Our Fruitful Record - Family
The first families who took up land for market gardens and orchards were from England, Scotland and Germany. From the start, market gardens in the Campbelltown area were family businesses and land was often passed down through several generations. Usually one family member sold vegetables at market.
Italian men were in market gardens from the late 1920s. At first they worked for other families and then they leased and bought their own land. Wives and children joined them after they became established themselves. Large numbers of Italian families arrived in the area after World War II. Initially many worked for other growers before buying properties in the 1950s. Some men worked in another job and family members contributed to work on the market gardens.
"… by the time I was 10 to 12 maybe, we got to do bits and pieces… there might have been hoeing, weeding, we got involved a bit in the watering because they used water from a bore and they ran water down a canvas channel alongside the ends of rows." - Margaret Emery
Pictured: Emery family. Family photo of Max, Doug & Charlie Emery with three giant trombones in the early 1930s.
"Our Dad kept meticulous diaries from 1936 to ’42 and every night he entered every job that the workers did during the day… I know in… Dad’s 1936 diary, they were grubbing out a lot of trees… down the river flat and get more land near the creek." - Brian Emery
Pictured: Emery family “Woods’ Australian Diary 1938” entries for week beginning 14 April 1938.
"So I’ve only ever moved about 100 metres from where I was brought up. One of the few people who do still live on the same land…" - Dennis Lorenz
Pictured: Lorenz family. Last stick of celery cut on the property, 1992. L to R, Dennis Lorenz, Ray Kimber, Paul Emery, Cyril Emery.
"Our ancestors came out from Germany, our original ancestor came out from Germany and took up a large section of land from Lower Athelstone Road that eventually was divided into four different properties. Our early days we didn’t have a secondary education because our Father felt that our future was in working on the land and he didn’t bother to send us to a secondary school." - Hartley Ey
Pictured: Hartley Ey playing football for Athelstone.
"I work in market garden, start when one year before the baby born and after two three months go all the time… take the baby in the pusher, put umbrella on the pusher, go over there for couple hours and clean up the onions… twenty cents the box. [laughs] Thirty kilo the box." - Ilda Cavuoto
"… this is a generational thing that they don’t know when to give up because I remember my father – work is life and life is work. My father ‘s (perspective) there’s no use living – I’m living like a lion, when I become a lamb then it’s all over." - Robert Parletta
"So we always say that the farming and marketing is in the blood…" - Brian Emery
"So it was a lot of long hours working in the garden growing up, it was a case of my parents market garden was not only our home but it was also their place of business and it was a place where they socialised a lot with other market gardeners and other people from the area. I think even as a child you see your parents working hard day-in day-out, there’s a sense of obligation to at least help. I think it’s part of our DNA to help our parents and our family in whatever way we can, so as I got older I came to the conclusion I was fit and able so I could do that…" - Robert Parletta
Pictured: Eric Parletta and his mother, standing in a field of silverbeet in a market garden in Athelstone, 1994.