Market Garden, La Perouse Phillip Bay
Date Published
: market gardening
: Sydney
: Sydney
: 1909
The Chinese Market Gardens located between the cemetery and the school on Bunnerong Road, La Perouse.
Market Gardens, La Perouse
The site is bounded to the north by the Eastern Suburbs Memorial Park. There were three lots comprising an area of around 7 hectares (Lots 1077, 1078, 1079).
The site is on low-lying land, growing many kinds of vegetables and herbs, including bok choy, shallots, parsley and coriander. The gardens are equipped with a pipe irrigation system. An unnamed creek flows in the middle of the gardens and has been used for irrigation. In each market garden, there is a group of corrugated iron or fibro buildings. The vegetables are washed in a large central shed, and some workers have been seen to be living in the huts. Other sheds are used as storerooms for agricultural machinery, fertilizer and tools. The history of lessees of the three lots to people with Chinese names at La Perouse dated from 1909. From the 1920s, the three lots of land were leased to See Lee & Co, Hong Chung and Tiy War & Co. While most of the market gardens in the north of the Randwick municipality were overtaken by housing by the late nineteenth century, the three lots that make up the Chinese Markets Gardens La Perouse have been under continuous cultivation by the same three Chinese families for between 35 and 60 years. However, in 2011 the family elder who farmed Lot 1079 retired, Crown Lands have not advertised for new lessees and the lot was damaged by the flood in 2012. The other two lots continue to be cultivated by the Tang and Ha families in recent times.
La Perouse Market Gardens
Tang familiy La Perouse
