The Chinese Market Gardens is a heritage-listed market gardens at 1–39 Bunnerong Road, La Perouse, New South Wales, a suburb of Sydney, Australia. It is also known as Chinese Gardens La Perouse, Phillip Bay, Matraville and Randwick. The property is Crown land and is owned by NSW Department of Industry, a department of the Government of New South Wales. It was added to the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 13 August 1999.
History Indigenous history Pre-1780s the local Aboriginal people in the area used the site for fishing and cultural activities – rock engravings, grinding grooves and middens remain in evidence. In 1789 Governor Arthur Phillip referred to "a long bay", which became known as Long Bay. Aboriginal people are believed to have inhabited the Sydney region for at least 20,000 years.Turbet, 2001. The population of Aboriginal people between Palm Beach and Botany Bay in 1788 has been estimated to have been 1500. Those living south of Port Jackson to Botany Bay were the Cadigal people who spoke Dharug,Randwick Library webpage, 2003. while the local clan name of Maroubra people was "Muru-ora-dial".City of Sydney webpage, 2003. By the mid nineteenth century the traditional owners of this land had typically either moved inland in search of food and shelter, or had died as the result of European disease or confrontation with British colonisers.
Colonial history One of the earliest land grants in this area was made in 1824 to Captain Francis Marsh, who received bounded by the present Botany and High Streets, Alison and Belmore Roads. In 1839 William Newcombe acquired the land north-west of the present town hall in Avoca Street.
Randwick takes its name from the town of Randwick, Gloucestershire, England. The name was suggested by Simeon Pearce (1821–86) and his brother James. Simeon was born in the English Randwick and the brothers were responsible for the early development of both Randwick and its neighbour, Coogee. Simeon had come to the colony in 1841as a 21 year old surveyor. He built his Blenheim House on the 4 acres he bought from Marsh, and called his property "Randwick". The brothers bought and sold land profitably in the area and elsewhere. Simeon campaigned for construction of a road from the city to Coogee (achieved in 1853) and promoted the incorporation of the suburb. Pearce sought construction of a church modelled on the church of St. John in his birthplace. In 1857 the first St Jude's stood on the site of the present post office, at the corner of the present Alison Road and Avoca Street.Pollen & Healy, 1988.
Randwick was slow to progress. The village was isolated from Sydney by swamps and sandhills, and although a horse-drawn omnibus was operated by a man named Grice from the late 1850s, the journey was more a test of nerves than a pleasure jaunt. Wind blew sand over the track, and the bus sometimes became bogged, so that passengers had to get out and push it free. From its early days Randwick had a divided society. The wealthy lived elegantly in large houses built when Pearce promoted Randwick and Coogee as a fashionable area. But the market gardens, orchards and piggeries that continued alongside the large estates were the lot of the working class. Even on the later estates that became racing empires, many jockeys and stablehands lived in huts or even under canvas. An even poorer group were the immigrants who existed on the periphery of Randwick in a place called Irishtown, in the area now known as The Spot, around the junction of St.Paul's Street and Perouse Road. Here families lived in makeshift houses, taking on the most menial tasks in their struggle to survive.
In 1858 when the NSW Government passed the Municipalities Act, enabling formation of municipal districts empowered to collect rates and borrow money to improve their suburb, Randwick was the first suburb to apply for the status of a municipality. It was approved in February 1859, and its first Council was elected in March 1859.
Randwick had been the venue for sporting events, as well as duels and illegal sports, from the early days in the colony's history. Its first racecourse, the Sandy Racecourse or Old Sand Track, had been a hazardous track over hills and gullies since 1860. When a move was made in 1863 by John Tait, to establish Randwick Racecourse, Simeon Pearce was furious, especially when he heard that Tait also intended to move into Byron Lodge. Tait's venture prospered, however and he became the first person in Australia to organise racing as a commercial sport. The racecourse made a big difference to the progress of Randwick. The horse-drawn omnibus gave way to trams that linked the suburb to Sydney and civilisation. Randwick soon became a prosperous and lively place, and it still retains a busy residential, professional and commercial life.
Today, some of the houses have been replaced by home units. Many European migrants reside in the area, along with students and workers from the nearby University of NSW and the Prince of Wales Hospital.
