Lily Ah Toy

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Not to be confused with Ah Toy.

Lily Ah Toy
Born
Wong Wu Len

(1917-10-24)October 24, 1917[1]
Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia
DiedOctober 15, 2001(2001-10-15) (aged 83)[2]
Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia
Children5 (5 more adopted)

Lily Ah Toy (born Wong Wu Len) (24 October 1917 – 15 October 2001) was an Australian pioneer and businesswoman famous in the Northern Territory.[3]

Biography[edit]

On October 24, 1917, Ah Toy was born in Darwin to Chinese parents. Her father Wong Yueng, who worked as a timber cutter and fencer, had come to the Northern Territory from Hong Kong in the 1880s where he married Linoy Moo, her mother. She was raised in a 'strictly Chinese' household and was raised with the Buddhist and Taoist faiths.[4] The family lived in a small house, constructed of stingy bark, bush timber and second-hand galvanized iron, which her father had built for them and they grew much of their own food. Ah Toy remembers walking in to town each day to collect meat and groceries the family could not grow using an old flour bag; she said that her clothes also were made from flour bags.[5]

Ah Toy attended Darwin Public School and left when she was 14, in 1931, to become a housemaid for Lyle Tivendale, the Darwin health inspector, in his home at Myilly Point; she worked there for three years and it is here that she met Jimmy Ah Toy, her future husband as he would go there selling vegetables.[6] On 9 November 1936 they married in a Chinese style ceremony and she took his surname.[7][8][9]

After they married they moved together to Pine Creek where the Ah Toy family had a store and bakery and began working there in the bakery section. Ah Toy had five children of her own (Edward, Laurence, Joyce, Grace and Elaine) and adopted five more.[4]

Following the Bombing of Darwin she was evacuated to Adelaide, where Jimmy worked in a munitions factory, before being able to return to Pine Creek in 1945. When she was able to return to Pine Creek she found that the shop had been looted and stripped of anything that could be moved but they started again and reestablished the business.[4][8][10] She said of her return: "[w]e had land here, and our roots are here".[5]

In 1982 Ah Toy graduated from Darwin Community College (now Charles Darwin University) with an Associate Diploma of Arts (Ceramics) and she was, at that time, their oldest graduate at 65 years of age.[6]

Ah Toy died in Darwin on October 15, 2001.[8]

Awards[edit]

In 1988, as a part of Bicentennial Celebrations she was honoured as one of eight Northern Territorians who had made a significant contribution to the Northern Territory and, in 1985, Film Australia produced her biography.[8][6]

In 2003, she was honoured in the Tribute to Northern Territory Women.[11][12]

Resources about[edit]

Ah Toy's has two oral history recordings available through Library & Archives NT one recorded by Sandra Saunders in April 1981 (NTRS 3164 BWF 424, NTRS 226 TS 1/2) Jane Bathgate in July 1996 (NTRS 3164 BWF 1771, NTRS 1983 TS 8706).[13][14]

There is also an oral history recording of Ah Toy recorded in December 1982, this was created for the Australia 1938 Oral History Project, at the National Library of Australia.[9]

References[edit]

  1. ^ Henningham, Nikki (24 January 2006). "Ah Toy, Lily (1917 - 2001)". The Australian Women's Register. Retrieved 21 March 2016.
  2. ^ "Lily Ah Toy". Territory Stories. hdl:10070/218063. Retrieved 21 March 2016.
  3. ^ Giese, Diana (1995). MacGregor, Paul (ed.). Histories of the Chinese in Australasia and the South Pacific. pp. 261–273., cited in "Ah Toy, Lily". Chinese Museum. 29 March 2006. Retrieved 9 May 2016.
  4. ^ a b c Patricia (Trish), Crossin (20 March 2002). "Adjournment, Lily Ah Toy (Hansard)". Parliament of Australia. Retrieved 4 June 2024.
  5. ^ a b Giese, Diana; National Library of Australia (1995), Beyond Chinatown, National Library of Australia, retrieved 4 June 2024
  6. ^ a b c "Lily Ah Toy". Australian Biography. National Film and Sound Archive. Archived from the original on 29 September 2020. Retrieved 4 June 2024.
  7. ^ "Pine Creek - Places to Go". Weekend Notes. 16 June 2015. Retrieved 22 March 2016.
  8. ^ a b c d "Lily Ah Toy (Territory Women)". Territory Stories. hdl:10070/218063. Retrieved 4 June 2024.
  9. ^ a b Ah Toy, Lily; McGrath (Interviewer), Ann; Australia 1788-1988: A Bicentennial History; Australia 1938 Oral History Project (1982), Lily A. interviewed by Ann McGrath for the Australia 1938 oral history project, retrieved 4 June 2024 {{citation}}: |last2= has generic name (help)CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  10. ^ "Telling Australia's history". The Canberra Times. Vol. 70, no. 21, 933. Australian Capital Territory, Australia. 6 May 1995. p. 59. Retrieved 4 June 2024 – via National Library of Australia.
  11. ^ Government, Northern Territory (17 June 2021). "Territory Women archives". tfhc.nt.gov.au. Retrieved 13 August 2021.
  12. ^ Clare, Martin (17 October 2003). "Tribute to Northern Territory Women". Territory Stories. Northern Territory Government. hdl:10070/344693. Retrieved 4 June 2024.
  13. ^ Saunders, Sandra (1 April 1981). "NTRS 226 Typed transcripts of oral history interviews with "TS" prefix". Archives Navigator. Retrieved 4 June 2024.
  14. ^ Bathgate, Jane (1 July 1996). "NTRS 1983 Transcripts of oral history interview sound recordings with Pine Creek residents". Archives Navigator. Retrieved 4 June 2024.
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