page_title: Cairns Chinatown Building
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Cairns Chinatown Building / History
caption_attribution_description: English: China Town, Cairns, 1886. View overlooking the buildings of China Town in Cairns, Queensland, 23 April 1886. The buildings are simple in design, made of timber with gabled rooves.
context_page_description: The Cairns Chinatown Building is a heritage-listed commercial building at 99 Grafton Street, Cairns, Cairns Region, Queensland, Australia. It was built from c. 1892 to c. 1902 and is one of the last remaining buildings from the Cairns Chinatown. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 27 May 2005.
context_section_description: It is likely that the building at 99 Grafton Street, Cairns was constructed in the late nineteenth century or early twentieth century. The existing building was constructed of handmade bricks and divided into two shops with multiple gabled roof of differing heights. At the time of construction the building formed part of a much larger group of buildings which became known as Cairns Chinatown. At that time it was Lot 2, Allotment 18, Section 27, Sachs Street which has been changed to Grafton Street and in now situated on Lot 2 RP721943.
  One of the first Chinese businesses in Cairns was established in Abbott Street by Mr Andrew Leon (Leong Chong) soon after his arrival in 1876. In 1881 Andrew Leon and 100 other Chinese businessmen formed a co-operative of shareholders to cultivate a selection known as Portion 52, owned by Leon. This was the first large scale sugar cultivation in far north Queensland. The mill, known as "Pioneer", was opened in August 1881 in a large event attracting many stakeholders and official guests. The mill and its assets were sold in 1886 and Andrew Leon concentrated his business interests in Sachs Street, Cairns (renamed Grafton Street in the 1930s). Andrew Leon was an innovative agriculturalist and businessman who represented the Cairns Chinese community on official occasions, presenting welcome addresses from the Chinese community, acted as an interpreter in court, and provided the means for preserving cultural linkages as one of the principle trustees for the Lit Sung Goong Temple.
  The growing agricultural industry in the Cairns region supported a large number of Chinese in industries such as market gardening and shop keeping. In 1886 the Chinese population of Cairns accounted for 60% of all farmers and 90% of all market gardeners, and Sachs Street was recognized as a focus for Chinese activities. Chinese businesses in Sachs Street included boarding houses, gaming houses, opium dens and merchant stores.
  Ten years after arriving in Cairns, Andrew Leon purchased allotment 18 Section 27 off Robert Philp in 1886. The allotment was subdivided into two allotments and the Lit Sung Goong Temple was constructed.
  In 1892 Andrew Leon took out a substantial mortgage with the Queensland National Bank for £200 (and further advances) on Lot 2 Allotment 18. The next year four shops were noted for the first time in the Cairns Municipal Rates Book on Lot 2, Allotment 18. A Chinese bricklayer Lee Bat was noted by The Cairns Post in October 1896 as working in the district and the Cairns Argus noted that the Temple on Lot 1 had a great brick oven.
  Andrew Leon leased the property to merchants Lee Yan Kee, a consortium of four brothers. One of the brothers Lee Yan, brought his wife and a child servant from China in 1895 and they are the first Chinese women to arrive directly from China to live in Chinatown. They then lived behind the adjoining timber building until 1902.
  In late 1902 Andrew Leon took out another loan for £200, this time with the Bank of North Queensland. Two shops on the site were subleased to a Chinese man and a Japanese prostitute O'Kunato in 1903. This was the beginning of a long association with the property being used to house women who worked as prostitutes. Three Japanese women worked at different periods from the shop until 1922; after which European women then took up the tenancy. They lived and worked in either one or both sides of the building for the next forty-four years. In 1922, the last of the Japanese women tenants, Osangi, left the shops. In her place, Mrs Miller took up residence and she lived and worked there under the euphemism of "domestic duties" for the next ten years.
  In October 1908 Andrew Leon entered an arrangement with Goon Chew who had placed a caveat over the land until it was purchased by another leading merchant Willie Ming in 1911. When he purchased it he also took over Andrew Leon's mortgage. The place was resold in 1914 to Neils Schmidt who died not long after and it passed to his beneficiaries who owned the property until mid 1925. The property was then bought by F
caption: Chinatown in Cairns, 1886. It is not known if this building appears in this photo.
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