[1] Completing this course in 1899, William won the Supreme Court Judges Prize in 1902 and was admitted to practice in 1903. 14See Toylaan Ah Ket, William Ah Ket - Building Bridges between Occident and Orient in Australia, 1900-1936 (paper delivered at the Conference of the Chinese Studies Association in Australia held at Macquarie University on 5 July 1995), available athttps://arrow.latrobe.edu.au/store/3/4/5/5/1/public/stories/wahket.htm. William was particularly active in the fight against racial discrimination. Dr Couchman says the changes William spoke out against were "very invasive". His father, Ma Ket [], had arrived in Victoria in 1855 to work as a community leader for the Chinese workers in the goldfields of Victoria. William moved to Melbourne in 1893 to study law at Melbourne University, and was formally admitted to the Victorian Bar in 1904. AUSTRALIA
Fast forward 90 years to 9 October 2019 when an audience of some 50 persons are gathered in the Great Hall of the High Court of Australia to attend the third award ceremony for the William Ah Ket Scholarship a scholarship established by the Asian Australian Lawyers Association in 2017 and supported by Maddocks. I am grateful for the opportunity of coming to know more about William Ah Ket. He went to the bar the following year and is widely understood to have become the first Australian lawyer of Chinese descent to practise as a barrister at the independent bar in the state of Victoria.3. He sold opium, among other supplies. William Ah Ket was chosen as delegate by the Chinese Chamber
Educated in both English and Chinese cultures, he agitated against racial intolerance in Victoria and defended the rights of Victoria`s Chinese community. That includes our servers. Toylaan remembered his final words: "Unity is strength.". Growing up, Toylaan was sometimes teased for her Chinese heritage, but said she rarely spoke to her father on how she should deal with racism. a story that is It's well worth telling and I feel privileged to be able to participate in that story-telling. father employed a resident tutor for his 'seven little Australians'
Each data center building is the size of a modern day aircraft carrier, nearly four football fields long. Crossing Time: Australia's transgender historypart 1. the Consul-General for China, Dr. W.P. James_Michael, Hm qua, lc 22:28. William Ah Ket (1876-1936), barrister, was born on 20 June 1876 at Wangaratta, Victoria, only son and fifth child of Ah Ket, storekeeper and grower and buyer of tobacco, and his wife Hing Ung, who were married in Melbourne in 1864. family. By Andrew GodwinAssociate Director (Asian Commercial Law), Asian Law Centre, Melbourne Law School. Chinese under the umbrella of the White Australia Policy,
In a High Court case calledIngham v Hie Lee,11 Ah Ket represented a Chinese laundry owner who was charged with an offence under theFactories and Shops Act 1905 in Victoria. The Australian Dictionary of Biography notes the following in its entry on William Ah Ket: Ah Ket built up a healthy practice at the Victorian Bar, specialising in civil law. to win the reluctant approval of the bench with his propensity
In memory of William Ah Ket (1876 - 1936),who was born in Wangaratta of Chinesedescent and became a prominent Victorianbarrister. Tel: +61 3 9479 1315
William was survived by his wife Gertrude Victoria (nee Bullock) and four children Dr. William, Stanley, Melaan and Toylaan. in Chisholm Street. He died on 6 August 1936 of arteriosclerosis and renal failure at Malvern, Victoria. William Ah Ket also wrote articles and gave lectures in support
for its foundation. Occasionally their
He was also the acting consul-general for China in 1913-14 and in 1917. N. Make a life-giving gesture In a passage that is still recognised as current law in Australia, Justice OConnor stated as follow: It isimprobable that the legislature would overthrow fundamental principles, infringe rights, or depart from the general system of law, without expressing its intention with irresistible clearness13. English-born forebears had migrated to Australia from Cheshire
Maddocks CEO named judge for 2021 William Ah Ket Scholarship. . His father Mah Ket had arrived in Australia in the 1850s, during the gold rush era, and his mother in the 1860s. Toylaan Margaret Allen,his last surviving child, passed away in New South Wales on 16th July 2015. Toylaan, the youngest daughter, died in 2015 at the age of 94. In addition, William Ah Ket possessed a deep knowledge of the Western classics and modern languages and was wont to include quotes from Shakespeare, the Scottish poet Robert Burns or a Gilbert & Sullivan opera during his appearances in court!17. He went on to live in China for several years. He became the leading Chinese in the district and a respected member of the Wangaratta community.. His witticisms were aimed less to disarm the witness than
She said there were maids at the family home, where her parents often hosted glamorous mah-jong and poker parties for their friends. respect, not only within his legal fraternity, but within
He acquired a considerable reputation as a negotiator of settlements. opinions expressed in these stories do not necessarily reflect those of La Trobe University
After living in China for many years, he returned to Australia as an adult but was treated as a prohibited immigrant because he failed a dictation test imposed by the immigration legislation at the time. established their home at No.1 Dandenong Road, Malvern where
Sir Robert Menzies practised with William in Selbourne Chambers. There is, however, evidence that William was resigned to the associated barriers and limitations that his life involved. William Ah Ket did not ever sit on the Bench, though he would have been a very competent judge. government's repeated attempts in 1904, 1905 and 1907 to make
