From the earliest days of settlement they played a significant role in the viability of the isolated field by supplying fresh vegetables and fruit.

[1] Gold was discovered on Croydon Downs Station soon after it was established on Belmore Creek, north west Queensland in the early 1880s.

However, it was not until 1885 that the manager William Chalmer Browne and station hands Walter and James Aldridge located twenty payable lines of gold reef.

Towner reported that the town had been transformed from a rough mining camp to a flourishing and well built centre with a population of approximately 3500 of whom 300 were Chinese, Cingalese, Malays and African.

These figures are surprising given that under the Queensland Goldfields Amendment Act of 1878 Chinese were excluded from a gold field for three years unless they had made the discovery.

Emigrant Chinese in Australia generally adopted the practice of only one temple unless there were socially disparate clans within the same town.

Apart from being places of worship and community activity temples of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century provided an important social welfare role.

Provision will be made for the aged till their death, employment given to the able- bodied, and the means for self-development given to the young ...

"The goldfield had a relatively short life but the size and form of the temple was far more substantial than would be expected in an itinerant community.

A "... minor "roll up" against the Chinese occurred in September 1886 and in 1888 the Amalgamated Miners Association's demands that all aliens leave the field initiated further conflict.

While anti-Chinese sentiment was demonstrated across north Queensland at that time, contemporary reports, newspaper articles and government documentation indicate that generally good commercial and social interactions prevailed between the Chinese and local communities on the goldfields.

The first three years of the century were so dry that crushing was restricted and after 1905 output fell as water threatened operating mines.

[1] Artefacts are spread over a considerable area although the physical remains of structures are located in the town block bounded by Charles, Kelman, Nicholas and Edward Streets.

[1] The description of the Croydon site and use of the remnant structures has been based on the extant Hou Wang Temple, Atherton.

Rare sandstone burial markers on a number of the Chinese graves in local cemeteries seem to support this theory.

The oven, built of local stone, was held together with a mixture of mud and broken termite mounds, to form a wall 600 millimetres (24 in) thick.

To date no other Chinese ovens have been located in north Queensland although a number have been identified in the Northern Territory.

[1] A modern dump is located to the south west of the Temple outside the boundary of the town block containing remnant buildings.

It holds a considerable amount of material from across the site including old bikes, matchboxes, broken crockery, household pots and pans, and corrugated iron.

[1] Chinese Temple and Settlement Site was listed on the Queensland Heritage Register on 28 July 2000 having satisfied the following criteria.

The remains of the settlement, including the foundation of the temple and associated buildings, several house foundations, extensive artefact scatters, and a dump of material gathered from the site have the potential to yield further information about the Chinese communities which flourished in Queensland in the nineteenth century.

[1] The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history.