Bendigo's Chinese communities, their descendants and friends maintained a continuous dragon parading tradition . Ballarat and Melbourne's fell away – only to be revived in 1954 to mark the visit of Queen Elizabeth II .

Meanwhile in southern China, where these parades originated, the tradition almost died out after the Cultural Revolution .

Australian streets have provided a stage for a variety of processions , with public holidays used to stage open-air fundraising activities (particularly for hospitals). Chinese communities were as keen as everyone else to assist with fundraising, display their culture and participate in festivities.

Historian Pauline Rule has shown that Chinese communities have contributed to public fundraising displays in rural cities since at least 1866.

Bendigo's Chinese community has helped raise funds for the Bendigo Hospital at its annual Easter fair since 1879. In 1884, the organizing committee of Castlemaine's charity parade specifically sought the involvement of the local Chinese community .

Dragons were expensive and valued, and as such were also loaned to other communities for fundraising displays. In 1897, Bendigo's Duck Bill dragon travelled to Sydney to participate in the Queen Victoria Diamond Jubilee fundraiser .

Then, both Bendigo's Moon Face and the Ballarat dragon, as well as costumes from Bendigo, Beechworth and Castlemaine, were loaned to raise funds for the Melbourne Women's Hospital in May 1900.

That so many Victorian communities could purchase dragons demonstrated their prosperity and joint commitment to Australia philanthropy and public life. It perhaps also encouraged a friendly intercity rivalry.

Processional dragons were so popular that some communities that couldn't access one would make their own imitation ones.

By the time the Duke and Duchess of York arrived in Melbourne to open the first federal parliament on May 6, 1901, Chinese participation in public processions in Victoria was common. Of the five Chinese dragons brought to Victoria in the 19th century, three participated in Federation celebrations.

As John Fitzgerald shows, many Chinese Australians were as excited about the possibilities of Federation as other Australians. They“shared a grand vision of what Australia might become in the century ahead.” To mark the royal visit, welcome arches were constructed in Melbourne , Ballarat and Perth .

Thanks to early photography, we can identify the two dragons that paraded in Melbourne. Several photographs show Bendigo's Loong was one of these.

Only a few long-distance photographs of the other dragon survive.

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One of few photographs showing the Melbourne processional dragon during Federation celebrations. G.H. Myers/Museums Victoria

They show that, while the dragon's beard is positioned differently and some decorations are missing, the striped horns and head match the Melbourne dragon held at the See Yup Temple in South Melbourne. According to a 1903 newspaper article , Melbourne's Chinese Bo Leong Society had specifically purchased this dragon for the 1901 celebrations, at a cost of 250 pounds.

The third dragon involved in the festivities, the Ballarat dragon, was used to decorate the Chinese arch that welcomed the royal couple during their visit to Ballarat.

Ballarat's processional dragon decorated a Chinese arch created to welcome the Duke and Duchess of York to Ballarat in May 1901. Photo: Golden Dragon Museum A legacy in Australia

Astoundingly, these three Federation-era dragons – three of the five oldest surviving imperial dragons in the world – still survive today.

Traditionally, when dragons reach the end of their life they are ritually burned. That these dragons were not is another expression of their Australianness. For immigrant Chinese communities, they have acquired special value as examples of cultural practices of distant homelands. Their cultural difference and beauty also appeal to others.

Each dragon is significant in its own right but together they are remnants of a significant history of Chinese Australians' participation in local fundraising and celebration.

Sophie Couchman , Honorary Research Fellow, Museums Victoria Research Institute and Leigh McKinnon , Research Affiliate, School of Philosophical, Historical, and International Studies, Monash University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article .

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