Moy Quong Tart 梅光達was born in 1850 in China and moved to the Australian goldfields at nine years old in 1859.

Soon after, he was taken in by a Scottish family, the Simpsons, where he learned English and became an Anglican. His childhood and youth is described as an excellent cricketer and athlete with a passion for Robbie Burns poetry and loved to play the bag pipes.

Quong Tart was married to an Englishwoman, Margaret Scarlett and had six children and lived in Gallop House in Ashfield.

He was a popular figure in Sydney, NSW and grew to be one of city’s leading businessmen and philanthropists.

Quong Tart is celebrated for being ahead of his time, and a keen campaigner for other. This included leading the campaign to outlaw the opium trade while creating a successful tea & silk importation business and opening some of Sydney’s most popular restaurants and tea rooms, frequented by premiers, governors and other celebrated figures in society. His employees benefitted from reasonable hours, meals and leave periods decades before this became common and undertook various efforts to ease the burden of the poor through food assistance, clothing, and contributions to various charities.

During his lifetime, he was a prominent figure in easing tensions between Chinese and Europeans interests in Australia, successfully promoting the well-being and acceptance of Sydney’s growing Chinese community amongst times of significant anti-Chinese sentiment. For these efforts, he was appointed a Mandarin of the Fifth Degree by the Chinese Emperor.

Sadly, he died in 1903 following an assault during a robbery at his Elite Hall restaurant in the Queen Victoria Building. Thousands of people attended his funeral and today he is remembered with a memorial bust in Hercules Street, Ashfield and a blue heritage plaque in Arthur Street, Ashfield.