Joanna Boileau

I’m a historian specialising in multidisciplinary local history research and research on the history of the Chinese in Australia and New Zealand. In 2014 I completed a PhD in history through the University of New England in Armidale, New South Wales, on Chinese market gardening in Australia and New Zealand, and in 2019 I published Starch Work by Experts; Chinese Laundries in Aotearoa New Zealand, commissioned by the Chinese Poll Tax Heritage Trust. Recent projects include a history of the Ladies College, Remuera, for Remuera Heritage and an article on Thomas Quoi, a Chinese restaurateur and businessman in nineteenth century Auckland. The latter is part of an ongoing larger research project into Chinese restaurants in New Zealand.

I am an Executive Member of Parnell Heritage in Auckland and for the past ten years have been editor of the Parnell Heritage Journal. I also have extensive experience working in museums large and small, including  Auckland Museum and the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney, and the Tweed River Regional Museum in northern NSW. My roles have included exhibition development and community liaison, collection management and writing statements of significance.

Publications

(in publication) The Ladies College, Remuera, for Remuera Heritage Inc, 2022.

‘Cultivated with great carefulness’: Chinese market gardening, urban food supplies and
public  health in Australasia, 1860s-1950s’, New Zealand Journal of History, Vol. 54 No 2, October 2020, pp. 57-8; with Dr James Beattie, Victoria University, Wellington.

‘The great pandemic’, The Hobson, June 2020, pp. 38-41.

‘Parnell’s industrial heritage: Fraser’s Foundry, Stanley Street’, Parnell Heritage Journal, Issue 8, 2020, pp. 20-22.

‘The Parnell Orphan Home’, Parnell Heritage Journal, Issue 8, 2020, pp. 32-36.

Starch Work by Experts: Chinese laundries in Aotaearoa New Zealand, Chinese Heritage Poll Tax Trust, Wellington, 2019.

Gardens of Prosperity: Chinese market gardening in Australia and New Zealand, Palgrave McMillan, London, 2017.

 ‘Opening wealth’s door: Chinese market gardening on the goldfields’ in Lloyd Carpenter and Lyndon Fraser (eds), Rushing for Gold: life and commerce on the goldfields of New Zealand and Australia, Otago University Press, Dunedin, 2016.

Parnell Baths: a jewel in Auckland’s crown, Parnell Heritage, Auckland (with Sue Monk), Parnell Heritage, 2014.

Families of Fortune: Chinese in the Tweed Valley, Tweed Shire Council, Murwillumbah, NSW   2009.

‘Remembering Wing Yuen Lee: surprises, silences and subtexts in oral testimony’,Oral History Association of Australia Journal No 31, 2009.

Thematic History of NundleManilla and Barraba, report to Tamworth Regional Council, Tamworth, 2007.

Caldera to the Sea: A history of the Tweed Valley, Tweed Shire Council, Murwillumbah NSW, 2006.

Tweed Shire Community Based Heritage Study: Thematic History,report to Tweed Shire Council, NSW, 2004.

‘From Manila to Manjimup: Female Filipino Migration to Australia’, Paper for ‘Linking Our Histories: Asian and Pacific Women as Migrants’ Conference, Melbourne (with Ann Smith), 1994.

h1 { margin-top: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; direction: ltr; color: #000000; text-align: center; orphans: 2; widows: 2 }h1.western { font-family: “Arial”, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; so-language: en-AU }h1.cjk { font-size: 12pt; so-language: zh-CN }h1.ctl { font-family: “Arial”, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; so-language: ar-SA; font-weight: normal }p { margin-bottom: 0cm; direction: ltr; color: #000000; orphans: 2; widows: 2 }p.western { font-size: 12pt; so-language: en-US }p.cjk { font-size: 12pt; so-language: zh-CN }p.ctl { so-language: ar-SA }a:link { color: #0000ff }