Summary

Atherton Chinatown, located in tropical North Queensland, developed during the late nineteenth century. The town was once home to a thriving Chinese community. Gold attracted Chinese settlers to North Queensland in the late 1800s but when the gold ran out, many turned to market gardening and timber cutting. By the late 1920s Atherton Chinatown was virtually deserted.

This collection records James Cook University's archaeological activities between 1986 and the early 1990s at a highly significant site at Atherton in regard to a temple. The remains of Atherton's Chinatown are now an archaeological site featuring that community's place of worship, the Hou Wang Temple, which has been conserved and restored. The documents and photographs here are primarily concerned with site descriptions and summaries of Chinatown's history, records and descriptions of excavated finds, and survey/grid reference maps.