Market Garden, Arncliffe

Arncliffe Market Gardens located in Banksia NSW

Arncliffe Market Gardens located in Banksia NSW

Image Courtesy of: NSW Environment and Heritage

The market gardens are located on 212 West Botany Street BANKSIA NSW 2216. The Arncliffe Chinese Market Gardens are of high significance for their association with the Chinese community and their demonstration of a continuous pattern of land usage since the late nineteenth century.  They are one of only three such surviving market gardens in the Inner Sydney region and one of few similar surviving examples in the Sydney Metropolitan Region.

The site demonstrates prolonged and continuous use as a market garden. The site was first occupied as market gardens in 1892 by Sung Kuong War, Lee How and Sin Hop Sing. A 1930 aerial photograph shows the site still occupied as a market garden. Market gardens such as this played an important role in food production for the local and regional community, particularly during the Great Depression and Post and Inter-War periods. For much of the Great Depression, Chinese market gardens were the only source of vegetables for urban dwelling Australians.

A remnant market garden with associated asbestos cement building. The building sits on brick piers and has a hipped corrugated iron roof. The associated corrugated iron sheds are in a dilapidated state. The garden is divided into small strips, each of which has a different type of produce under cultivation.

The market garden was listed on the NSW State Heritage Register since 1999

Source: State Heritage Inventory NSW