Professions

Entering the Professions

After changes to Australia’s immigration policy in the 1970s, by the late 1980s the number of people of Chinese heritage in the Australian population had increased.

Whilst employment in small businesses, restaurants and market gardening continued, more people of Chinese background were entering professions like engineering, science, medicine, teaching, law and politics.

Rising to the Top

Leading professionals from the 1960s, 70s and 80s included influential politicians, doctors, scientists and musicians.

Alexander ‘Alec’ Fong Lim was elected Lord Mayor of Darwin in 1984, the first person of Chinese heritage to attain that position.

Harry Chan rose to the position of President of the Legislative Council of the Northern Territory, and was the first person of Chinese heritage to hold this position.

In 1988, Helen Sham-Ho was the first Australian Chinese woman to win a seat in the Legislative Council of New South Wales.

Claudia Cream was the only Chinese lawyer in South Australia when admitted to the Supreme Court of the State in the early 1980s.

Father Paschal Chang and Reverend Philip Sik Kee Fong exemplify the best aspects of dedicated pastoral care to the community over many years.

Dr Victor Chang was a pioneer of the modern era of heart transplantation and was responsible for setting up the National Cardiac Transplant Unit at St Vincent’s Hospital, Sydney in 1984.

Professor Christopher Chen became a recognised world pioneer in in-vitro fertilisation (IVF). In 1982 he succeeded in producing the first IVF pregnancy in South Australia. A year later he made history by presiding over the birth of the world’s first IVF triplets.

Helen Quach of Sydney won first prize in the New York Dimitri Mitropoulos International Competition for Conductors in 1969.

Dr CS Li was a rice entomologist who discovered and found out how to control a new rice parasite in 1965 — a contribution of world significance.