Yvonne Horsfield's Chinese Roots tells tale of Ballarat's John Tong Way

Central to this is Reverend John Tony Way, her grandfather and the man who shaped her abandoned mother's upbringing and, in turn, her own.

Ms Horsfield is sharing her family's story in a biographical account in a novel, Chinese Roots, in a bid to better promote this city's Chinese heritage.

While Chinese influences and roles on the goldfields are celebrated in neighbouring cities such as Bendigo and Ararat, Ballarat's Chinese population all-but-disappeared in the wake of the White Australia policy, which was enacted in 1901.

All that really remained were traces in football club Golden Point keeping the nickname the Rice Eaters in representing an area once concentrated with Chinese miners.

There are now tilts to Chinese history on Ballarat goldfields at Sovereign Hill, such as a recreation of John Alloo's Chinese restaurant on Main Street and the creation of a Chinese village.

But Ms Horsfield, a former education officer at Sovereign Hill, said there was never anything much about town acknowledging the lives of Chinese settlers, like her grandfather, and the impacts they had made.

"I felt an imbalance in Ballarat historically because the Chinese made a big contribution - they were one third of the mining population," Ms Hosfield said. "...A lot of Chinese felt pressured to not admit they had Chinese blood. There was a certain amount of racism and a want for people to assimilate. If you didn't look Chinese, you didn't make a big deal. My family being full-blood couldn't escape that way."

Ms Horsfield's grandfather John Tong Way arrived in Ballarat as a gold miner in 1883, following in the footsteps of his father who had found gold two decades earlier.

He had left his wife and newborn son in China to pursue a curiosity and soon became a catechist in Haddon, Christianising other Chinese. He spent time in Creswick and Little Bendigo and joined the Presbyterians where he became Presbyterian Superintendent Missioner to the Chinese of the Ballarat district, based in Golden Point.

It was a position Reverend Tong Way held until he retired, he final man in his post, in 1949.

The manse in Young Street still stands while the church has long been removed. Ms Horsfield lobbied council to rename the lane next to the manse Tong Way Place. She has written a small tribute plaque and Chinese Australian Cultural Society Ballarat's Charles Zhang has written a translation.

How Ms Horsfield came into the family was by Reverend Tong Way's kindness.

Her mother Nancy was born as an illegitimate child on an Irish potato farm in Koo Wee Rup and left in an orphanage. Nancy's mother later came to collect her with a Chinese man who would adopt Nancy and marry her mother.

Only, Nancy resented her mother and was instead sent to live with the Tong Way family, who took her in and raised her as one of their own in both a Chinese family and congregation.

Reverend Tong Way had been through his own heartache with his wife dying one month before he reached China to bring his family back to the goldfields. He sought another young wife to look after his then-11-year-old son. She had died about a year after arriving in Australia.

To share this story, of her well-respected grandfather on the goldfields, started as an idea for Ms Horsfield long ago - one of those projects, she said, you tended to put off until retirement. This was the focus of a PhD Ms Horsfield completed, but in writing a story Ms Horsfield

The final chapter is told in Nancy's own words, recorded by Ms Horsfield in a promise to one day turn it into a book.

"I feel gratified and know mum is up there smiling at me," Ms Horsfield said. "This project has always been in the back of my mind but sometimes you need space in life to do it justice."

Ms Horsfield will launch Chinese Roots at Xin Jin Shan Chinese Library in Sturt Street on Friday at 4pm. Copies of the book will also remain available from the library and Collins Booksellers in the Bridge Mall.

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