Author(s): RANNARD, IAN

Australian Pictorial

For over one hundred years there were market gardens along the valley of upper Sailors Bay Creek in the present day suburbs of Willoughby and Northbridge on Sydney's North Shore.

Once a prominent feature in the district, they faded from the community's memory until one of their sites was mistakenly thought to have belonged to a dairy and named after its paddocks.

THE FORGOTTEN GARDENS recounts what happened after the mistake was made, records the history of the last ten gardens, examine some of the characteristics of the gardening families, and details the techniques used by the gardeners to grow and sell their crops.

The text is illustrated with over seventy photograph, many taken before 1950.