Timeline 1882: The government reserved from sale 200 acres of land at Bumbora Point, Yarra Bay. 1888: Botany cemetery gazetted, 29 acres, 2 rods, 27 perches. 1893: First interment, Botany Cemetery. 1901: Bunnerong Cemetery gazetted, 25 acres. 1902: James Thomas Smith granted special lease of 15 acres for market garden and poultry farm. 1904: William Foster Anderson granted 10 acres for a market garden – portion 1077. Catherine King granted a lease of 7 acres 3 roods 34 perches for a poultry farm on portion 1079. [On portion 1061 which adjoined 1079 the lessee is George Soo Hoo] 1905: Parish map shows the market gardens. James Hancock granted lease of 10 acres for market garden - portion 1076. Samuel Hancock granted a lease of 10 acres for a market garden – portion 1078. 1906: James Hancock expands taking over the lease of portion 1077 from Anderson. Lives on the property. Applies unsuccessfully for freehold over 1076 and 1077. The two portions are eventually combined into Lot 1077. 1909: James Hancock sublets 4 acres to Ah Choon who leases on to Ah Fook, Gee Hoi and three other Chinese. 1910: James Hancock applies unsuccessfully for conditional purchase of 1076 & 1077. 1913: Kate King leases Lot 1079 to James King. 1916: [Which?] Hancock's land subleased to Chinese gardeners. 1917: Samuel Hancock is refused conditional purchase of 1078. 1920: James King sub-lets portion 1079. 1920: Samuel Hancock's lease on Lot 1078 is extended 14 years. 1921: Catherine King resumes lease of portion 1079. 1922: Special lease for 7 acres 3 roods 34 perches granted to Kate King for a Poultry Farm, Vegetable Garden, Business Purposes (greengrocer) and Residence, with tenure extending until 1934 at least. 1923: James Hancock sublets Lot 1076 to See Lee & Co. Samuel Hancock sublets 5 acres on Lot 1078 to Hong Chung. 1924: James Hancock sublets Lot 1077 to Tiy War & Co. 1927: Seven Chinese living on portion 1076. 1932: Leases over portions 1076 and 1077 (not Lot 1077) are renewed to James Hancock. 1933: Lease to Samual Hancock on Lot 1078 is revoked. Tiy War & Co applies successfully for lease of 8 acres 21 perches on Lot 1078, however this area was progressively reduced to 5 acres 9 perches by 1951. 1939: Kat King's tenure on portion 1079 expires. 1941: Special lease granted to Sun Lee for 4 acres 3 roods 16 perches in Portion 1079, expiring 1948. A special lease to Henry Chan Lum also in this portion expired in 1966. 1954: Part of the land in portions 1077 and 1078 were taken for the survey of Allotment 29, Botany Cemetery. 1957: Tiy War & Co leases 4 acres 19 perches on Lot 1078 until 1966. 1968: From this time Bing Sun Ng and Lo Wun Leong were farming on portion 1079.
Notes: Entries linked to expansion of the cemetery into the market garden land marked * This time line covers only the gardens on the western side of Bunnerong Road. Until the 1980s the gardens continued along the line of drainage on the eastern side of the road as well, and both sides were the subject of early attempts to list the gardens in 1979.
Aboriginal land Aboriginal people are believed to have inhabited the Sydney region for at least 20,000 years. The population of Aboriginal people in the Sydney area was estimated by the First Fleet's Governor Phillip as being around 1500. The traditional owners of the land near La Perouse were the Kameygal, and their proximity to the coast meant that they enjoyed a plentiful supply of fish. The area also had fresh water supplies and places of natural shelter. Rock engravings, grinding grooves and middens remain in the locality in evidence of their occupation. By the mid nineteenth century most Aboriginal people had either died as the result of European disease or confrontation with British colonisers or moved away in search of food and shelter. However, later in the 19th century Aboriginal people began moving back to this area, settling in La Perouse where there is still a considerable community, many having strong connections with the Aboriginal community at Wreck Bay near Nowra on the NSW South Coast. From the early 20th century at least La Perouse became a tourist site for Sydneysiders where Aboriginal residents sold souvenirs such as boomerangs and "snake men" entertained spectators. In 1984 an Aboriginal land claim for the Aboriginal Reserve near the bay was successful.Dictionary of Sydney 'La Perouse'. More recently an Aboriginal land claim was made successfully on the sandy knoll adjoining the market gardens site known as Hill 60. In 2012 there is also an undecided Aboriginal land claim on the Chinese Market Gardens' three lots.
Colonial beginnings When British colonisation of Australia as a penal colony began in 1788 the First Fleet initially landed at Yarra Bay, 300 meters from the Chinese Market Gardens La Perouse, where its creek empties into Botany Bay. Governor Phillip quickly deemed the area unsuitable for settlement as too exposed and swampy with not enough fresh water. Within days the penal settlement had moved a few kilometres north to Port Jackson and found "a proper situation" at Sydney Cove.
Sailing out of Botany Bay, the authorities on the First Fleet were probably alarmed to see two French ships entering the bay. This was a strangely coincidental meeting of the first two European expeditions to the east coast of Australia since Captain Cook's historic "discovery" in 1770. Captain of the French expedition, La Vicompte de La Perouse was on a scientific tour of the world, probably with imperialist underpinnings, and sought to replenish his supplies and rest his crew. They landed at a small bay next to Yarra Bay, now known as 'Frenchman's Bay' where they set up a stockade and planted European vegetable seeds in a plot that became known as 'the Frenchman's Gardens', probably intended to feed the crew on the return trip home. After setting sail in March 1788 La Perouse was never seen again (by Europeans) and the ruins of his ships were only discovered decades later, off the coast of what is now Vanuatu (Dictionary of Sydney 'La Perouse').