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"The NSW state government plans to overturn its own heritage listing and destroy the heritage-listed Chinese Market Gardens, Bunnerong Road , Randwick ,  to provide more grave plots for a local cemetery," Andrew Woodhouse, president of the AHI said today.

Mr Woodhouse is calling on the Premier, Morris Iemma to overturn the proposal.

The New South Wales Department of Lands has produced a Draft Assessment of Crown Land – Chinese Market Gardens, Phillip Bay and submissions are invited during the exhibition period from 19 June 2008 to 17 July 2008. 

For images of the gardens, see below.

"These gardens are still producing much-needed fresh produce and ‘function well’," according the NSW Planning Department’s heritage listing [see below] .

"According to the NSW State Heritage Register the gardens are rare,  having equal dollops of both European and Chinese social and historical significance," Woodhouse said.

"The Chinese have used the site since gold rush times with Count de La Perouse, after whom the area is named, having established his own farm there in the 1830s.

The NSW State Heritage Register states: "It is believed that this vegetable garden [ La Perouse’s] was Australia 's first primary industry site and the site was more or less the same site as the Chinese Market Gardens..."

In addition,  the Heritage Register notes: "The market gardens are of historical, agricultural and social significance to NSW and to Sydney Metropolitan area in particular. The place was … used as market gardens for more than 150 years, firstly used by Europeans and then by Chinese. In terms of historical significance, the area is seen to have the importance in the evolution of the area from a landscape occupied and modified by the area’s Aboriginal population, to an area adapted to the settlement and food production needs of the European colony.

    The area also has great social significance for its association with the Chinese immigrants who became predominant in the Market Gardens of this area for about 100 years. In terms of aesthetic significance, the area has some scenic value, giving it a somewhat rural character which can be perceived from the surrounding area…
    The Market Gardens also have rarity value as they provide the last remaining evidence in the Randwick area of these early agricultural uses, many former Market Gardens having already been redeveloped for residential use.

    Entrance to Robert Tang's market garden is on Bunnerong Road and the entrances to Tiy War & Co and Io Wun Leong's are on Koorooera Road .

    The site is …  growing all kinds of vegetables, including Choy Sum, Chinese Broccoli, English Spinach, Baby Buk Choy, Flower Choy Sum, White Radish, Green Radish, Watercress, Shallot, Coriander, Leek, Australian Parsley, Continental Parsley, Dill, Gay Choy, Spring Onion and Onchoy. Most of the vegetables were introduced from China by Chinese market gardeners. 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 buildings. The vegetables are washed in a large central shed, and some workers live in corrugate iron huts. Some other huts are used as storerooms for agricultural machinery, fertiliser and tools. The market gardens function well, providing fresh vegetables on daily basis…

    Early market gardens were established in Randwick , Coogee and La Perouse, with the first farms in the La Perouse area recorded in 1830 on land granted to John Brown... The Surveyor General's Map of 1889 indicates the Wassell Street Market Garden area, to the east of Bunnerong Road , in the vicinity of the Bunnerong Road Market Garden. According to [ a heritage study], market gardens were established at Phillip Bay in the 1860s in the wake of the Gold Rushes. The market gardens at Randwick and Coogee were overtaken by housing in the late nineteenth century, but due to the areas isolation and low-lying terrain, the market gardens in the south of the Municipality survived into more recent times.
    According to Glen Blaxland, a local historian and once a member of the local historical society in the Municipality, Count de La Perouse cleared a piece of land and established a vegetable garden in Phillip Bay to prepare vegetables for his return journey back to France . The first known name of this suburb area was the Frenchman's Gardens.

   It is believed that this vegetable garden was Australia 's first primary industry site and the site was more or less the same site as the Chinese Market Gardens...
   The [local] Social History notes that until 1859, the market gardens were owned and tended by Europeans, some being attached to the wealthiest homes in Randwick . Following the end of the 1850s gold rushes, many Chinese came into the area and became involved in market gardening.
     A search of the Sands Directories by Council's Local History Librarian indicates that the first Chinese occupiers in the Bunnerong Road and Franklin Street area date from the late 1920s and early 1930.
    In 1961, there were nine market garden leases, confined to two areas in the Municipality. Four in the Franklin Street, Wassell Street, Knowles Avenue area, and five in the Little Bay Road, Bunnerong Road area. During the 1960s Council made considerable efforts to prevent long-term extensions of these leases by the Crown, in order to facilitate the future use of these areas for residential purpose.
    The title search shows Portion 1077 was used by current market gardener, Robert Tang, Portion was used by current market gardener, Tiy War & Co, since 1957 and Portion 1079 was used by Bing Sun Ng and Io Wun Leong since 1968.

    The leases for these market gardens have expired and the gardens are presently held under Permissive Occupancy."

 "This site has one of the most fascinating and significant histories I’ve read, "Woodhouse notes, adding, "the site deserves to be saved in its entirety for future generations if not at least, for its current fresh food production.

"The needs of the cemetery are important," he said adding, "however, they do not justify demolition of heritage items."

"After all, any expansion of the market gardens cannot rely on the demolition of the cemetery, also a heritage item.

"The cemetery should be looking at purchasing land elsewhere or introducing more sustainable methods of interring our loved ones, such as an ossiary or cremation or gardens, " Woodhouse said in conclusion.

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