HERSTORY
The stories of the women in our Chinese Australian Family History — Daughters, Wives, Mothers and Aunties.
An event hosted by the Chinese Australian Family Historians of Victoria (CAFHOV), supported by the Museum of Chinese Australian History was held on Sunday 16th August 2026
Hear from some of our members about the women they have researched.
Learn of the many tremendous challenges these women faced, such as living in China whilst their husbands were in Australia, or adapting to a new culture and language, as well as caring for family.
Dutiful Daughters? Anglo/Chinese Girls on the Ovens Goldfields
Diann Talbot, CAFHOV member
Teaguers and Hiahs: A Chinese-Irish-Australian Family
Mark Hillyer, CAFHOV member
This talk explores the difficult life of Ellen Farrell, who married a Chinese man in 1855. This was probably the first such marriage in South Australia. The couple then moved to the Victorian gold fields, where they had six children. Three daughters married Chinese men in the 1870s.
Saharet: Australia’s Greatest Dancer?
Mary Vanderfeen, CAFHOV member
Discovery of Saharet’s story was as much a revelation to her family as it was for the participants at the CAFHOV Family History Day in 2026. After her mother, Elizabeth, left Australia for the “land of dollars” in 1891 with her two young daughters, nothing more was heard of the three Foon family members by family in Ballarat. With Elizabeth reinvented as Evangeline, and Pauline becoming Clarissa, the star eccentric dancer “Saharet” emerged in California. Melbourne based chronicler of “Forgotten Australian Actors,” Nick Murphy, not only found the missing Ballarat born Elizabeth and Richmond born Pauline, but tracked down the Foon family historian, the late Mark Lepp. This video showcases Saharet’s career in the United States, Britain and Europe as a highly paid, headline vaudeville act and silent movie star, who was marketed as “Saharet, Australia’s Greatest Dancer.” P.S. the book “Struggletown, portrait of an Australian working-class community ” was written in 1988 by historian, Janet McCalman, now Professor Emerita / Emeritus Melbourne School of Population and Global Health, University of Melbourne, vividly describes conditions in Richmond where Saharet was born.
Lily Woon: A Brave and Resilient Woman
Marie Hammond, CAFHOV member
Follow the journey of Lily Woon (Hong Shee) who migrates from rural China to rural Australia. She leaves behind a life of famine to travel to strange land, with no understanding of local language, no friends or family and she agrees to marry an unknown husband by proxy. Hear her story of survival.
Fung Leen Woo: A Life Blessed by 8s
Carina Slavik, CAFHOV member
A cross-generational family story of luck, resilience, and quiet strength, Fung Leen Woo: A Life Blessed by 8s traces Phyllis’s remarkable journey from wartime Rabaul to building a new life in Australia. Filled with cultural richness, unexpected twists, and the symbolic thread of the number eight, her story shines with courage, humour, and deep devotion.
Gold Mountain Wives the musical
Special guest, Jun Bin Lee – Small Ripples Theatre
Gold Mountain Wives is a musical that reimagines the lives, friendships and resilience of 3 Chinese Australian women in the early 20th century Victoria, inspired by real historical figures whose experiences were rarely recorded in their own voices.
Learn more about Small Ripples Theatre