Flemington Markets & Homebush West

Background

Originally home to the Wangal people, the area was called Flemington by John Fleming, who was granted 200 acres in 1806. Flemington was part of the area originally known as Liberty Plains, granted to a few free settlers. The bush was turned into farming paddocks and later was also the site of a cattle saleyard.

In the early 1970s the Sydney Markets were built at Flemington to relieve Paddy’s Markets at Haymarket. At that time the residential part of the suburb, south of the railway line, became known as Homebush West, although it is still commonly referred to as ‘Flemington’, even in official contexts and at the railway station.

When the markets moved to Flemington, it brought a large ethnically Chinese presence to Homebush West in the form of Chinese grocery stores, restaurants and Chinese-speaking doctors and pharmacists to service the market traders and their customers. This move coincided with the start of Vietnamese migration to Australia, many of whom worked in the market garden trade. Homebush West acquired a southeast Asian flavour which has been retained and expanded to other groups.

Our Markets Tour

We started our day with the lovely Sue, our tour guide of the behind the scenes stuff at the markets. Dressed in a fetching shade of orange hi-vis, we began at the Sydney Flower Markets. They’re Australia’s largest flower market, selling to florists from NSW, the ACT and the public. All traders must be flower growers with many operating as wholesalers for other growers. The flowers supported by cardboard are imported, all others are Australian grown. We saw so many different types and stunning colours available.

Wattle
Magic colour - and so reasonably priced!
Kale flowers
Imported flowers
The gang
Gorgeous posy
So delicate
Pretty as a picture

The Growers’ Market

Then off to Building D, The Growers’ Market, where around 390 growers who live - and farm - in the Sydney Basin sell their produce to mainly registered Commercial buyers. When we arrive at 7:15 there are only a few stands still operating, many have packed up as the sales process begins and ends in the early hours of the morning.

First stop was Gary, the Italian Mushroom Man, who started selling at 2:00 am, and had a variety of known and unknown (to me) edible fungi to talk about.

King Oysters at the top, Shimeji to the left, Woodear to the right.
Lion’s Head or Monkey’s Brain mushrooms. I prefer the name Lion’s Head.
Cute and furry looking. To cook - slice, butter, garlic & thyme, like all mushrooms really!
Shitake mushrooms

Behind the brand Goldenfield Growers are the Ung family, who have been selling their farm produce since 1987, when they arrived as refugees from Cambodia. They grow tomatoes, cucumbers, chilis and snow peas. When we arrived there were a small amount of tomatoes and cucumbers left. The farm is on the property that was originally Bullen’s Animal World - a real blast from the past.

Laks Ung, her parents established the farm.
Terrific tomatoes. The cost of the containers has increased recently from 11c to 16c, it all adds up.
Cucumbers have spiky leaves which can damage the cucs by scraping the skin. They need to be picked with gloves on.
Heavenly heirloom tomatoes

Sydney Produce Markets

We moved to Buildings A, B and C, dodging forklifts along the way, there are over 800 operating all over the markets. These buildings house the wholesalers, ‘middle men’ between the growers and retailers or restaurants, specialising in a few products. They have permanent sites and offices set up above the market floor and are responsible to ensure their patch is clean by 10:00am. We talked to a sweet potato man (30 years at the markets) who provided us with slices of pomelo and freshly cooked sweet potato. None of us had tried pomelo before, its the size of a grapefruit but much sweeter. He was expecting 13 sweet potato farmers the following week to understand his contribution to their produce ending up on our plates.

On to the edible flowers, a market that has grown significantly over the last 15 years. These flowers are violas and are grown at Mt Tambourine and Silverdale. Adrian tells us lots about them. Apparently before he became an edible flower man he was a gigolo for middle aged woman. Good, quick response. Our excitement was overwhelming.

Beautiful violas, ready for a restaurant near you
Adrian, the edible flower man. Ex gigolo. Apparently.
The flowers being packaged for selling

We discovered a huge display of stoned fruit, including donut peaches, all imported from California as they’re not available this time of year in Australia. The wholesaler explained he is meeting demand for the imported product and ensures he doesn’t import what is available in Australia.

