Stuart Read
Telephone: 9873 8554 bh. 9326 9468 ah.
stuart1962@bigpond.com ah, or
stuart.read@planning.nsw.gov.au bh
Chair:
Stuart Read
Vice-Chair:
Murray Hook
Secretary:
Helen Bryant
Treasurer:
Peter Cousens
Committee:
Prue Anthony
Jo Hambrett
Rosemary Potts
Jeanne Villani
Malcolm Wilson
Welcome to the Sydney and Northern New South Wales Branch page. With over 320 members we are the second largest branch, centred in and around Sydney with many members in the Blue Mountains, Central West and Northern regions of NSW. Since November 2005 we have a New England Sub-Branch which is actively organising events in the state's north - a very distinctive part of Australia with four clear seasons, rich soils and (usually) good rains - not bad ingredients for gardening... To contact them email the Chairman, Bill Oates, at: woates@une.edu.au.
FEBRUARY 2010
Date: Wednesday 17th February 6.30 pm for 7 pm - 8.30 pm
Event: Tiger Balm & Dragon Gardens, Hong Kong - talk by Jill Matthews
PLEASE NOTE NEW VENUE - National Trust building not available due to lengthy renovations being undertaken.
Venue: Baroda Room at Rex Centre, 58A Macleay Street, (facing Fitzroy Gardens, entrance near Baroda Street) Kings Cross.
Cost: Members $15 Guests $25 includes light refreshments. Bookings essential.
MARCH
Date: Sunday 14 March 1:45 pm for 2 pm (walk till 4.30 pm)
Event: Post-industrial Parklands in North Sydney, Waverton & Berrys Bay walk.
Meet at: To be advised when booking/
Walk ending: Former BP site parkland - 15 minute walk from Waverton Station in Bay Road, Waverton.
Cost: Members $15 Guests $25 includes light refreshments. Bookings essential.
APRIL
Date: Sunday 18th April 2 pm - 4 pm
Event: Blaxland’s back - Brush Farm Revival - walk and talk.
Meet at: To be advised when booking.
Cost: Members $15 Guests $25 includes light refreshments. Bookings essential.
MAY
Date: Sunday 23rd May 2 pm - 4 pm
Event: Botany Bay Park Surprises walk.
Meet at: To be advised when booking.
Cost: Members $15 Guests $25 includes light refreshments. Bookings essential.
JUNE
Date: Sunday 20th June 2 pm - 4 pm.
Event: Vaucluse Garden Ramble: there's much more to this suburb than Vaucluse House estate - enjoy discovering the reinstated interwar gardens of Greycliffe House, Neilsen Park, Strickland House's extensive grounds and a couple of private garden surprises nearby.
Meet at: To be advised when booking.
Cost: Members $15 Guests $25 includes light refreshments. Bookings essential.
Bookings & enquiries for all events: Telephone: Jeanne Villani: 9997 5995, or email Jeanne@Villani.com.
PLEASE NOTE: Payment confirms Booking. Payments for all events must be made prior to the event by cheque to Australian Garden History Society and mailed to: Peter Cousens, 93 Lennox Street, Newtown, NSW, 2042 or by Internet bank transfer to: Australian Garden History Society Sydney & Northern NSW Branch, ANZ Bank, Centrepoint Branch. BSB 012 040 Account 1017 62565
Payment must include your name and the function you are booking for.
An Individual Membership entitles only that member to the Members Rate.
Members with Household Membership are entitled to Members Rate for anyone living within that household
Good news to hand is that our application to the National Management Committee for $:$ project funding was approved, allowing production and mounting of permanent labels on all of the Camellia cultivars growing in the garden of Eryldene, Gordon. This is a long term project with Committee members Rosemary Potts and Helen Bryant working with Eryldene’s garden committee to catalogue and label this rich and unique plant collection. We’re pleased to be able to help this way.
The Branch was recently donated a complete set of Australian Garden History journals by a member and are deciding which library collection might best be the beneficiary: we’re keen that they be used and so public and researcher access is a key. Member Sheila Simpson-Lee also recently asked advice on where she might donate her collections of books – on garden history (Australian & general), botany and natural sciences – again we’re keen that these go to specialist libraries where they’ll be used and available. Great to be helping with finding good homes like this.
Pleasingly, two Branch nominations received 2009 NSW Heritage Volunteer Awards in a ceremony held in Sydney on 16th November – Colleen Morris (our recently-retired national chair) and Professor Richard Clough (indefatigable researcher, writer and book collector/donator). Both are richly deserved and we congratulate both for their ongoing commitment to research, careful documentation, education (e.g. ‘Lost Gardens of Sydney’) and celebration of garden history. The awards help raise the profile of garden history: amongst other things, Colleen gave an illustrated talk on AGHS to the gathering which included then Heritage Minister, now Premier, Kristina Keneally MP.
Due to building renovations, our usual Annie Wyatt Room at the NSW National Trust Centre will not be available for much of 2010. So we’ll be advising members of talk venues on an event-by-event basis. Our first event in 2010 is a talk by member Jill Matthews on 17th February on Hong Kong’s Tiger Balm Gardens. Jill lived in ‘Honkers’ for 18 months from 2000 and did volunteer work rescuing these gardens from demolition as well as similar involvement with the historic Dragon garden – both are under some pressure in mega-dense HK…This talk will be given in the Baroda Room in the Rex Centre, Fitzroy Gardens (off Baroda Place), Kings Cross. A public parking station is just across Ward Avenue, buses go down McLeay Street and it’s only a five minute walk from the railway station.
