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  July 2003-July 2004

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Quong Tart (1850-1903)

Mei Guangda (1850-1903), better known as Quong Tart, was born in a village of Longtengli near Duanfen in southern Taishan, Guangdong province. In 1859 he accompanied his uncle who led a team of gold miners from the Mei family to the goldfields around Araluen and Braidwood in New South Wales. It is thought the well educated young Quong Tart was to be a scribe for the team. Quong Tart was taken into the care of a wealthy landowning Scots family of Alice Simpson who raised him and helped him to become a wealthy young squire who spoke English with a Scottish accent. At the age of 21 Quong Tart became a British subject in order to buy and own land on his own behalf. Ten years later at the age of 31 he returned to his family in Taishan and arranged with them to operate a tea trade between Taishan and Sydney. On his return to Sydney he started a chain of tea shops and tea rooms, the first public tearooms in Sydney. In 1886 married a young school teacher, Margaret Scarlett.

Quong Tart became a leading 19th century Sydney merchant and importer from China. His tea rooms in King Street and later in the Queen Victoria Markets (now the QVB) were the finest in the City. He was also an active philanthropist, and often provided dinners, gifts and entertainment at his own expense for charities, community groups and worthy causes. Quong Tart was well connected with the City Council as a tenant of the Queen Victoria Markets and through various official dinners hosted in the Elite Tea Rooms. He sat on the famous NSW Royal Commission on Alleged Chinese Gambling and Immorality and Charges of Bribery Against Members of the Police Force 1891-92, which was chaired by the Mayor and met at the Sydney Town Hall.

He was a leader in the Chinese community acting as its spokesman and advocate. He was one of the founders of the first Chinese merchants' association in Sydney, the Lin Yik Tong, and campaigned against opium smoking and gambling. The Chinese Emperor made him an honorary Mandarin of the Fourth Grade in acknowledgement of his services to the Overseas Chinese community and to European-Chinese relations in Australia.

Quong Tart became ill after a brutal attack in 1902 while working in his Elite Dining Hall and Tea Rooms in Queen Victoria Markets. He died in July 1903. The attack on Quong Tart and his death a year later were widely covered in the newspapers of the day and the attendees at his funeral were a "who's who" of Sydney.