The history of Chinatown.

Chinese immigrants first came to Victoria in large numbers during the goldrushes of the 1850s and Melbourne's Chinatown began as a staging post for the many thousands of Chinese passing through Melbourne on their way to the goldfields. The overwhelming majority came from small farming villages in the Sze-Yap (meaning Four Districts) area of Kwangtung, China's southernmost province. Since the late eighteenth century, young men from this region had been accustomed to migrate temporarily to …

…typically located in small mining towns or on the fringes of city centres. Here, the Chinese were able to concentrate their own social institutions and, in some cases, develop a light industry base (cabinet-making in Melbourne, clothing in Boston, boot and shoe manufacturing in San Francisco). The enclaves were seen by outsiders as 'a city within a city' with strange people, shops, dress, smells and with the reputation as centres for sinister and illegal activities.