market gardening and farming

Details

As mining became less profitable in the various colonies from the 1870s onwards, market gardening became the next most common Chinese occupation. At this time European Australians avoided market gardening which provided a niche for the many Chinese in Australia with agricultural backgrounds. By the 1900s approximately one third of all Chinese in Victoria, New South Wales and Western Australia were engaged in market gardening. Even before this Chinese on the gold fields grew their own vegetables and those in market gardening at this time possibly made more money than those mining gold.

Market gardens tended to be located in the city suburbs. Chinese communities, like the one in Alexandra, Sydney, often grew up around them. In Melbourne there were market gardens along Merri Creek and in suburbs such as Brighton and Caulfield. In Western Australia they tended to be around Perth and in Fremantle along the Swan River. In the Northern Territory the Chinese grew the bulk of fresh produce for Darwin on the outskirts of town and in the Pine Creek area. In north Queensland Chinese market gardening was really more on the scale of farming with Chinese specialising in bananas and sugar and even experimenting with rice, corn and lychees.

Chinese market gardens tended to operate on a cooperative basis with as many as ten workers, often from the same clan. There were close ties between market garden cooperatives and urban Chinese storekeepers and greengrocers who helped provide gardeners with credit or financial support. Using hand made tools market gardeners worked long hours in this very labour intensive industry. Crop rotation and double cropping methods were used to grow a range of produce including tomatoes, cauliflower, herbs, leafy vegetables like lettuces. Produce was sold either direct to the market or else through a commission agent who sold the produce on the gardeners' behalf. Although Chinese market gardeners and hawkers are seen as synonymous, due to the high labour intensity of both activities it is unlikely that an individual could perform both concurrently.

As in other industries where the Chinese were successful, Chinese market gardeners also faced opposition from their European counterparts. In 1900 a Market Gardeners' Association was formed partly in opposition to Chinese competition. During the depression others resented the fact that the Chinese were able to make money out of 'incidental' crops which non-Chinese found uneconomical. Chinese market gardeners were accused of using urine and faeces to fertilise their gardens and of living in insanitary conditions.

As the Chinese population in Australia declined so too did Chinese market gardeners. The Greek and Italian community started to move into the industry, particularly after World War II. However it was not until at least the 1950s, possibly later, when the last of the original Chinese market gardens finally disappeared.

Sources used to compile this entry: Bate, Weston, A History of Brighton, Melbourne University Press, Melbourne, 1983; Broome, Richard, Coburg: Between Two Creeks, Lothian Publishing, Melbourne, 1987; Chou, Bon-wai, 'The sojourning attitude and the economic decline of Chinese society in Victoria, 1860s-1930s', in P. Macgregor (ed.), Histories of the Chinese in Australasia and the South Pacific, Museum of Chinese Australian History, Melbourne, 1995, pp. 59-74; Cronin, Kathryn, Colonial Casualties: Chinese in Early Victoria, Melbourne University Press, Melbourne, 1982; Fitzgerald, Shirley, Red Tape and Gold Scissors [Chinese language version.], 1996; Fitzgerald, Shirley, Red Tape and Gold Scissors: The Story of Sydney's Chinese, State Library of NSW Press, Sydney, 1996; Ryan, Jan, Ancestors: Chinese in Colonial Australia, Fremantle Arts Centre Press, Fremantle, WA, 1995; Shun Wah, Annette & Aitkin, Greg, Banquet: Ten Courses to Harmony, Doubleday, Sydney, 1999.

Prepared by: Sophie Couchman, La Trobe University

Employed

Louey Ang

Related Concepts

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Archival Collections

Northern Territory Library

Shu Ack Fong collection, c. 1942 - c. 1948, 0497; Northern Territory Library. Details

State Library of New South Wales - Mitchell Library

Davis, W.H. Album of Photographs, 1900-1902, 1900 - 1902, ML A4467; State Library of New South Wales - Mitchell Library. Details
Foelsche: Lantern slides of old Darwin, PXN 254, ON 30; State Library of New South Wales - Mitchell Library. Details

Published Resources

Books

Bate, Weston, A History of Brighton, Melbourne University Press, Melbourne, 1983. Details
Cronin, Kathryn, Colonial Casualties: Chinese in Early Victoria, Melbourne University Press, Melbourne, 1982. Details
Fitzgerald, Shirley, Red Tape and Gold Scissors [Chinese language version.], 1996. Details
Fitzgerald, Shirley, Red Tape and Gold Scissors: The Story of Sydney's Chinese, State Library of NSW Press, Sydney, 1996. Details
Rannard, Ian, The Forgotten Gardens: The Story of the Last Market Gardens in Willoughby and Northbridge, NSW, Parker Pattinson Publishing, Douglas Park, New South Wales, 2005. Details
Ryan, Jan, Ancestors: Chinese in Colonial Australia, Fremantle Arts Centre Press, Fremantle, WA, 1995. Details
Shun Wah, Annette & Aitkin, Greg, Banquet: Ten Courses to Harmony, Doubleday, Sydney, 1999. Details

Book Sections

Chou, Bon-wai, 'The sojourning attitude and the economic decline of Chinese society in Victoria, 1860s-1930s', in P. Macgregor (ed.), Histories of the Chinese in Australasia and the South Pacific, Museum of Chinese Australian History, Melbourne, 1995, pp. 59-74. Details

Conference Papers

Stone, Jillian, 'Chinese Market Gardeners and Their Impact on Vegetable Consumption Patterns in Australia, 1870-1920', in Symposium of Australian Gastronomy Proceedings, 1987. Details

