Market gardens, hawkers and the Queen Vic Market connect two Chinese Australian families in Coburg in Melbourne, Australia and Wonggaili, Xinhui, Guangdong (旺嘉里, 新会, 广东) in southern China.
In this episode Sophie speaks with family historian Terry Young, whose grandfather was a market gardener and his father a worked at the Queen Victoria Markets. We discuss an oral history recording with Alex Woon whose father, Alexander Ah Woon, also worked in the Queen Victoria Markets.
Further reading:
- ‘Chinese Market Gardens of Melbourne‘ website created by Terry Young.
- Terry Young, ‘William Ah Young & Wah Lok‘, Chinese Australian Family Historians of Victoria.
- Alan To and Terry Young, ‘Finding Dong Low and our ancestral village’ in S. Couchman (ed), Journeys into Chinese Australian Family History, Melbourne: CAFHOV, 2019.
- Terry Young, ‘Chinese market gardens (Northcote, Coburg, Heidelberg)‘ (video), Chinese Australian Family Historians of Victoria website, a presentation given to Heidelberg Historical Society in April 2021.
- Terry Young and Alan To, ‘The Story of Willie Dark – The Search for Willie Dark and His Family‘ (video), Chinese Australian Family Historians of Victoria website.
- ‘Fruit and vegetable industry‘, Chinese Australian Historical Images in Australia (archived), further resources on Chinese Australians and the fruit and vegetable industry.
- ‘Hawking‘, Chinese Australian Historical Images in Australia (archived), further resources on Chinese Australians and street hawking.
- Oral history recordings with Chinese Australian in Australian public collections, compiled 2023, hosted by CAFHOV
Featuring:
- Dr Sophie Couchman, Professional Historian and Curator
- Terry Young, Chinese Australian Family Historians of Victoria
- Alex Woon (1916-2014) interviewed by Sophie Couchman for the Museum of Chinese Australian History in 2011.
- Music composed and performed for the podcast by Dr Wang Zheng-Ting.
- Final audio mastering by Nat Grant.
Full Transcript
Transcript in progress. Available soon.
This episode was created with in-kind support from the Museum of Chinese Australian History, the Chinese Australian Family Historians of Victoria, Dr Sophie Couchman and Nikolaus Yee.
This project gratefully acknowledges the Local History Grants Program and Public Record Office Victoria, supported by the Victorian Government through the Community Support Fund.
Sophie Couchman 
