There were two Chinese Temples in Innisfail. The first timber Temple was constructed in 1886, and was badly damaged in the 1918 cyclone, and subsequently restored. The original temple was then demolished in 1940, and the existing temple built in its place in 1940-1941. These early Chinese Temples in Australia contain elements of Daoism, Buddhism, Confucianism, and folk religions.¹

Chinese miners, mainly from the Guangdong Province, rushed to Far North Queensland after gold was first discovered in the Palmer River region in 1873. They also came to Innisfail, to work in the sugar and banana industries. There were many Italian migrants in the area, so the second Innisfail Chinese Temple uniquely has Italian influences in its concrete construction, and features Buddhist knot and coin motifs on its street-front exterior. It also includes deities Kuan Ti/Guan Ti, the God of War, and the Goddess of Mercy/bodhisattva of compassion, Guan Yin.²

Painted red, the Innisfail Lit Sing Gong Temple shares similarities with the Darwin and Bendigo brick and concrete Chinese Temples. There were also Chinese Temples in nearby Herberton, Cairns, Port Douglas, Cooktown, and the Palmer River.³

By: Anna Halafoff and Sioh Yang Tan

References:

¹ Gordon Grimwade, “Worshiping the north: early Chinese temples in mainland tropical Australia,” International Journal of Historical Archaeology 29 (2025): 491–527.  

 

² Hu Jin Kok, Chinese temples in Australia: Hall of the Ranking Sages, Darwin, Northern Territory, vol. 4 (Bendigo Golden Dragon Museum, 2005).  

³ Jack Foster Waltham, Chinese Temples in Australia (Flinders University, 2014).