The following are reminscences by Whittlesea resident John McPhee:
“A few things I remember or have been told:
Lee Tack was a tall man and had been trained as a doctor in China; he came to Australia looking for gold, he found a nugget shaped like a man on a horse.
At its peak it had 18 workers in the garden they lived in huts West of the main house, the last two were called “Humpy” who had broken his back in a gold mine and “Goon”.
They used to scoop the water out of the little ponds with scoops on long handles over the vegetables.
Lee Tack used treat a lot of locals with Chinese Medicine, often with better results than the doctor, but he got an infected finger that he couldn’t cure himself and died.
When Tack died his wife (an English woman) married Ping. (or it may have been Ping then Tack) Gwen H.* has the story. Tack’s daughter Ethel married Harry Ovendon late in life.
Ping’s son Percy never married, they both were born, went to school and died in Whittlesea.
The waterwheel was rebuilt by Miller and Muiry when they were building the new Conron Grange house in about 1912.
One year when the Plenty went totally dry, I dug up the centre and crank, also a wooden bearing, I already had a section of the wooden piping, when we were leaving Whittlesea, I gave these parts to Ian Coding, they would have been destroyed on Black Saturday.”
by John McPhee
Admin note: Tacks Water Wheel and Market Gardens were located at McPhees Rd Whittlesea. The water wheel was located in the Bruce Creek. * Gwen is assocated with the Whittlesea Historical Society.
See also Chinese Market Gardens of Melbourne
More information on Lee Tack can be found via:
Death of Mr Yack (1936, September 11). Advertiser (Hurstbridge, Vic. : 1922 – 1939), p. 4. Retrieved November 30, 2021, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article56843287
