<P> Some historians have theorised that Northern Indigenous Australians may even have had dealings with Chinese traders or come across Chinese goods particularly through trepanging . Sir Joseph Banks was of the opinion that any British colony in Australia could be populated by ' useful inhabitants from China ' . The first official undisputed link between China and Australia comes from the very beginning of the colony of New South Wales . The First Fleet ships , Scarborough , Charlotte and Lady Penrhyn , after dropping off their convict load , sailed for Canton to buy tea and other goods to sell on their return to England . The Bigge Report attributed the high level of tea drinking to ' the existence of an intercourse with China from the foundation of the Colony ... ' Many British East India Company ships used Australia as a port of call on their trips to and from buying tea from China . That the ships carrying such cargo had Chinese crew members is likely and that some of the crew and possibly passengers embarked at the port of Sydney is probable . Certainly by 1818 , Mak Sai Ying ( also known as John Shying ) had arrived and after a period of farming became , in 1829 , the publican of The Lion in Parramatta . John Macarthur , a prominent pastoralist , employed three Chinese people on his properties in the 1820s and records may well have neglected others . Another way ethnic Chinese made it to Australia was from the new British possessions of Malaysia and Singapore . </P>
<P> Some historians have theorised that Northern Indigenous Australians may even have had dealings with Chinese traders or come across Chinese goods particularly through trepanging . Sir Joseph Banks was of the opinion that any British colony in Australia could be populated by ' useful inhabitants from China ' . The first official undisputed link between China and Australia comes from the very beginning of the colony of New South Wales . The First Fleet ships , Scarborough , Charlotte and Lady Penrhyn , after dropping off their convict load , sailed for Canton to buy tea and other goods to sell on their return to England . The Bigge Report attributed the high level of tea drinking to ' the existence of an intercourse with China from the foundation of the Colony ... ' Many British East India Company ships used Australia as a port of call on their trips to and from buying tea from China . That the ships carrying such cargo had Chinese crew members is likely and that some of the crew and possibly passengers embarked at the port of Sydney is probable . Certainly by 1818 , Mak Sai Ying ( also known as John Shying ) had arrived and after a period of farming became , in 1829 , the publican of The Lion in Parramatta . John Macarthur , a prominent pastoralist , employed three Chinese people on his properties in the 1820s and records may well have neglected others . Another way ethnic Chinese made it to Australia was from the new British possessions of Malaysia and Singapore . </P>
when did the chinese first arrive in australia
when did the chinese first arrive in australia
1818
1818