The pumpkin, fig and garlic man stops his forklift to speak with us. He is importing garlic at the moment. He explains as a result of new trade deals countries negotiate what produce each sends to the other. In this case, Indian garlic in exchange for berries. These trays of figs wholesale for $80 at the moment. They tend to be bought by those restaurants who have them on constantly on their menu.

Decorative and edible pumpkins
We stopped a forklift!
Figs for $80 per tray at the moment

The Banana shed

The bananas are the naughty children of the markets, needing to be stored in the naughty corner. Bananas omit a gas, ethylene, that ripens other produce so they are banished to their own shed. Bananas are picked green and artificially ripened with their own gas over 3 days. 85% of the bananas are from Queensland.

The banana shed, all on its own
The entrance to the banana storage area, always a forklift nearby
Green bananas in storage
The bananas are placed on the blue hammock, the door shut and banana gas starts the ripening process

Green Point

The Sydney Market area known as Green Point is where all the waste recycling, water conservation and green energy production take place, starting over 17 years ago. Over 70% of all waste is recycled onsite, saving over $1 million per year. Food waste management starts with food rescue of edible produce, donated to Food Bank, Second Bite and OzHarvest. The next tier is for livestock and animal rescue consumption, with farmers able to collect the second tier food waste on a daily basis. One cattle farmer travels from Bathurst twice weekly collecting over 2 tonnes of produce per year. Finally the really manky stuff is transformed into energy, via the Veolia Earth Power facility. Pallets, plastic, cardboard and polystyrene (2 million boxes recycled onsite into moulding in 2 years selling at $500 per tonne) are reused and recycled as appropriate. A rooftop solar system, with over 8500 panels and a capacity of 3 megawatts has been built and provides 11% of the Markets annual power consumption. It is the same as powering 730 households per year.

We farewelled our terrific tour guide Sue, breakfasted at a café at Sydney Markets Plaza and then a little shopping at Paddy’s Market, which sells retail produce from 10:00 am Friday and 6:00 am Saturday.

Homebush West

A couple of the gang peeled off, the rest headed over the railway line to Homebush West, originally known as Flemington (lots of Flemington signs around). We explored the varied houses of worship, providing evidence of the diversity of the area. The first is St Dominic’s Catholic church, built in 1956, the first auditorium style church built in Sydney. It has a strong Mandarin community and supports the Sudanese community.

Next the Sri Karphaga Vinayagar (Ganesha - Hindu) Temple, built in 2019. Ganesha’s elephant head makes him easy to identify and he the best known and widely worshipped deity in the Hindu Pantheon. People were arriving for a Festival where they exchange beads, we were told its the local priest’s festival. The Morrison federal government had provided two grants to the temple, for additional security in 2019 and upgraded kitchen facilities in 2020.

We turned the corner and were astounded by the size of Homebush West Primary School, originally built in 1912. Recent development has resulted in 26 new classrooms to meet increasing demand, breakout areas, covered outdoor learning areas, 2 sports courts and rooftop play areas. The new works were huge, looking like a stadium in the playground.

We discovered the former St Columba’s Anglican church which was opened and dedicated for worship in 1906. The belfry tower adds to the appeal. It later became the Inner West Baptist Church.

St Columba’s belfry tower
The front of the church
Doors sealed shut now

We continued onto Saint Sava, the oldest Serbian Orthodox church in Australia. There’s a funeral being held, we waited quite a while then asked and were granted permission to enter when it was all over. Many Serbian immigrants arrived in Australia after World War II from 1948 to 1955. Father Milenko was the priest to build and consecrate the church in 1954. As part of the immigration requirements at the time, each migrant was required to work in a government nominated job to pay for the cost of their passage to Australia. Fr Milenko worked for two years in the men’s shirt department of David Jones.

The outside of Saint Sava’s

Food glorious food

On to the foodie bits! Our first stop was Ram’s Indian and Sri Lankan Food, down an arcade in Henley St. We’re there at 11:00 and there is a queue for the food. It looks and smells great, but as we were still full from brekky we kept going.

We walked through the car park, past a mural, into the best barbeque pork or duck shop. That’s dinner sorted!

Great murals adorn the railway fence and a side street, showing the history of the area.

Lots of different little supermarkets, Asian grocers and Asian take away are scattered through the rest of the shopping centre. Frozen dumplings, those great Chinese egg tarts and other snacks could be purchased fresh and frozen. We stock up then head home.