Forday ! The prosperous looking man standing in the damaged cabinet photograph , above , reproduced in a Cooktown and District Historical Society slim volume about the Chinese involvement in the Palmer River gold rush, is identified as Willie Forday , who owned a store in Rockhampton , a paternal first cousin of the girls in this family group headed by Chen Ki Chong .
By Peter Simon
Research showed that Forday, born in Canton , had left Cooktown for China aboard Changsha on August 12 , l915 and returned to Townsville in March 1918 ; on arrival back in Australia he had been exempted from the dictation test under the Immigration Restriction Act 1901-1908, the White Australia Policy .
The Forday name brought back fond memories for me in Darwin of Chinese - Australian , Timmy Forday , whose father , just 11 , came out from China in 1888 to work for an uncle who ran a store for miners in Cooktown.
His name was Lee For Dai , but somehow the shipping authorities gave him the surname Forday during the voyage to Australia . Timmy's mother , his father's second wife, Kim Sing Fong , was born in Darwin .
I met jovial , chain smoking Timmy Forday in 1958 when he was a linotype operator at the Northern Territory News and over the years shared many pleasant times and memories with him . At his funeral in Darwin I told how he had complained at the NT News about copy he was given to punch out in metal on the linotype as it had so many alterations and subbing marks it looked like, in his words, a bloody Chinese - pak- ah- poo ticket, a colourful remark which upset the sub editor, Keith Willey .
He is shown here with his wife, Dawn , from Townsville. Timmy had a varied career in the newspaper and printing industry. Starting as a linotype operator/ compositor at the Rockhampton Morning Bulletin , he worked in Cairns, Innisfail , Townsville , Mackay , Sydney and Brisbane .
For a time he produced the Chinese Chimes , run off on a gestetner , the front page of which was a stencil designed by Brisbane herbalist Willy Sou San that usually included a dragon and Chinese symbols . Young Australian-Chinese across the nation received the publication .
An adventurous person, Timmy went to New Guinea and worked on the South Pacific Post . With gusto and chuckles , he often told how he decided to move back to Australia when the Papuans told him they would " eat " him when they gained self rule . Not wanting to become a Chinese take away, he headed for Darwin .
In Darwin he was doing his washing at the back of the NT News one night when a large python slid through the window and Timmy took to his heels, a workmate chased the snake about the building with a speargun . Timmy's mates in the boisterous News factory often yelled out there was a python on the premises which felt Chinamen were very tasty .
An enterprising couple , Timmy and his wife had several business ventures , one being a toy shop at Parap trading as Tim the Toy Man with the Humphrey B. Bear of TV fame franchise . When the star bear visited Darwin for Timmy the Toyman police had to control the crowd. Timmy opened a video business and set up a centre for the many reporters covering the Azaria Chamberlain case .
For a time he produced the Chinese Chimes , run off on a gestetner , the front page of which was a stencil designed by Brisbane herbalist Willy Sou San that usually included a dragon and Chinese symbols . Young Australian-Chinese across the nation received the publication .
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A 1952 Chinese New Year edition of Chinese Chimes, the name probably a play on The Times, London .
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In Darwin he was doing his washing at the back of the NT News one night when a large python slid through the window and Timmy took to his heels, a workmate chased the snake about the building with a speargun . Timmy's mates in the boisterous News factory often yelled out there was a python on the premises which felt Chinamen were very tasty .
An enterprising couple , Timmy and his wife had several business ventures , one being a toy shop at Parap trading as Tim the Toy Man with the Humphrey B. Bear of TV fame franchise . When the star bear visited Darwin for Timmy the Toyman police had to control the crowd. Timmy opened a video business and set up a centre for the many reporters covering the Azaria Chamberlain case .
