of Commerce to represent Victoria at the Conference of Overseas 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. his tertiary studies at Melbourne University, William received Fulfilling his fathers wishes, William studied law at the University of Melbourne. Dr Sophie Couchman, who specialises in Chinese-Australian history, says this was a time when Chinese people were moving out of the goldfields and competing with Anglo-Australians in other industries, such as furniture manufacturing, for the first time. the subject of 'Reconciliation between Eastern and Western 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. of growing up in a traditional Chinese household where his If Monument Australia is useful to you, please make a donation to keep this historical and educational resource available. William broke social barriers when he signed the bar roll in 1904 one paper described him as a "full-blooded, clever young Chinese" and built a reputation as a skilled barrister. At that time, people born in Australia were British citizens by right, regardless of their parents origins. His father, Ah Ket, and mother, Hing Ung, had established one of the first tobacco farms on the King River. Each August since 2017, the William Ah Ket Scholarship committee has accepted applications for the most outstanding research paper on a topic dealing with equality, diversity, and the legal profession or the law from legal trainees, graduates, final year students and lawyers with less than five years of practice. "He played the game of affluence and gambling and carding and living it up," she recalled. of the Supreme Court and knights of the realm. Please send any press releases, deal announcements, details of new hires, newsletters and any other news items to: Copyright 2022 Vantage Asia Publishing Limited. For example, in addition to a busy life at the bar, William Ah Ket spent time as a diplomat, serving as acting consul-general for China in 1913-1914 and in 1917. After completing his secondary education, he studied law at the University of Melbourne, and joined the law firm of Maddock & Jamieson (now Maddocks). 10William Ah Ket Scholarship 2019, Program (9 October 2019). migrated from Canton in the 1850s, and when the Gold Rush At that time, people born in Australia were British citizens by right, regardless of their parents origins. The keynote address is delivered by the Honourable Susan Kiefel AC, Chief Justice of The High Court of Australia, who makes the following comments: By all accounts, Mr Ah Ket was a remarkable man. Prior to completing [3] Citing Karin Derkley, William Ah Ket Legacy Recognised (2018) 92(3) Law Institute Journal 83 at 83, 84. Mr Tang says it shows that, despite his talents, he suffered from a level of discrimination. He fought against the requirements of the 1907 Factories (Employment of Chinese) Act, which discriminated against . of Fairfield Infectious Diseases Hospital. Association in Australia held at Macquarie University on 5 July 1995. "William Ah Ket is in his teens at this time and he's being brought up to be a smart, educated young man, so he would've seen all this going on.". 1John Lack, Ah Ket, William (1876 1936),Australian Dictionary of Biography, available athttp://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/ah-ket-william-4979. including Carole Hinchcliff, helping me with my researchfor into William Ah Ket and also for promoting William's legacy and story generally. in Wangaratta, William Ah Ket continued his regular attendance of 'building bridges between the East and West.'. Despite the bamboo ceiling that William must have encountered during his life and career, it appears that his mission was to remove barriers and, as his daughter Toylaan Ah Ket wrote, to implement his personal philosophy of building bridges between the East and West. 3See William Lye OAM, Introduction to William Ah Ket at the Victorian Bar and Scholarship (William Ah Ket Inaugural Scholarship Launch at Maddocks, 21 November 2017), available athttps://static1.squarespace.com/static/54dd81c6e4b074b4a339bb2e/t/5a1409caf9619a97a1396f77/1511262667464/WILLIAM+AH+KET+launch.pdf. So commences the biography of William Ah Ket [] in theAustralian 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. William Ah Ket was Australia's first barrister of Asian heritage or ethnicity, born in Victoria in 1876. eyewitness of the Test matches between England and Australia. William's client, James Minahan, was born in Australia to an Anglo-Australian mother and Chinese father. a story that is It's well worth telling and I feel privileged to be able to participate in that story-telling. In addition to lobbying against discriminatory legislation, such as the Immigration Restriction Bill of 1901, William appeared in many cases that we would describe today as public interest cases. Wangaratta Primary School, which William Ah Ket attended as a child.Source: Andrew Godwin. The eldest daughter, Melaan, married Len 7Citing Sir Robert Menzies, The Measure of the Years (Cassell Australia, 1970) at 249. government's repeated attempts in 1904, 1905 and 1907 to make Jamieson in 1903. in the furniture-making trade. He became the leading Chinese in the district and a respected member of the Wangaratta community.. 15William 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. a keen if not always successful punter. On top of that work, William also had to deal with racism. Over time the costs of maintaining this website have risen substantially (in fact they are probably larger than those of many companies who exist for profit). A report in the Victorian Bar News of Winter 1984 records that he enjoyed an excellent general practice and was recognised as an able cross-examiner with a superb command of language. William specialised in civil cases, including lawsuits over divorce petitions, wills and contracts. Guineas and the Melbourne Cup, where he was recognised as 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 Victoria. a full primary and secondary education in Wangaratta's public She was sent to the Beechworth Lunatic Asylum and diagnosed with mania when William was five, and she lived there until she died in 1896. William's personal interests were widely diversified. in Melbourne, publicly opposed discriminatory laws against and Cambridge respectively. I haven't yet established who exactly it was that organised James Minahan's legal representation; the Chinese consulate began its operations the following year. Despite his high profile and achievements, it would seem that others were advanced while he was not. "And if nobody had stood up, like William Ah Ket, to protest against them then they might've passed.". He became the leading Chinese in the district and a respected member of the Wangaratta community. well as a tobacco-grower, store-keeper, and property owner. He was an alumnus of the University of Melbourne. William's father, Mah Ket, was one of Australia's earliest tobacco farmers. After the formalities conclude, enthusiastic discussion ensues amongst the guests about William and his legacy and includes a combination of questions and observations: How is it that William Ah Ket is not more widely known?; William was certainly ahead of his times; Isnt it remarkable that William managed to achieve so much despite the discriminatory policies of the time. William Ah Ket (, 20 June 1876 - 6 August 1936) was a noted Australian barrister. Three years later, the untimely death of William Ah Ket brought Andrew can be contacted ona.godwin@unimelb.edu.au. We will never satisfy our ambitions. and their only son, John Williams, has been acclaimed as one 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. On 16 November 1912 he married Gertrude Victoria Bullock at the Kew Methodist Church. paper is based on a paper she gave at the Conference of the Chinese Studies * Associate Director (Asian Commercial Law), Asian Law Centre, Melbourne Law School. 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. to learn the cultural traditions of ancient China, and to After the formalities conclude, enthusiastic discussion ensues among the guests about William and his legacy and includes a combination of questions and observations: How is it that William Ah Ket is not more widely known?; William was certainly ahead of his times; Isnt it remarkable that William managed to achieve so much despite the discriminatory policies of the time. William's father, Mah Ket, became highly respected Chinese people. [1][2] His daughter Melaan was the mother of the guitarist John Williams. "In the mid-1880s the colonies decided they were no longer going to naturalise Chinese, and then in 1903 that was enshrined in federal legislation. 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