Chinese dragon street processions are now a familiar part of Melbourne’s street life. At Chinese New Year, the Millennium Dai Loong Dragon is awakened from its slumber at the Chinese Museum and, accompanied by dancing lions and colourfully dressed attendants, parades along Little Bourke Street to the rhythm of pounding drums, the chiming gongs and the rapid-fire explosions of crackers. People of all ancestries cram the streets and lanes of Little Bourke Street to catch sight of this spectacular beast and perhaps touch one of his scales for luck. His head alone weighs 200 kilograms and it takes eight people to carry it.

The Millennium Dai Loong Dragon, built in 2003, is Melbourne’s youngest dragon. His father, Dai Loong, first trod the streets of Melbourne in 1979 as part of Melbourne’s iconic Moomba Parade and was used annually in Chinese New Year celebrations. Before that, was Sun Loong, a dragon brought out from Foshan in Guangdong province by the Young Chinese League in the 1950s. He was awakened to help raise funds at Lord Mayor’s Labour Day Charity Parade, the precursor of Moomba.

Dragons danced in the Lord Mayor’s parade as early as the 1920s. The Chinese Masonic Society also had two small creatures described as ‘sea lions’ that were used at the Police Carnival in 1933. Sun Loong and Dai Loong have both retired now and sleep with the millennium dragons at the Chinese Museum.

It was only in 1980 that Chinese dragons began parading at Chinese New Year. Up till then it was only the lions of the Chinese Youth Society of Melbourne and the Chinese Masonic Society who danced on the footpaths in Chinatown. Dragons only came out as part of fundraising events for hospitals, for visiting dignitaries and special events. Although distinctly Chinese, these dragons have been as much a part of the culture of Australian streetlife as they have been expressions of Chinese culture. The men who help carry the dragon these days are as likely to have Anglo-Saxon faces as Asian ones.

This text is from Stories from the Heart of Melbourne, a book commissioned by central Melbourne and written by authors Dr Arnold Zable and Dr Sophie Couchman. The stories are based on research, and information provided by interviewees. The book is available for borrowing from central Melbourne libraries.