On tonight’s Agenda of Randwick City Council’s Ordinary Meeting is a proposal to expand Botany Cemetery into Bumborah Point – foreshore open space in Yarra Bay (Crown Land Lot 4858 including 2 registered Aboriginal maddens). It is being presented as a ‘swap’ for the Southern Metropolitan Cemeteries Trust (SMCT) Licence over Lot 1079 of the Market Gardens. In reality Lot 1079 is a liability for the Cemetery as they cannot expand into this heritage listed floodplain and instead are incurring ongoing expenses for noxious weed removal.
Bumborah is a swimming, fishing and diving area serving a catchment with a growing population. Locals and visitors from all around Sydney use it. There is parking along the NSW Ports managed Prince of Wales Drive and in the Council car park on Military Road making it more readily accessible than beaches nearby. It is on the Eastern Beaches Coastal Walk which finishes at Molineux Point at the end of Prince of Wales Drive. The section around Bumborah needs to be brought up to standard for wheelchair access and cycling and natural, cultural and historic heritage items protected. At present the path around Yarra Bay leads through the Council carpark and onto the footpath at Military Road. Under the Cemetery proposal access would be restricted to a strip of land around the beach and rock platform. There is no description of the size of the ‘strip of land‘ that would remain but it would be overlooked by graves.
SMCT has advised of three actions it has undertaken to facilitate the preparation and future submission of a planning proposal for cemetery use in the Lot 4858 at Bumborah Point, namely, (1) the signing of a Deed of Agreement with the Local Aboriginal Land Council to remove Aboriginal Land Claims in exchange for an Aboriginal Cemetery over the land; (2) the relinquishing of SMCT’s licence for cemetery use over the market garden land; and (3) the offer to Council of a strip of foreshore land for access and recreational use. In view of this, SMCT has requested Council’s in principle support for a rezoning of Lot 4858 for cemetery use.
The audit examined the Department’s: • strategy for the use of Crown land • compliance with legislative requirements and policies for Crown land management • systems for ensuring quality and transparency in decision-making for leasing and sales of Crown land • engagement with stakeholders when leasing or selling Crown land.
“The Department is not currently managing the sale and leasing of Crown land effectively. The Department has made some improvements recently, but these are not yet fully implemented and as such it needs to make a concerted effort to manage ongoing risks.
The Department’s overall governance of decision-making for the sale and lease of Crown land is inadequate. Most guidance for staff is significantly out of date, which has led to inconsistent decision-making. There is low compliance with policy including in relation to rebates on rent, debt management, rent redeterminations and direct negotiation of leases and sales. Oversight of decisions has been limited, with no quality assurance or post-decision review processes. The Department has not monitored tenant compliance with lease conditions.
The Department complies with statutory requirements to notify the public about its decisions, but does not provide consistent opportunities for people to understand or have a say in decisions about the sale and lease of Crown land. Balancing the competing demands of multiple stakeholders in Crown land is challenging. There have been recent examples of better communication. However, consultation with stakeholders varies and does not always allow for meaningful opportunities for input.
Other types of Crown Land Reserves not covered by the report – Coastal Areas and Waterways (including structures), Travelling Stock Routes, Western Division.
2.2 Decision-making is not transparent There is minimal public information about decision-making processes The Department’s decision-making processes for sales and commercial leases are not transparent to stakeholders. This means that a potential sale or lease applicant, or an interested member of the public, will find it difficult to be informed about or scrutinise the Department’s decisions.
2.3 ……The language used in the notices is formal and would be difficult for a member of the public to understand (see Exhibit 7). It is difficult to know which piece of land the Department is referring to without technical knowledge of the way land is described. The use of more modern and simple language and communication would increase the reach of these notifications without a significant increase in cost to the Department.
I am led to believe that the three lots combined paid an annual rental of approximately $35000 PA, how many of our other heritage sites actually generate income for the Crown?
The gardens have been managed by Chinese farmers for around one hundred years , supplying fresh produce to the city of Sydney and beyond.
The farmers originally farmed the flood plains of the Pearl River in Canton China, and on becoming farmers in NSW selected the deep sandy Loam soils of La Perouse, Matraville, San Souci, and later Milperra as these locations were similar to the growing conditions of their homeland.
Three farms remain within the close proximity of the City of Sydney, one at La Perouse, one at Matraville and one at Rockdale.
These three farms are probably the last farms in Australia that are still farmed in a similar technique , to those many Chinese farms that most country towns had supplying fresh vegetables during the period 1860 to 1960.
There are about two and fifty Chinese farms located in the peri urban areas of western and North Western Sydney, however these farms are on clay soils and are farmed using similar agricultural technology and equipment as European Farmers.