Edited Books

Yong, Arthur (ed.), Chinese Settlement in Whittlesea, Our Chinese Community, Our Stories, Whittlesea Chinese Association with City of Whittlesea, Whittlesea, Victoria, 2008. Details

Journal articles

Atkinson, Anne, 'Chinese market gardening in the Perth metropolitan area, 1900-1920', Western Geographer, vol. 8, 1984, pp. 38-52. Details
Frost, Warwick, 'Migrants and technological transfer: Chinese farming in Australia, 1850-1920', Australian Economic History, vol. 42, no. 2, 2002, pp. 113-131. Details
Jack, Ian, Holmes, Kate & Kerr, Ruth, 'Ah Toy's Garden: A Chinese Market Garden on the Palmer River Goldfield, North Queensland', Australian Journal of Historical Archaeology, vol. 2, 1984, pp. 51-58. Details
McGowan, Barry, 'Chinese market gardens in southern and western New South Wales', Australian Humanities Review, vol. 36, July. Also available at http://www.lib.latrobe.edu.au/AHR/archive/Issue-July-2005/10McGowan.html. Details
Reeves, Keir, 'Historical neglect of an enduring Chinese community', Traffic, no. 3, 2003, pp. 53-77. Details
Reeves, Keir, 'A songster, a sketcher and the Chinese on central Victoria's Mount Alexander diggings: Case studies in cultural complexity during the second half of the nineteenth century', Journal of Australian Colonial History, vol. 6, 2004, pp. 175-192. Details
Stanin, Zvonkica, 'From Li Chun to Yong Kit: A market garden on the Loddon, 1851-1912', Journal of Australian Colonial History, vol. 6, 2004, pp. 15-34. Details

Newspaper articles

'Chinese market gardeners now doing a very lucrative business', Inquirer, 5 August 1885, p. 3g. Details
'[Article re: early Chinese market gardens at South Perth]', Western Australian, 5 April 1952, p. 17c. Details
'[Article on Chinese market gardeners]', Western Australian, 20 March 1968, p. 5. Details
Winter, Wilfred, 'Burnie's Chinese', 31 January 1976, p. 14. Details

Theses

John, Y.Y, 'Chinese market gardeners, Sydney', MA thesis, University of Sydney, 1971. Details

Online Resources

Boileau, Joanna, Researching Cinese market gardening: Insights from archaeology and material culture, Chinese Southern Diaspora Studies, Special issue: 'Sources, Languages and Approaches in Chinese Australian History' edited by Bagnall, Kate and Couchman, Sophie, vol. 6, 2013, 134-143 pp, http://www.chl.anu.edu.au/publications/csds/csds2013/csds2013_14.pdf. Details
Harris, Julia, Willy Mar: the last of the Chinese market gardeners, ABC Western Queensland Stories, http://www.abc.net.au/westqld/stories/s2067922.htm. Details

Images

Title: 'A Chinese garden in Victoria'
Type: Illustration
Date: c. 1874
Place: Australia - Victoria; Details

Title: Alfred Fong Tong in his vegetable garden
Type: Photograph
Place: Australia - Victoria - Warracknabeal; Details

Title: 'Chinese gardens'
Type: Illustration
Date: c. 1886
Place: Australia - Victoria; Details

Title: Chinese market gardener Lau Poi Wei selling his produce in the streets of North Perth, 1930s-1940s
Type: Photograph
Date: 1930s - 1940s
Place: Australia - Western Australia - Perth; Details

Title: Entrance to first Government Garden with unidentified Chinese [?] gardeners
Type: Photograph
Date: 1874 - January 1876
Place: Australia - Northern Territory - Darwin (Palmerston); Details

Title: Garden with building in background and unidentified man posed in foreground
Type: Photograph
Date: c. 1909
Place: Australia - Northern Territory; Details

Title: Gardens with dead tree in the background
Type: Photograph
Date: c. 1909 - c. 1914
Place: Australia - Northern Territory - Pine Creek; Details

Title: Market gardens in Doctor's Gully with hospital on hill behind
Type: Photograph
Date: c. 1890
Place: Australia - Northern Territory - Darwin (Palmerston) - Doctor's Gully; Details

Title: Market gardens in Mt Eliza, Perth
Type: Photograph
Date: 1890s - 1900s
Place: Australia - Western Australia - Perth - Mt Eliza; Details

Title: Miner's hospital and Chinese [?] gardens at Yam Creek
Type: Photograph
Date: c. 1878
Place: Australia - Northern Territory - Yam Creek; Details

Title: Peel's Well gardens with Port Darwin Hospital in background
Type: Photograph
Date: c. 1874 - c. 1878
Place: Australia - Northern Territory - Darwin (Palmerston) - Doctor's Gully; Details

Title: Pine Creek Chinese gardens
Type: Photograph
Date: c. 1909 - c. 1914
Place: Australia - Northern Territory - Pine Creek; Details

Title: Unidentified Chinese market gardens in Hawthorn
Type: Photograph
Date: c. 1900
Place: Australia - Victoria - Melbourne - Hawthorn; Details

Title: Unidentified figures in garden
Type: Photograph
Date: c. 1910 - c. 1920
Place: Australia - Northern Territory; Details

Title: Unidentified gardener holding cauliflower 1
Type: Photograph
Date: c. 1930
Place: Australia - New South Wales - Bourke; Details

Title: Unidentified man watering rows of peanuts using watering cans on shoulder poles
Type: Photograph
Place: Australia - Queensland - Cape York; Details

Chinese-Australian Historical Images in Australia

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