{"id":4944,"date":"2022-09-27T17:40:04","date_gmt":"2022-09-27T07:40:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bassstraitmaritimecentre.com.au\/?p=4944"},"modified":"2022-10-03T15:31:52","modified_gmt":"2022-10-03T04:31:52","slug":"chinese-market-gardeners-in-devonport","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bassstraitmaritimecentre.com.au\/history\/chinese-market-gardeners-in-devonport\/","title":{"rendered":"Chinese Market Gardeners in Devonport"},"content":{"rendered":"
In the early 1900s there were a number of market gardens in Devonport, most of them worked by Chinese migrants. At least eighteen Chinese people \u2013 referred to by newspapers of the time as \u2018The Celestials\u2019 – were known to have had market gardens in both East and West Devonport. As the term Celestials was used more often than specific names, it can sometimes be difficult to identify individuals.<\/p>\n
Apart from their market gardens, the Chinese also had a sideline in Chinese medicines.\u00a0 Local people would bring them freshly killed blackbirds in exchange for vegetables and, after the blackbirds were dried and other ingredients added, medicines were made which were said to cure many illnesses. Apparently although initially reluctant to take these concoctions, the locals came to see first-hand their efficacy and began to accept and use them.<\/p>\n
On occasion the Chinese market gardeners were visited by Chinese missionaries.\u00a0 Newspaper reports suggest both locals and Chinese attended services in a borrowed church on these occasions.\u00a0 Although the locals couldn\u2019t understand the service, hymns were sung in both English and Chinese and it seems a worshipful time was enjoyed by all.\u00a0 A report in the North West Post<\/em> of 1902 speaks of the church being full, with a large number of locals besides fourteen Chinese.\u00a0 The proceedings, it assures the reader, were at all times carried out in a reverent and orderly manner.<\/p>\n Some of the Chinese did become well-known enough in the community to be mentioned by name in newspaper articles, and their gardens can also be traced in public records.\u00a0 In 1905, Charlie Ah Tit was reported to have market gardens at the Don, renting fifteen acres behind the Don Company Store, and in 1911 other members of the Chinese community joined him, trading as Ack Lee and Company. Their gardens took over most of the vacant land behind the store, which was irrigated by a creek. The Lodder family, from whom the land was rented, had an electricity plant with a dam and water wheel at the top of the land.\u00a0 As well as directing water to the Lodder\u2019s dynamo, water was distributed to the gardens.\u00a0 The result was a reliably productive site.<\/p>\n It seems that Mr Charlie Ah Tit was one of the most prominent Chinese people in Devonport.\u00a0 Not only did he have market gardens, he also had a shop on the Formby Esplanade. The shop sold produce from the gardens and was also a general store, and Ah Tit is thought to have rented the premises as early as 1895. His holdings not only included the shop on Formby Esplanade and market gardens at Don, but extended to market gardens in Steele Street on the site that would eventually become the Devonport Maternity Hospital.\u00a0 Records also show he had market gardens in East Devonport and on Appledore Estate. \u00a0Appledore Estate was near a creek used by Bartholomew Thomas for water for his brewery, and records indicate that from 1901 to 1923 the executors of the Thomas estate also rented thirteen allotments to Mr Soo Kee. With Charlie Ah Tit\u2019s gardens also there, records indicate a total of twenty-two blocks of land on Douglas and Chamberlain Streets were being utilized as market gardens by the Chinese.<\/p>\n