Chair:
Louise Moran
Treasurer:
Robyn Henderson
Secretary:
Nancy Clarke
NMC Representative:
Nancy Clarke
Media & Publicity Officer:
Judy Pearce
Committee:
Margaret Bourke
Tricia Dixon Burkitt (ex officio)
Sue Byrne
Rod Holesgrove
Louise Moran
Julia Nicholls
Linda Spinaze
Marie Wood
The ACT/Monaro/Riverina Branch of the Australian Garden History Society covers southern NSW and the ACT. Each year we organise a number of garden visits and in winter we hold a series of talks on a wide range of historic garden and landscape topics.
Friday, 17 February 2012 - 5.30 pm.
We will visit the O’Connor wetlands of David and Banksia Street and perhaps the wetlands being developed in Lyneham. The evening will end with a visit to Lainie and David Shorthouse’s garden in Lyneham, and of course refreshments.
Cost: $10 members, $15 non-members including refreshments.
In 2010 the Branch received an ACT Heritage Grant of $8,950 to digitise and preserve the Yarralumla Nursery records.
These records, still in use, illuminate a crucial part of Canberra’s history. They provide a unique source of information on the planting plans and plant experimentation that was carried out to develop and establish the Garden City concept for the new capital city of Canberra from its inception and later. Of particular interest is an extensive holding of index cards that record seed acquisitions, cutting material, planting dates and comments for the period from 1913 to the 1960s and a set of ledgers recording seed acquisitions up to the present. These records are of interest to students of the planted heritage of the ACT, botanists, horticulturalists and historians generally.
To date the records have not been easily accessible and have been vulnerable to damage from fire, rodents or vandalism.
The project is nearing completion. The records have been scanned resulting in over 17,500 high quality images of the cards and pages of the ledgers. To simplify retrieval the cards have been placed into directories named according to the plant genus represented on the cards filed there, and the ledgers have been divided into small sections, and given sequential numbers. For both cards and files user guides have been produced as well as keys that list the records. . Well known historian Dr Lenore Coltheart has written a lengthy scholarly article on the history of the Yarralumla Nursery with particular emphasis on the records. Once all the material is finalised we will provide the ACT Territory Records Office with a full set of the digital content (records, report and guides). The material will be made available through the Archives ACT website in the near future.
The Reid Residents Association with support from ACTEW Corporation and our branch of the Australian Garden History Society had invited students enrolled in the second year of the Bachelor of Arts in Landscape at the University of Canberra to present a design proposal for a sustainable heritage garden. The designs were exhibited in Reid in November, and several of the committee members attended the prize giving. Sue Byrne acted as the Branch Liaison person on this project.
ACT/Monaro/ Riverina branch members are strongly encouraged to receive their branch newsletters and news updates by email. This service helps the Branch communicate better with members and reduces mail out costs.
