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Opium smoking was one of the recreational
activities common among the male dominated Chinese communities
across regional New South Wales. Along with gambling,
it became a focus for criticism from European-Australians.
It was perceived as a vice which was used by the Chinese
to corrupt and seduce young women and which was part
of an illicit and profitable trade. The critics generally
failed to observe that opium was a legal substance until
the early twentieth century, and that it was a component
in a number of commonly administered medicines.
The images of opium as an exotic and
evil substance used primarily by Chinese are a part
of surviving popular imaginings about the Chinese presence.
Hence, in local museums, any exotic looking pipe is
often labelled an opium pipe and some of the more mundane
pieces of opium smoking paraphernalia are not recognised
for what they are.
 Water pipe for smoking tobacco.(McCrossins
Mill, Uralla).
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Opium pipe (without its bowl) and
pipe cleaner. (Grenfell Museum).
Opium container with some of the
red label still attached found on the Sofala goldfields. (Private
collection).
