Chinese
Market Gardens: 1850-1940s Merri & Darebin Creeks
Darebin’s Australians: Immigrants to Citizens
The first record of Chinese in Australia dates back to 1827 when
a few Chinese domestic servants & labourers came to Australia.
During the second half of the nineteenth century almost 100,000
Chinese entered Australia, the second largest immigrant group after
those from the British Isles.
In China The Opium War, 1839-42, the Taiping Rebellion 1851-64,
general civic disorder, famine & floods caused many to leave.
They were also attracted by the discovery of gold in Australia.
DAREBINS EARLY CHINESE
The 1850s gold rush in Central Victoria led to a population boom.
Southern Chinese Immigrants joined Irish, Welsh, Scottish, English,
Cornish, Italians, Swiss, French, Greeks, Swedish, Germans &
Americans arriving in large numbers by 1861. Many Chinese diggers
had a hard time on the goldfields. Declining gold yields, violence
and discrimination forced many Chinese to discontinue mining and
enlist as shepherds, hawkers and market gardeners. Some moved south
to Melbourne or return home to China. By 1871, 17,000 Chinese remained
in Victoria. Some came to the Merri and Darebin Creeks and took
over the gardens originally started by the German settlers.
DAREBIN’S CHINESE MARKET GARDENERS
Many of these gardens were located between Arthurton Road &
Bell Street along the Merri Creek. An 1891 map of Northcote shows
‘W Tong’ running a market garden near Seperation &
Mitchell Streets near the present day German cemetary.
Further north until 1920, ‘Sin Sing’ cultivated land
between Scotia & Etnam Street before the swampland was filled
to accomodate the building of the Bell Primary School. Still futher
north on the Merri Creek ‘Al kit’, ‘Al Wah’
& ‘Gee Wah’ operated market gardens from around
1891 to 1906. The soil along the creeks
was fertile and good for growing vegetables. Many remember the lush
crops of celery, lettuce, cabbage and cauliflower and how anyone
could go there and buy the fresh vegetables
directly from the growers.
JOHN CARTER OF THORNBURY - EARLY 1940s
John Carter was a young boy in the latter days of the Chinese gardens.
Born in Emmaline Street near the present day Northcote Golf Course
he recalls. “on Sundays we children would
go to the Chinese gardens by the Merri Creek near Arthurton Road.
They would fill our sugar bags with whatever vegetables were in
season for 3d - threepence. We got enough vegetables
to distribute in amongst the neighbours.
The Chinese lived in shacks with dirt floors, no electricity or
running water. They were mainly elderly men, small in stature
and stooped from working long hours, every day of the week.
They were humble and friendly. I doubt they understood
much English. I can’t recall them speaking much. They communicated
with us children using a type of sign language.
ie - holding up a lettuce etc to signal the vegetable
ie - 3 fingers for threepence to signal the cost
‘BUILDING THE CHINAMEN A WATER PUMP’
My dad worked in Leincester Grove which housed a foundry & engineering
works only a couple of hundred metres from the creek. They watched
the Chinamen water the gardens using 2 cans tied to a stick carried
across their shoulders. A back breaking exercise. So my father and
his mates built them a hand operated pump, from then on we got free
vegetables. They affectionately called my dad Mr Jack.
A horse drawn cart delivered them and their produce to market. I
remember they came home at around 8am. The horse went at walking
pace with the Chinamen driver sound asleep ”.
References :
‘Chinese Settlement in Darebin’
by - Arthur B W Yong
‘Recollections of the Darebin Creek Valley’
by - Kelly Watson
‘Back In Them Days’
An oral history of Preston
edited by - Roger J Jones.
