Where were their gardens and shops?
Two maps have been used to plot the location of Chinese operated gardens and shops in North Sydney from the 1870s to 1940.
Both were created in 1887 by the Sydney-based cartographic firm Higginbotham and Robinson. One shows the Borough of St Leonards, which equates with present-day North Sydney, from Waverton and Wollstonecraft in the west to Neutral Bay in the east. This is called St Leonards West on the website.
The other map shows St Leonards eastern Tunks and Mosman Wards which extend to present-day Mosman. This is called St Leonards East. The smaller Boroughs of Victoria and East St Leonards also appear on the St Leonards West map. All three Boroughs were amalgamated to form North Sydney Council in 1890. Mosman separated from this organisation in 1893.
These maps were selected because they provide the best detailed coverage of the entire North Sydney area and because they clearly show the open land where Chinese people worked market gardens in the north and the east.
Note that most of the sites indicated post-date the maps themselves. That is, they were operational from 1887 to 1940.
Streets were created as North Sydney's population grew dramatically from the late 19th century through to the 1950s. However, the streets on the 1887 map are largely those that exist today. Some names were changed. Notably Lane Cove Road became the Pacific Highway and North Sydney Road became Willoughby Road.
To assist in locating the sites it is possible to overlay the present-day street pattern using Google maps.
The maps used for the pop-up details for each address date either to the 1890s, and show building footprints, or the 1930s and show only lots. Both are referred to as Block Plans.
