Toomevara Lane Chinese Market Gardens

The three market garden properties are of State significance for a number of reasons, but their primary importance is their continuous use for market gardening since at least the 1850s. This has resulted in the creation of a landscape that bears evidence of continuous work and the marketing of the changes that have taken place in the market gardening industry in that time. Evidence of this is present in built fabric, changes in ethnicity of occupants and the complexity of infrastructure. Their rarity has been further enhanced by ongoing changes to surrounding environments including urban re-development that absorbed the majority of surviving market gardens in the mid and late 20th century. They are rare survivors of the mid 19th century use of the area for market gardening.^[1]

Outwardly the market gardens are a timeless scene with little intrusion by modern technology, which creates a semblance of their former appearance. They are representative of market gardens throughout the 19th and 20th centuries. Their appearance and contribution to their settings is significant as a reminder of the area's long use for market gardening. The landscapes are strongly patterned, aesthetically pleasing and provide a transition between urban development and the renaturalised areas of the Botany lowlands.^[1]

The Toomevara Lane Market Gardens are of State significance as one of only five surviving market gardens in the Sydney metropolitan region in largely their original form and still employing traditional cultivation practices. The site is of significance for its association with the Chinese, German, Irish and Cornish communities and for its demonstration of a continuing pattern of land usage since the mid-19th century market gardener's cottages in the Sydney metropolitan region and one of only four such cottages still attached to operating market gardens.^[1]

The property is of State significance for its continuous use as a market garden since the land was first alienated for that purpose in the 1860s. It retains a strongly functional landscape reflecting both the long history of market gardening and operation that is typical of modern farming methods.^[1]

The current use of the place is consistent with its significance and contributing to the continuity of use of the property. The scale of the property, the working largely by hand, the "making do" and recycling of fabric and general air of under-resourced functionality are essential aspects of the property's significance. Modern intrusions, notably motor cars and electricity, are acceptable changes that have been adopted as opportunity has risen.^[1]

The Toomevara Lane Market Garden has some local significance for its associations, notably

• Peter Herrmann and his family, who were prominent market gardeners in Sydney in the mid to late 19th century and amongst the first German immigrants to take up market gardening of Sydney
• Peter Henry Wright, who operated the market garden from 1875 to 1890, one of the longest single ownership tenures in market gardening at the time.
• James O'Meara and the O'Meara family who owned the site from 1899 to 1960, the longest period of ownership in the site's history
• John Wilson (the original grantee) and John Hart, his solicitor, who started the market garden in 1866.^[1]

Bordering wetland is of local significance as fish and bird breeding habitat.^[1]

Immediate surrounding development and parkland diminishes the aesthetic and evocative landscape character that the other properties retain. The neighbouring land uses provide management challenges through trespass and noise that compromise the sensory experience.^[1]

Toomevara Lane Chinese Market Gardens was listed on the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 2 April 1999.^[1]

• Paul Davies Pty Ltd (1999). s.170 Register DUAP.

This Wikipedia article was originally based on Toomevara Lane Chinese Market Gardens, entry number 01394 in the New South Wales State Heritage Register published by the State of New South Wales (Department of Planning and Environment) 2018 under CC-BY 4.0 licence, accessed on 2 June 2018.