Tiy Sing stencil plates
Date Published
: market gardening, Business
: Sydney
: Sydney
:
Metal stencil plate used on produce boxes by market gardener Sun Tiy Sing, Kogarah Road (now Princes Highway), Kogarah.
Tiy Sing stencil plate, Kogarah
Market gardens were established in Kogarah by English and German families during the 1850s. They often converted cleared bushland into prime real estate. The earliest listing for a Chinese market garden in Kogarah appeared in 1888, with Ah See & Co. on Rocky Point Road. Many Chinese migrants who came to Australia during the gold rushes of the 1850s later found agricultural work. By 1903 the Sydney Mail noted that ‘practically the whole of the vegetables consumed in the metropolis and its many suburbs are the product of Chinese market gardening’. From 1897 Sun Tiy Sing leased a six-acre market garden on Kogarah Road (now Princes Highway) where he worked with several other Chinese men. His market garden business in Kogarah prospered and he sold much of his produce at markets in Sydney. By 1921 he had leased another 13-acre property in Beverley Park which he called ‘Sun Tiy Sang’ (New Mountain Life), an auspicious name for a farm. The success of this market garden allowed a truck to be purchased which was used to deliver the vegetables grown to markets. In 1935 Tiy Sing’s 13-acre property was advertised for sale. It was purchased by Kogarah Council in 1938 and became part of the Beverly Park Golf Course which opened in 1941.
Source: Our Journeys Our Stories, exhibition catalogue, Hurstville Museum & Gallery, 2021, p.12.
Georges River Council library Local Studies
