By the mid-nineteenth century many thousands of Chinese were living in the Australian colonies. Adaptable and hardworking, they and other 'coloureds' were considered interlopers in British Australia.

Exorbitant poll taxes and restrictive immigration legislation had served to significantly reduce the Chinese population by the 1890s. Photographed and fingerprinted, their travel and residence were open to bureaucratic scrutiny and restriction.

As Chinese–Australian Journeys so amply illustrates, the legacy of these practices and policies is a rich and diverse collection of records.