The Chinese Market Gardens at La Perouse are among the last surviving examples of a once widespread industry across Randwick. While European families first established gardens in the district, Chinese migrants took up the work in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, when few other occupations were open to them.
At La Perouse, families and syndicates leased fertile land with good water supplies, growing vegetables that were sold at city markets or door-to-door across Sydney. Life on the gardens was demanding—workers rose before dawn to prepare produce, often living in simple huts on site—but the gardens offered both employment and a foothold for many newly arrived migrants.
For more than a century, the La Perouse gardens have been tended by members of the Chinese community, sometimes handed from one family to the next. They remain a living link to the contribution of Chinese Australians to Randwick’s history, and to Sydney’s food supply more broadly.
The La Perouse Chinese Market Gardens have been listed on the State Heritage Inventory
You canf ind further information in the Water from the Wells; Chinese Market Gardens in NSW 1850-2010 pamphlet publication
