Bill Gay - Market Gardener

Bill Gay - market gardener 

Bill Gay was a market gardener of Chinese heritage. He was born at Guilford around 1920 as one of eight children to parents George Louie Gay and Ada Hong. His father established a market garden on Boundary Road, South Granville in the early 1920s, which Bill later inherited. Bill supported his own family as a market gardener, living and working at the garden. He grew a wide variety of vegetables but specialised in potatoes. This produce was usually sold at Haymarket in Sydney, or to local green grocers in Granville. His family lived off this produce during the difficult days of the 1930s depression. Bill maintained the market garden until the 1950s when the land was bought by Parramatta Council and turned into a park. The Gay family story is a reminder of the rich multi-cultural and agricultural traditions of the Parramatta area.  

Natalie Rose Cassaniti, Cultural Collections Officer & Janelle Blucher, Research and Collection Services Coordinator.