Australian Mandarin: The Life and Times of Quong Tart

Quong Tart was one of the most fascinating and colourful characters of colonial Sydney. A Mandarin of the Blue Button, honoured by the Dragon Throne with the Peacock feather, he was at the same time a fine cricketer, an all-round sportsman, a staunch Freemason, and a spirited singer of Highland ballads, which he rendered in a fine Aberdonian brogue. He was a tea merchant. Robert Travers has used a wealth of contemporary material, including cartoons, and some truly awful doggerel, to bring to life colonial Sydney and the genial Quong Tart. Quong Tart struggled for years to stop the trade in opium. He lived at time of xenophobia, yet he was a popular citizen of Sydney. Throughout his life he was celebrated by some truly dreadful verse. His marriage to Margaret Scarlett was happy despite his mother’s and her father’s opposition. He was a sportsman, a businessman and a charitable man. Robert Travers writes of the life of this unusual man. pp. 192 #200422