Chinese Market Gardens

Chinese Market Gardeners in Stirling: Growing Food Between the Lakes, 1870–1920 

Long before Glendalough Station and the Mitchell Freeway shaped the suburb we know today, the low-lying country between Herdsman Lake and Lake Monger was a working landscape of wetlands, tracks, gardens and small farms. From the 1870s to around 1920, Chinese market gardeners were part of this landscape, growing vegetables for Perth’s expanding population and leaving a local history that is still marked in the City of Stirling’s heritage records. 

Between Herdsman Lake and Lake Monger 

Glendalough sits between two important wetland systems: Herdsman Lake and Lake Monger. The suburb’s name is often explained as meaning “valley of the two lakes”, and its early history was closely tied to the surrounding water, peaty soils and seasonal wetland country. In 1887, land in the area was transferred to Bishop Matthew Gibney, and much of it was later leased to market gardeners. 

The arrival of Chinese gardeners 

Chinese migrants came to Western Australia in greater numbers during the gold rushes of the late nineteenth century. Some moved into market gardening, an occupation that drew on skills from southern China, especially Guangdong Province, where small-scale vegetable, fruit and rice cultivation were common. In Perth, Chinese gardeners became closely associated with wetland margins and swampy ground, where water was available and vegetables could be grown intensively. 

The City of Stirling records a heritage site marker for Chinese market gardens at Glendalough, noting that Chinese market gardens were a feature of the area from the 1870s to 1920. A related image in the City’s Art and History Collection shows a Chinese market garden at Osborne Park, another district within Stirling that later became strongly associated with intensive food production. 

Working the wetland soils 

Market gardening was demanding physical work. Gardens were often run by small groups of men who leased land, prepared beds by hand, watered crops, harvested vegetables and transported produce for local sale. Western Australian Museum material describes Chinese gardeners in early twentieth-century Perth digging shallow square wells in wetland areas and using intensive communal labour practices familiar from southern China. 

Food for a growing city 

By the early 1900s, Chinese market gardeners supplied much of Perth’s fresh vegetable produce. Their gardens formed part of a wider metropolitan network across places such as North Perth, Leederville, Bayswater, South Perth, Victoria Park, Osborne Park and other wetland or river-edge districts. In Stirling, Glendalough and Osborne Park were part of this broader story of food production on the edge of the city. 

Racism, restrictions and resilience 

Chinese gardeners worked within a society that often treated them with suspicion and hostility. After Federation, the Immigration Restriction Act 1901 and related policies limited Chinese migration and family life in Australia. Many Chinese men lived apart from wives and children in China, sending money home and returning only periodically if they were able. Public health concerns were also used to scrutinise Chinese gardens, and racist claims about sanitation and food production appeared in public debate. 

Decline and changing land use 

By the 1920s, Chinese market gardening in Perth was in decline. Immigration restrictions reduced the arrival of new workers, while ageing gardeners often had no family successors in Western Australia. At the same time, demand for suburban land grew. Wetlands were drained, gardens disappeared, and districts such as Glendalough and Osborne Park were gradually reshaped by housing, roads, industry and later transport infrastructure. 

Remembering a hidden local history 

Today, little of the market garden landscape survives on the ground, but the story remains visible through heritage markers, photographs and local history collections. The Chinese market gardeners of Glendalough and Osborne Park were not simply passing figures in the landscape. They helped feed Perth, adapted wetland country for intensive food production, and contributed to the multicultural history of the City of Stirling. 

Further reading and research leads