GARDEN OF THE MANILA MEN
SLATY CREEK ROAD CABBAGE TREE, HEPBURN SHIRE
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Statement of Significance
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GARDEN OF THE MANILA MEN - History
In the mid-1850s, Manilla men came to the Victorian Goldfields from the Philippines via California, where they were involved in that gold rush and learned mining techniques. On arrival in the Creswick area, many set up living sites in the Cabbage Tree area and formed a strong community around Mopoke Gully. Here, they extensively sluiced with other miners.This garden would have supplied produce for them and other miners in the area. Some produce would have been sold on site to residents near the gardens, but some would have been carried to market and hawked for sale around Creswick, or possibly sold in a nearby store on Petticoat Road.Manilla men considered their community, culture and gardening to be very different to that of the Chinese from mainland China, although most European settlers apparently did not distinguish between the two groups (Henderson, 2012, p21). Apart from the hardships experienced by Chinese miners, the literature mentions some antagonism between the Manilla men and the wider Chinese mining community from mainland China and Hong Kong. Some members of the Manilla community worked in bush sites in other professions, such as selling wattle bark to tanneries in Ballarat and supplying firewood.
Please note: the term ‘Manila men’ (or Filipino) is used deliberately, as it is how they were referred to at the time, e.g. in Zubiri. et al, The Filipinos in Australia, 2010. Nearly all these settlers were men.GARDEN OF THE MANILA MEN - Interpretation of Site
The garden site would have developed organically, as a source of food, after people from Philippines arrived in this area and started mining. Pigs would have been reared in association with gardening, and sold locally and in Creswick. Pig manure and ‘night soil,’ gathered from local dwellings, would be important for maintaining soil fertility on these poor, acid Ordovician-based soils. The soils appear to be partly alluvial, perhaps carried up from from the creek beds, and enriched with pig manure and night soil from human habitation along Mopoke Gully. Tree (various Eucalyptus species) cover on the site does not impede viewing, and protects the site to some extent. The western edge of the garden is raised. The whole bed area would have been fenced with brushwood.
Heritage Inventory Description
GARDEN OF THE MANILA MEN - Heritage Inventory Description
The site is on Crown Land in Creswick Regional Park. To reach this site, travel from Creswick, along Old Melbourne Road for 2km, then turn right into Slaty Creek Rd. Follow this road past Slaty Creek Campground 1, and then across the ford over Slaty Creek and past the turnoff to Campground 2. About 200 m past the ford, the road veers south and up a slope. The Garden of the Manila Men is located 10 m west of Slaty Ck Rd, on the right under trees. The Garden site is situated on the south bank of Mopoke Gully, about 100m upstream of Slaty Creek Campground No2. The garden bed area is about 35 m x 25 m in dimensions, on the raised south bank of Mopoke Gully. Garden beds (see Figs 3 and 4) are much larger in structure and longer than seen at other garden sites in the Cabbage tree area. They are therefore relatively more intact and easily visible. The soil of these wide-ridged beds is remarkably soft silty-loam. Sections of water races remain to the south and west of site, but some have been destroyed by mine shafts, sluicing and road works. It seems likely that in dry seasons, water would have been carried to the gardens in buckets suspended from traditional Chinese ‘shoulder poles’, from pools or wells dug in Mopoke Gully and Slaty Creek.
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