Interior of John Alloo's Chinese restaurant main road Ballaarat, 1855, lithograph, State Library Victoria

John Alloo's busy Chinese restaurant in Ballarat is filled with diggers, while Chinese staff are busily at work cooking over large woks. The feline and canine inhabitants are patrolling the eating house in search of scraps. John Alloo came to Australia in 1844, before the 1850s gold rush, and established his restaurant in the early days of Ballarat’s history. In contrast to the vitriol directed at ‘Celestials’ in contemporary written sources, Gill’s print is a scene of bustling activity and apparent racial harmony.