culture, so Fook Shing provided a knowledgeable guide for them.

Fook Shing also served as a guide for colonial and foreign observers seeking to understand the Chinese people, and their place in Australia.

He was very successful at both roles but was never promoted beyond his initial rank.

For the next 20 years, Fook Shing served as Melbourne’s Chinese detective.

From his home, just off Little Bourke St, he successfully policed the Chinese community and visitors to Chinatown.

From time to time, he was sent on assignment to country areas to trace and arrest Chinese criminals. He was even sent to other colonies to pursue Chinese suspects.

Sometimes Fook Shing was criticised by uniformed police, his fellow detectives and the local newspapers for his habits.

He was an inveterate gambler and opium user and was often seen in the establishments in Little Bourke St that had sprung up to service these needs.

Because of his success in policing the Chinese community, his failings were overlooked by Police Command.

Once, he even submitted a receipt for funds ‘spent obtaining information’.

His superiors paid for the reimbursement even though they knew that it had been spent on opium.

“I know opium is necessary to obtain anything from the Chinese at all,” said his superior.

Heavy opium use takes a toll. Fook Shing retired, unfit for further service, in 1886 .

He travelled back to China and spent several years there before returning to Melbourne.

He died in 1896.

Fook Shing, now known as Harry Fook Shing, was buried in Melbourne General Cemetery.

These days, there is a Chinese restaurant in Kyneton called Fook Shing. The detective’s face features in the restaurant.

– John Barry.

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Tuesday, 20th February 2024

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