Ah Foo Family
A well-known Chinese publican, Jimmy Ah Foo (or Affoo), started out in Springsure where his family hosted a boarding house before he moved onto the northern goldfields of Queensland during the 1870s and 1880s. Eventually he returned to Springsure where he became one of three Chinese publicans, the others being Harry Ah Hing (the Shearer’s Arms), Willie Ah Wah (the Springsure). Jimmy had the Carrier’s Arms.
At 23, in 1866, he made a trip to Rockhampton and married Evelina Vessey, a 16 year old girl from Lincolnshire, England. They returned to Springsure until 1873 when they moved to the goldfields of Charters Towers and the Palmer River, where they ran hotels, including the Canton Hotel in Thornborough in the Tablelands Region of Queensland. The town rose to prominence in the 1870s as a gold mining town. The remains of the Canton Hotel, a deserted corrugated iron shed, with a verandah slung on the front, was destroyed by heavy winds in recent times.
Ah Foo had a short stay at Thornborough, leaving shortly after being injured when a “countryman” shot and wounded him after he was about to leave his pub without paying his account in April 1876.
In 1877, the Ah Foos returned to Springsure, running a number of hotels, the Post Office Hotel, the Carriers’ Arms, and finally the Springsure Hotel.
Arrival in Barcaldine
During the 1880s they moved to Barcaldine, at first running the Terminus Hotel before running another Springsure Hotel. The Terminus was moved from its site in Oak Street to the corner section of Oak and Willow Streets after Patick Finn removed his Withersfield hotel to Longreach.
The Ah Foos replaced the Terminus by building a new hotel, the Springsure on the same site. Eventually Jimmy and Eveline moved to Longreach and built the two-story brick Federal Hotel.
After a brief hotel venture in Rockhampton in 1899, Jimmy and Evelina retired to Barcaldine to run a small store and garden.
Jimmy, then in poor health, and his family moved to Longreach where he died in 1916. Both he and Evelina, who died in 1918, are buried in the local Longreach cemetery.
Family of many talents
The Ah Foos had a family of 13 children by the 1890s, who were all highly musical and formed the ‘Affoo Family Band’, which performed in the hotel and various events in Barcaldine. The family members also toured to provide musical entertainment.
Goanna Oil
There is a claim that Jimmy Ah Foo was the real inventor of Goanna Salve produced and marketed by Joseph Conrelius Marconi. Yet there is some evidence to strongly suggest it was Jimmy Ah Foo from whom Marconi obtained the recipe. He developed the recipe into the product in 1910.
A Story about Jimmy Ah Foo
The Union newspaper, The Australian Worker reported this story on May 4 1927:
AN IRISH CHINAMAN By JULIAN STUART.
JIMMY AH FOO, Barcaldine publican and Queensland’s best-known Chinaman, was an amusing chap, who always took himself seriously. His hotel was well conducted by his wife, who was Irish, and their bevy of well educated daughters.
It was diverting to hear the old fellow maintaining decorum in the bar, or in the music-room which adjoined the licensed premises.
I was yarning to him one night while his daughter favored with a Beethoven Sonata, when some young Bushmen became noisy. He signalled to the girl to cease playing, and gravely approached the chief offender.
“Now Sittenee Loss (Sydney Ross), you look here! You behave you’self ploppa in my house while my daughter Mayalee (Mary) playing first-class music.
Suppose you don’t, I must puttee you outsi’, myself.
Jimmy Ah Foo welly old man, but my cli’ you find me tough old Fowl yet!”
The offender laughingly withdrew to the bar, the girl resumed the classical masterpiece, and Jimmy went on talking.
“Welly dam flash. Good shealer, but lazy. Befo’ blekfast, sho’ eight- sheep eight minutes – then stop in hut, all day, welly tired!”
Asked if Sid had a big cheque to knock down he replied scornfully: “Only got one thousand sheep in his pocket (£10). All time dlink Gleen Stlipe whisky, dance Highland Fling, pullee girl about. Tommy O’Shea, he diffelent.”
His comments on his customers were quaint and amusing, and I desired to know more about Tommy O’Shea.
“Him welly ploppa-man. Got five thousand sheep (£50) in his pocket. Dlink blandy, dance Irish Jig, shout Hulloo Blian Boloo (Hurroo Brian Boru) and shout for eblybody. Him Ilishman – my wife Ilishman too.”
He professed great admiration for Jacky Howe, who about that time was cutting the big tallies that made his name known throughout the sheds.
“Jacky Howe champion. Him much first-class man altogether. Got nine-ten thousand sheep (£90 or £100) in tlousa pocket. Quiet man. No dlink much. No dance Highland Fling. No pullee girl about. No make a low when my girl playing good music. No larrikin tlicks. My word! two gleat flends – Jacky Howe champion she-a-ler, Jimmy Ah Foo, champion publican.”
At the close of the musical selection he called to the pianiste: ”My daughter, play ‘Dear Little Shamlock of Ireland.’ Make your father’s poor Ilish heart bleed.”
This, I found, was a regular interlude on the night’s programme, and always brought the house down. Jimmy received a great shock when we boycotted the Chinese.
He was in Aramac and, with pigtail flying, flogged his horse with his hat into Barcaldine, his trousers above his knees and feet sticking through the stirrups. The steed galloped into the hotel yard and stopped suddenly, and Jimmy sailed over his head. Picking himself up unhurt, he dashed into the kitchen, seized the cook and literally kicked him out.
Then he told his family how serious it would be if the shearers came in, and found a Chinaman in the kitchen.
“Now I do the cooking myself,” he said.
