Australia’s first Asian lawyer, William Ah Ket, who battled racism and achieved landmark victories, and how his legacy lives on
- Chinese-Australian barrister and lawyer William Ah Ket was known for fighting against legislation that discriminated against people of Chinese origin
- Since 2017, the William Ah Ket Scholarship has awarded grants to outstanding research papers on topics dealing with equality, diversity and the law
The first Chinese-Australian to join the Victorian Bar was born in June 1876, in a small town 200km (125 miles) northeast of Melbourne.
Admitted to the Bar to practise as a barrister and lawyer in 1903, William Ah Ket joined a conservative profession two years after the introduction of the White Australia policy, the notorious suite of laws designed to prevent non-Europeans from migrating to Australia.
While his name is little known in the wider Australian community, Ah Ket’s legacy has resurfaced over the last two decades among legal professionals, who remember him for his landmark victories in court and his battles against racist policies.
“I think his story is a very important one to tell, especially in the current climate, when it’s easy to be critical of the Chinese and to overlook how the Chinese are part of the fabric of Australian society,” says Andrew Godwin, a Melbourne University academic and an expert in Asian commercial law who spent 10 years working as a lawyer in Shanghai.
Born in the Victorian town of Wangaratta, Ah Ket was the only son of mother Hing Ung and father Mah Ket. His father was a tobacco farmer, opium seller and shopkeeper who migrated from southern China to Australia to join the gold rush in 1855.
Mah Ket was also a court interpreter in his spare time for his Chinese countrymen and a highly respected leader in the Wangaratta community.