alleviation of all unreasonable conditions imposed on the
The act expressly discriminated against the Chinese and prohibited after-hours work in a factory or work-room where furniture was made or where any Chinese person was at any time employed. New and compelling histories from Australia and around the world. 2Helen Penrose, To Build a Firm: The Maddocks Story (Maddocks, 2010), 11. So commences the biography of William Ah Ket [] in the Australian Dictionary of Biography.1 An alumnus of the University of Melbourne, William studied Jurisprudence in 1897 at the University before joining the law firm of Maddock & Jamieson (now Maddocks) and commencing the articled clerks course at the University in 1898.2 After completing the articled clerks course in 1899, William won the Supreme Court Judges Prize in 1902 and was admitted to practice in 1903. Liu in Sydney who both obtained generous financial support
First Australians and Traditional Custodians of the lands where we in 1982 and is currently writing the biography of her father. [12] William Ah Ket, Eastern Thought, with special reference to Confucius (Second Morrison Lecture, 3 May 1933), available at https://openresearch-repository.anu.edu.au/bitstream/1885/145813/2/Morrison%20Oration%2002.pdf. In the past we have borne all the costs associated with maintaining the website but we are now having difficulties in paying the monthly expenses. "Obviously there's not a White Australia policy as such against Chinese migrants," she says. Despite these achievements, William Ah Ket's story is little-known. 820 Drummond Street Carlton North VIC 3054. and Cambridge respectively. The story of William Ah Ket is a significant one in the history of the Australian legal profession. With paternal ancestry from Taishan, southern China, Ah Ket was Australia's first barrister of Asian heritage or ethnicity.He was born on 20 June 1876 at Wangaratta, Victoria, the only son and fifth child of Mah Ket and Hing Ung.He was an alumnus of the University of Melbourne.On 16 November 1912 he married Gertrude Victoria Bullock at the . His father, Ma Ket [], had arrived in Victoria in 1855 to work as a community leader for the Chinese workers in the goldfields of Victoria. William was particularly active in the fight against racial discrimination. All rights reserved. Ah Kets legal team successfully proved that the Chinese man was not an employee of the laundry but instead a boarder at the laundry and that he had simply been ironing his own shirt! Menzies, Owen Dixon, James Tait, and
View William Webb's profile on LinkedIn, the world's largest professional community. Vivienne Davis, William Ah Ket's great-niece, suspects she actually suffered from post-natal depression. place in The Stand during the season of The Oaks, the Caulfield
He joined the ranks of barristers the following year, and is widely understood to have become the first Australian lawyer of Chinese descent to practise as a barrister at the independent bar in the state of Victoria. "[The man was] asking him how the Chinaman liked his cup of tea and really awful things," she says. specifically exclude the Chinese from gaining a livelihood
[11] See Toylaan Ah Ket, William Ah Ket - Building Bridges between Occident and Orient in Australia, 1900-1936 (paper delivered at the Conference of the Chinese Studies Association in Australia held at Macquarie University on 5 July 1995), available at https://arrow.latrobe.edu.au/store/3/4/5/5/1/public/stories/wahket.htm. His father had arrived in Victoria in 1855 and after some years on the goldfields established one of the earliest tobacco-farms on the King River. and president of the Nam Pon Soon Society, and a committee
He fought against the requirements of the 1907 Factories (Employment of Chinese) Act, which discriminated against . The International Who's Who: 1984/85, 2004, "William Ah Ket - Building Bridges between Occident and Orient in Australia, 1900-1936*", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=William_Ah_Ket&oldid=1136723876, Short description is different from Wikidata, All Wikipedia articles written in Australian English, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 31 January 2023, at 20:35. He was also active in political groups which lobbied on behalf of the Chinese-Australian community against the legal supply of opium, and laws which imposed restrictions on Chinese laundry workers and furniture-makers. He specialised in civil law and acquired a considerable reputation as a negotiator of settlements. He became the leading Chinese in the district and a respected member of the Wangaratta community. The rise of China has everyone talking. William stayed involved with the University and was elected the President of the Law Students Society on 19 April 1907.4 Some 20 years later, in 1929, William supported a toast in favour of Sir Harrison Moore, the third Dean of Melbourne Law School, at a dinner hosted by the Law Students Society to mark Sir Harrisons retirement in 1927. Ah Ket appeared in another High Court case calledPotter v Minahan.12 In that case, Ah Ket represented a man who was born in Australia of a Chinese father and a white Australian mother. Australia's first Chinese barrister William Ah Ket was born in the Victorian country town of Wangaratta. , to Build a Firm: the Maddocks story ( Maddocks, )! Within he acquired a considerable reputation as a negotiator of settlements his cup of tea and really awful things ''... Really awful things, '' she says of 94 last surviving child, passed away in New South on! Limitations that his life involved, 11 a White Australia policy as such against Chinese migrants, '' she.. 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