The high rainfall 1000 mls PA at Mascot Airport, high water table, and deep sandy loam soils, which give good drainage, are very essential to be able to grow many of the Asian root vegetables they produce.
This type of country due to the high water table limits the use of heavy equipment, resulting in the agricultural practises used today are not that far removed from those of fifty years ago.
Irrigation using sprinklers and pumps were introduced in the late 1960 s, as were walk behind rotary hoes.
Previous to the use of sprinklers, the farmers used the ancient pole across the shoulders carrying a bucket at each end to manually water crops . This tool was known as a “Darm Teal”.
Recently small four wheel drive tractors ( under twenty horse power) have also been purchased, however their use is restricted to drier periods of the year.
The high use of manual labour and the sandy loam soils allows these farms during prolonged wet weather periods to be able to continue to sow and provide produce, where as those farmers on the clay soils in western Sydney, are not able to use their tractors, but also lose their crops due to soil water saturation.
The La Perouse Garden is very productive, due to soil type, drainage, and high rainfall. The gardens require very little irrigation . Unlike horticulture west of the range they are not on a stressed river system DPI stats show 11 megs PA are require to produce these intensive horticultural crops. As was stated previously 10 megs PA is delivered by annual rainfall. They are within close proximity of the Centre of Sydney and fresh food produce shops.
The location and topography of the farm being in a valley water course allows spectacular views of the workings and lay out of the farm from the Cemetery from the north, Bi Centennial Perk from the west and Hill 60 from the south. How many other cities of the world can boast a highly productive profitable working horticultural enterprise within a few kilometres of the city centre.
The La Perouse Gardens are a living relic of our past Chinese agricultural heritage, it is imperative that the three lots be combined under one title which has a long term rental ( at least five years with five year option) so that this highly productive and economically viable heritage asset remains, for generations to come.
Not far from the middle of Sydney there are seven hectares of heritage listed farming land, where vegetables have been grown for the last 150 years.
The low lying, sandy patch of land, not far from the beach in the eastern suburb of La Perouse, was originally farmed by the first settlers.
For the last 80 years three Chinese families have grown herbs and Chinese vegetables on the land.
Robert Teng and his family have been farming the property for the last 38 years.
The Teng’s are now the last remaining Chinese family farming the market garden.
On every inch of the seven hectares parsley, coriander, spring onion, bok choy, or radish is being grown.
When asked to compare how he farms to the way his father and grandfather would have, Mr Teng said he has more freedom to farm what he wants.
Daphne Kelley, former President of the Chinese Heritage Association of Australia, explained that Chinese market gardens were a huge part of the history of Chinese settlement in Australia.
“It’s very important because Chinese, who originally came in numbers to Australia during the Gold Rush days, back then there was a lot discrimination against the Chinese,” she said.
“Because so many occupations were not open to them, one of the main occupations they went into was food production and market gardening.
Mrs Kelley explained there have been some threats to the La Perouse market gardens in recent history.
The Eastern Suburbs Memorial Park sits on the market garden boundary and since 2008 the cemetery has been interested in expanding.
However, given the land is very low lying with a high water table, Mrs Kelley said if the land was to be used for residential or other purposes that would involved a lot of infilling and engineering works.
FIRST it was the 150-year-old, heritage-listed Chinese Market Gardens. Now the Botany Cemetery has set its sights on using Aboriginal-significant land for its expansion plans.
In addition to using roads on the western and southern boundaries of the cemetery for burial use, the Southern Metropolitan Cemeteries Trust (SMCT) has proposed to acquire part of Bumborah Point.
The land is south of the cemetery on the coast and is rec­orded as “containing Abo­riginal shelters, middens and rock engravings”.
Chris Ingrey, chief executive of La Perouse Local Aboriginal Land Council said it was ­“highly likely” Aboriginal people were buried on this land.
“Bumborah Point is significant to the Aboriginal community, and the land council has a cultural and legal interest in the site,” he said.
The expansion plans avoid encroaching on the previously sought market gardens – “subject to Randwick Council’s cooperation to assist” in gaining the newly-flagged land.
While the Trust has no ownership or approvals to use the market gardens for burial use, it was granted a licence over one of the lots, owned by Crown Land, in 2010 to investigate if the land was feasible for use.
A Save the La Perouse Market Gardens spokesperson said the decision by Crown Lands to hand management directly to the Trust had delivered a valuable ‘bargaining chip’ which the Trust is now playing in its claim for public land around Bumborah Point.
“It is time that we identify a date by which Botany cemetery is officially designated as full and closed to the use of new burials”.
“This will then require a recognition that a new site has to be found elsewhere in Sydney,” Cr Matson said.
