Chinese gold miners' historic 500km trek from Robe to Ballarat in the 19th century

The migrants trekked for almost five weeks to reach the goldfields. (Supplied: State Library Victoria)

Fleeing violence, famine, and poverty in their homeland, tens of thousands of Chinese migrants travelled to Australia in the 1850s, bound for the Ballarat goldfields.

When the flow of Chinese migrants into the state was met with growing xenophobic outrage, the Victorian government responded with a 10-pound tax per person arriving at its ports.