Oral History Project - Our Fruitful Record
A History of Market Gardens In Campbelltown
The Project
The oral history project captures, exhibits and celebrates the City of Campbelltown's rich and unique history of market gardens in the 20th century. The Sesquicentennial Year of Council offered a timely opportunity to acknowledge and commemorate this intrinsic part of Campbelltown's local social and cultural fabric.
The project was funded by Council to record oral history interviews with 10 people (narrators) who have direct experience of market gardening in the Campbelltown Council area. They were either market gardeners themselves or were involved through their families who have owned and worked gardens or through working for others. In their interviews narrators record the history of their family and the contribution made by market gardeners since the 19th century up until the early 1990s when the last of the family businesses sold the land to developers.
Council engaged consultant, Madeleine Regan (from ideas and words) to guide the oral history project. Ann Sharley, Community Development Officer from Council managed the project, and with three trained, passionate volunteer interviewers, Di Booker, Maria Crisci and Katrina Spencer who worked closely with the narrators to record their experiences and memories. The project photographer, Annette Fort, created a series of photographic portraits of the narrators.
The Exhibition
Market gardens have been a significant feature of Campbelltown since the 1850s and especially in the post-World War II period. They were the major industry in the area for over 100 years. They have now all but been replaced by suburban homes and subdivisions. The land provided food, employment, a sense of community and identity for generations of market gardeners yet their stories remain largely unrecorded. The exhibition which first was on display at the Campbelltown ArtHouse, 168 Montacute Road, Rostrevor from 10 July – 31 July 2018, documented and shared the stories of ten of these families and people who produced vegetables in the Campbelltown area.
The exhibition was clustered around seven themes: Land, Family, Crops, Work, Soil, Water, Community. These themes were chosen as they reflect the shared memories and knowledge generated in the oral history interviews.
The Our Fruitful Record display boards are now located at the Athelstone Community Garden in Padulesi Park, Athelstone.
