Charlie Fun Chung Prisoner Number 26909 Prison Register Page

The Governor released Charlie Fun Chung on 26 October 1895 after he had served 8 months of an 18 month sentence for conspiring to commit perjury. On 17 March 1894, Kum Youey claimed to have given Fun Chung £18 for a share in a tailings mine. Fun Chung did not honour this arrangement and kept the money. When Kum Youey took him to court, Fun Chung falsely claimed that no such transaction had ever taken place. Fun Chung returned to his mining business when released. It appears he was completely reaccepted back into the Bendigo community. He involved himself in the Bendigo Easter Procession and helped organise several Chinese football matches for charity. Fun Chung’s prison record reveals he had a wife and lived in Golden Square in Bendigo. He married Ellen Duffy in 1886 and they had three children. Fun Chung built a miner’s cottage next to his mine, some time in the 1870s. His grand-daughters continued to live in the cottage until recently. Notices written in Chinese described the way witnesses should take an oath by cutting off a rooster’s head. It was said that the ritual of swearing on the cock’s head would ensure the truth was told. These notices were posted up at a previous trial involving Charlie Fun Chung. They were later translated for the court and presented as evidence.