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Chinese Market Gardens in South Perth

Description

DescriptionChinese market gardeners began to cultivate and improve the marsh land along the north foreshore of South Perth from the early 1880s. By 1888 there were significant market gardens in the area, supplying most of the fresh vegetables and some of the fruit consumed in Perth. The bulk of the produce was sold at the James Street Markets and at Chinese owned grocery shops in Perth. Some Chinese shops also operated their own market gardens in South Perth (e.g. Ah Ling & Co.). South Perth vegetables were sold widely and were even taken by cart to supply rural towns as far away as Bunbury.

The main area of the early gardens was 11 acres of land owned by Mr Mends. His former house (Mend's House) also became the residence for many of the early market gardeners. Other land owners who rented sections of the South Perth foreshore to Chinese market gardeners included Justice Edward Stone and Messrs Sutton and Olsen.

In 1888 there was an unfounded allegation of a Chinese leper living in South Perth contaminating the vegetables. The allegation was overtly malicious, seeking to damage the highly profitable Chinese businesses of that time. There was no leper. The Chinese were vindicated, but the cost of bringing the court case bankrupted some of the largest and richest market gardeners of that time.

Through the early 1900s the market gardens were subjected to regular health inspections and various buildings (shacks) occupied by market gardeners were either condemned or forced to be upgraded. Regular demands for spraying against fruit fly and other pests were imposed and strictly enforced. By the 1930s and 1940s the area under cultivation remained largely unchanged and the market gardens, though less profitable, continued to be a dominant supplier of Perth and beyond. The age of the average gardener was becoming an issue. Due to the strict administration of the White Australia policy, few new gardeners had arrived since 1901 and so most of those still working were now in their sixties and seventies.

In 1951 the dwindling number of market gardeners and their aging demographic, allowed all of the remaining Chinese market gardeners to be forcibly evicted and their gardens bulldozed. The move was ostensibly to allow for the "redevelopment" of the foreshore for "sporting facilities". It was controversial at the time and letters were written in complaint and in support of the market gardeners. The forced eviction went ahead in spite of the complaints. The promised redevelopment did not eventuate, at least not quickly.

Apart from the area of Wong Bue's Market Garden, which was developed briefly into the Hurlingham Polo Ground, no other sporting facilities moved into the area. It was some twenty years before the Sir James Mitchell Park and other developments were implemented. By 1957 the Hurlingham Polo Ground development had collapsed and Wong Chew (2), the brother of Wong Bue, returned to that land and became the last Chinese market gardener on the South Perth foreshore. He remained there until he left to return to Hong Kong in 1968. The other market gardeners all either returned to China or moved away to more remote areas. Many ended up living in the Sunset Rest Home and Hospital, Dalkeith.PlaceSouth Perth Foreshore from Mill Point along to Victoria Park

Organisation

Ah Hung's Market Garden, South Perth

Ah Ling & Co. Market Garden, South Perth

Ah Soon's Market Garden, South Perth

Ah Tong's Market Garden, South Perth

Edward Stone's Market Garden, South Perth

Kong Hop Lee's Market Garden, South Perth

Ling Sing's Market Garden, South Perth

Sun Lee Yuen's Market Garden, South Perth

Sun Wah's Market Garden, Belmont & South Perth

W. Ah Key & Co. Market Gardens, South Perth

Wah On's Market Garden, South Perth

Wong Bue's Market Garden, South Perth - Victoria Park

Wong Youie/Louie's Market Garden, South Perth

Yee Lung Market Garden, South Perth

Yee Wah's Market Garden, South Perth

Document

Chinese Market Gardens in South Perth & Burswood 1911

Chinese says only one white woman on visiting list

Leong Ho and Others Versus The Daily News

Plague Plaints, 1903

Some South Perth Tenements, 1906

The Plague Outbreak: Another case discovered in a house at South Perth

They Have To Go

Mend's House in 1952, the former residence of many South Perth Chinese Market gardeners. This photo was taken just after the forced eviction of the last market gardeners (source: City of South Perth, reproduced with thanks)

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Item information

ContributorSchool of Social SciencesSource of informationAsian immigrants to Western Australia, 1829-1901 (Atkinson, 1988)Peninsular City: A social history of South Perth. 1992 Book by Cecil C. FloreyAdditional research by Ron Milton

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Chinese Market Gardens in South Perth

THE UNIVERSITY OF WESTERN AUSTRALIA