In March we’ll take a walk in North Sydney, Waverton & Berry’s Bay with Council’s historian Ian Hoskins and landscape architect David Banbury. Former BP Park is an innovative new harbourside park with strong echoes of its former oil tanks use, stunning city & harbour views. Nearby Waverton Coal Loader site promises to deliver more public park and access in time. Plus a few other surprises. In April we’ll have a talk and walk around the renovated house and garden at Brush Farm, in Eastwood. Ryde Council’s conservation works and reinstated homestead garden will be our focus, along with the estate’s once-renowned vineyards. In May we’ll have a day getting to know the suburb of Botany better, with its rich horticultural and industrial past and growing recreational present.
Two interesting events in November were our Rookwood Necropolis walk with member Dr Siobhan Lavelle OAM and the Heritage Rose Festival in Parramatta Park’s Rumsey Rose Garden. The roses were out in both places, among other delights. These beautiful places are worth exploring any time. Parramatta Park forms one of 11 Australian convict era sites that may be listed on the World Heritage List this year: more info at www.ppt.nsw.gov.au and http://rookwoodcemetery.com.au/.
The 7-8 November was the 200th anniversary of the Mulgoa Valley south of Penrith. Settled from 1810 by the pioneering Cox family and others, it has long been renowned for colonial & Victorian farms with significant houses and gardens. A bus tour allowed a rare public glimpse of Fernhill, Fairlight, Glenleigh and Winbourne. James Broadbent’s garden at The Cottage (c.1810) was also open via Australia’s Open Garden Scheme. The valley survives thanks to progressive 1980s planning although proposals for rural residential development may impact both Glenmore and Fernhill estates.
On 29th November we enjoyed a very special ‘peek behind the scenes’ in Sydney’s Royal Botanic Gardens central depot at its recently refurbished historic glasshouses. Heritage architects Sean Johnson & Ian Stapleton and Gardens Director, Brad Horan showed us works been done to keep this heart both actively beating and efficient. This is not an area open to the public. Our donation for restoration and upgrade work to the Gardens’ Cunningham Obelisk and pond area has recently been supplemented, meaning work gets underway. Allan Cunningham was a key early director & botanist.
A capacity crowd enjoyed a relaxed Christmas party in the cool oasis of Jeanne Villani’s Waterfall Cottage, 90 Cabbage Tree Road, Bayview on 13th December. Come and enjoy this ‘other world’ -hidden from view down a steep drive in a deep gully with densely wooded sides, teaming with bird, insect and reptile life and richly planted. Many thanks to Jeanne and all for a delightful event.
The NSW Government has gazetted changes to the Heritage Act including changes to responsibilities of State Agencies to identify their heritage assets – these are less comprehensive than previously and open to abuse: cash-strapped agencies are offloading ‘surplus’ assets without due planning for appropriate zoning or controls for future conservation.
A current nomination under consideration for the NSW State Heritage Register is Richmond Park, formerly its market square laid out by Governor Macquarie and still the green, open heart of town. Another, also reflecting the priority ‘Macquarie’ theme is Sydney’s Macquarie Place, Australia’s first gazetted urban square, with its obelisk marking ‘point zero’ for measuring distances in the colony, various memorials and plantings reflecting the involvement of Mrs. Macquarie, colonial architect Francis Greenway and subsequent City Council administrations.
Recently advertised was ‘downsizing’ State Heritage Register-listed Bungarribee estate at Doonside. A key colonial farm in the Campbell, Icely and other family ownerships with a once-well-known house and garden it was long a centre of horse breeding and export. Its size is being slashed by current ‘owners’ Landcom (for housing) and (sadder) Western Sydney Parklands Trust, otherwise charged with managing it as open space. Highly questionably, the area publicly advertised for ‘down listing’ was smaller than the actual area now proposed for delisting. The public were not made aware of this and thus AGHS did not make a submission, alas. What remains will be a tiny local park, of what once was a 2000 acre farm. The proximity of new 2 storey housing and micro-site attitude don’t bode well for future heritage management and interpretation. More info at www.heritage.nsw.gov.au/07_subnav_06_1.cfm?sort_by=name.
Recent advocacy included letters to federal Environment Minister Peter Garrett and the NSW Government seeking reconsideration of Garrett’s refusal of a license for the Botanic Gardens Sydney to relocate a colony of grey headed flying foxes (aka bats). These nationally threatened creatures are causing havoc in the historic palm grove and have killed a number of nationally rare trees since 2002. The license decision will be reconsidered in 2010. The real issue is creating more habitat for bats!
A submission was made to a NSW inquiry into wind farms in the state, seeking more public consultation and careful siting in relation to historic landscapes. Another was sent to the Victorian Government about the impacts of a proposed wind farm on Mawallok historic garden. Others have been sent to: Woollahra Council about Yarranabbe Park’s Hills fig trees v local residents appropriated views; the Federal Government in a contribution towards a draft National Cultural Policy to ensure it includes parks and gardens; the Heritage Council of NSW seeking updated ‘garden’ information on the recently NSW State Heritage Register-listed Simpson-Lee 1 House at Wahroonga to note its 1950s+ garden and bush garden setting; a letter seeking reactivation of the NSW State Heritage Register nomination of the Lewers Bequest & Penrith Regional Gallery garden at Emu Plains. The branch also had welcome input into a to-be-updated website and brochure outlining the range of Manly’s heritage (perhaps to be updated soon, at www.manly.nsw.gov.au).
Members enjoying the Christmas party at Waterfall Cottage in December 2009
