From 1872, not long after the discovery of gold, North Queensland began to emerge as a leading region for Chinese and European immigration. Communities such as Cooktown and the Palmer Goldfield attracted men and women to the boom economies that gold created. In the hope of securing a better future, young women emigrated from Europe to North Queensland and often married soon after arrival. Some married Chinese men and in doing so, altered forever their participation in colonial society. While initially most women helped and protected each other in the rough and makeshift communities that sprung up on the goldfields, it was soon apparent that conditions were harsher for those who lived on the fringes of that society, including the wives and families of non-white Australian men. European women who married Chinese men were deemed outside respectable social circles. They were subjected to gossip and innuendo from European women and violence from European men. As a result, they formed their own support groups and developed strategies to best survive the social and political pressures thrust upon them. There was a marked decline in European-Chinese marriages as the century closed and mixed heritage daughters reached marriageable age, becoming wives themselves in the Chinese community
