3. Charlie Allen was born in Sydney in 1896.
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4. His mother was Frances Allen (sometime
sweet shop owner and brothel keeper), his
father Charlie Gum (a buyer for Wing On
company).
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5. Charlie was raised by his mother, but in
1909, at the age of 13, he was taken to
China by his father.
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6. His father returned to Sydney, leaving
Charlie in China. He lived with relatives
in the town of Shekki (inland from Hong
Kong) for 6 years.
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7. Charlie was homesick, but had no means
of getting back to Australia. His mother
attempted to enlist government help but
to no avail. Charlie finally returned in
1915.
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8. The following year Charlie enlisted in
First AIF (well actually he enlisted three
times, and was discharged as medically
unfit each time).
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9. Charlie married in Sydney in 1917 and had
two daughters soon after. He returned to
China in 1922 for 7 months.
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10. Charlie Allen died in 1938 as the result of
an industrial accident. He was 41.
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11. How do we know about Charlie Allen?
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18. Between 1901 and 1911, 400 circulars were
issued to port officers about immigration
restriction.
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19. The confidential manual on immigration
restriction grew from one page in 1902 to
more than 200 in 1912.
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20. For the years between 1902 and 1948 there
remain:
●
More than 50,000 CEDTs
●
90 shelf metres of records
●
15,000 case files
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21. What changes when we examine the world
through the collected fragments of knowledge
that we can recover about a single person,
reorganised as a biographical narrative, rather
than as part of an archival system?
– Tim Hitchcock
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