Chief executive of SMCT, Graham Boyd, said he wasn’t able to comment on the proposal, because of “protocol policy reasons”.
unformed Crown Road and the feasibility of addressing these issues.
to form part of the Cemetery.
Death is catching up with the market gardeners of La Perouse.
For the past 100 years migrant Chinese families have farmed these lush green fields for parsley, shallot, mint and bok choy – a seven-hectare oasis amid the shipyards, runways and fumes of the city’s industrial belt.
But looming large on the adjacent hilltop is a neighbour intent on putting all that to an end. Like many of Sydney’s cemeteries, the Eastern Suburbs Memorial Park is fast running out of space for bodies and tombstones. Since 2008 it has wanted to seize 60 per cent of the garden in order to expand.
Only one family remains of the three that used to farm the garden’s three plots. One couple retired, while the Ha family, who had farmed the grounds for 80 years, left about nine months ago facing drainage issues and uncertainty over the site’s future.
Robert Teng is the last man standing.
For 38 years he and his family have toiled to produce radishes, English spinach, Chinese broccoli and other vegetables for local and far-flung buyers. Most mornings he will tend the plot, before driving to grocers, restaurants and the Flemington markets to make deliveries. Customers are loyal because they know his produce is clean, fresh and local.
His workday, spent under Sydney’s unforgiving sun, is long and repetitive. The soil is a deep sandy loam and can only be farmed by hand or with light machinery. Mr Teng’s wife, sons and daughter, mother-in-law and cousins all farm the site, gently plucking parsley from endless rows and depositing the bunches into small wooden baskets, which they wheel back to the shed for washing.
The workload has increased since Mr Teng started tending the Ha family’s plot as well. The cemetery’s trust was granted an exploratory licence to assess the third, unfarmed plot, but has been accused of neglecting its maintenance duties and allowing noxious weeds to grow.
Mr Teng is prepared to farm the entire seven hectares but needs security of tenure. He has to renew his lease each year and is worried about the cemetery’s plans. “I would like a long lease,” he says.
Locals say a high water table makes the garden unsuitable for burials. The cemetery’s 2012 bid to encroach upon the plot was rejected by Randwick Council, which has zoned the area for agricultural use.
But Greens councillor Murray Matson fears the government could intervene and ask for the Crown land to be rezoned. He said the market garden was a “local icon” and an important sustainable food source.
Randwick Council has now called on the state government to strip the trust of control over the third lot and return it to agricultural production.
The Southern Metropolitan Cemeteries Trust, which operates the cemetery, declined to answer questions and referred Fairfax Media to the Department of Primary Industries. A departmental spokesperson said the government was investigating ways to balance these competing interests and no new planning proposal was on the table.
“The government acknowledges the heritage significance of the site and the strong community support for local market gardens. The government also recognises the challenges associated with the shortage of burial space in metropolitan Sydney,” the spokesperson said.
Most market gardens have been relegated to the city fringe and the regions. Fred Haskins, a local representative on the NSW Farmers Association, fears that could be Mr Teng’s fate as well.
“If they take the second farm off him, within a couple of years he’ll be unviable and the whole thing will close down,” he said.
Robert Teng hosted a visit today from Professor Danfeng Huang and Rui Zhang from Shanghai Jiao Tong University along with UNSW doctoral student, Yun Ye. Professor Huang is a group leader of horticulture in the School of Agriculture and Biology.
Note the extent of weed coverage on the third allotment which is now managed by the Cemetery Trust. There is extensive coverage of Pampas Grass and Castor Oil Plant which are class 4 weeds under the Noxious Weeds Act 1993 in Randwick Municipality. This problem could be solved if Crown Lands leased the area to Robert Teng for agriculture.
Class 4 noxious weeds are plants that pose a threat to primary production, the environment or human health, are widely distributed in an area to which the order applies and are likely to spread in the area or to another area.
(Photos: with Robert Teng, in Bicentennial Park at Market Gardens Interpretation panel, Arthur Phillip monument marking landing on 18th January 1788; Molineux Point).
Yesterday’s storm resulted in extensive damage to crops and irrigation at the market gardens. There is speculation around the cause. Firstly, the volume of water running onto the site has possibly increased because of recent works to the detention area on Bunnerong Road. Secondly, the third market garden, bordering Bicentennial Park is clogged with weeds and debris and could have contributed to the backup of water in the creek. The third garden was in operation until 2011 and when the farmer retired Crown Lands issued a licence to the Cemetery Trust.
Taken from Bicentennial Park border looking across third garden which is under licence to Cemetery Trust.
Photos (below) show damage to crops, irrigation and structures. The extent of sediment deposited is shown in photograph of vehicle (left).