How were the families affected?
The fathers of families who were not British in Australia were here before Federation and because of the White Australia policy, the fathers would never be seeing their wife and kids again and so many families split apart because of this, one example was the O’Hoy family, (photo above of) Que lan, he was born in 1875 in Wah Lock Lea, Taishan, Guangdong Province, China and came to Australia when he was 20 to work for his father’s business in Bendigo. He had a family in China with 2 children and he could never see them again after federation. He kept trying to see them again by sending letters to the government. One person said that he could see his wife on a short term Visa, only lasting for two years. He greatly accepted and he saw his family again, while they were here, Que lan had two more children.
