Born in China in 1850 but transported to the gold fields of New South Wales at age nine to accompany an uncle, Mei Quong Tart became a popular Sydney figure and a crucial bridge between British colonial Australia and its Chinese immigrants.
Although he initially made money through investing in gold claims, after a trip to China to see his family, he began to import tea. As David Lyons writes:
His aspirations for Sydney was to set up in trading of tea and silks, popular items in this new and growing city. In 1881, he decided to return to China to seek opportunities of securing quality products and trade agreements. Before his departure Quong acquired letters of recommendation from the highest of Sydney’s society, including the Premier Sir Henry Parkes.
His visit to China was a great success. Armed with his newly created status and the accompanying letters of recommendation, they helped him to secure the trade agreements he wanted.
Tart initially opened a small teahouse and then when it proved popular, he established the Loong Shan Tea House in central Sydney in 1889. The Loong Shan was well-regarded by government officials and high society but it was the ladies of Sydney who truly appreciated having somewhere reputable to meet; the tearooms have long been regarded as the engine room for the women's suffrage movement in Australia.
In August 1902, he was attacked by a man named Frederick Duggan at his offices. Duggan was sentenced to 12 years in prison for what police said was a robbery gone wrong. Tart's friends suspected jealous businessmen behind the assault, though they were split between a racially motivated attack orchestrated by white Australians or a hit ordered by resentful members of the Chinese community. Tart died from pleurisy almost a year later, in July 1903, at his Ashfield home. More than 1,500 attended his funeral.
While the Glasshouse Shopping Centre and its carpark now stands on the site of the former Loong Shan, you can still 'visit' Quong Tart in the suburb of Ashfield, where he lived and died. His mansion has been turned into an aged care facility specialising in Chinese seniors and a monument to him has been erected in Hercules Street, outside the railway station. I pass it sometimes, when I go to get bubble tea across the road.
