Stuart Read
Telephone: 9326 9468
stuart1962@bigpond.com
Chair:
Stuart Read
Vice-Chair:
Rosemary Potts
Secretary:
James Quoyle
Treasurer:
David Low
Committee:
Prue Anthony
Anne Galbraith
Angela Low
Roseanne Paskin
Gina Plate
Rosemary Potts
Jeanne Villani
Welcome to the Sydney and Northern New South Wales Branch page. With about 300 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 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 Sub Branch Chairman, Bill Oates, at woates@une.edu.au or Helen Nancarrow on helennancarrow@bigpond.com.
Wednesday 22nd February 6.30pm for 7pm - 8.30pm
Event: Bidwill – a botanist cut short. - talk by Stuart Read
Venue: Annie Wyatt Room, National Trust Centre, Observatory Hill.
Cost: Members $20 Guests $30 includes light refreshments. Bookings essential.
Saturday March 31st, Sunday April 1st, 2012
Weekend trip to Lower Hunter
Two days exploring the Maitland/Woodville/Patterson area by the Sydney and Northern NSW group.
Bookings & enquiries for all events above: telephone: Jeanne Villani: 9997 5995 or email: Jeanne@Villani.com.
PLEASE NOTE: Bookings must be made before payment. Payment confirms Booking. Payments for all events must be made prior to the event by cheque to Australian Garden History Society and mailed to: Jeanne Villani, Waterfall Cottage, 90 Cabbage Tree Road, Bayview, 2104 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.
Refunds for cancellations will not be made if less than 48 hours notice is given.
Friday 10th February
Dinner with guest speaker Richard Heathcote, director of Carrick Hill historic house and garden, Adelaide – about his Churchill Fellowship to Canada and the UK studying interpretation on heritage sites.
Friday 2nd March
Talk by Richard Aitken profiling his book and the upcoming travelling exhibition ‘Garden of Ideas’ in Sydney and his long career in garden history – writing, curating, editing, researching, contributing...
31st March-1st April
Joint event (whole branch) – Hunter Valley gardens weekend, based around Maitland in the Lower Hunter – looking at old and new gardens.
Sunday 16th September
Bus trip to Wanderriby, Geogla, Wallamumbi stations and Wollomombi Falls – a possible ‘long’1/2 day tour for the 2013 conference.
Sunday 21st October
Bus trip to see gardens north of Armidale to view logistics of the Óptional Day Tour’for the 2013 conference.
9-11th November
Ballarat national conference.
25th November
Christmas get together at Richard Bird and Lynne Walker’s home, Heatherbrae, Devil’s Pinch.
Sydney & Northern NSW
Members in Sydney had a delightful Christmas party in Pamela Bell’s home in Mosman, taking in a view of Middle and North Heads, strolling in the established garden and supping fine victuals. Northern NSW members had their Christmas party on 27th November at secretary Helen Nancarrow’s home near Armidale, seeing the year out in style.
Committee member Gina Plate prepared a nomination of member Roslyn Burge for a NSW Heritage Volunteer award and due to a flood of entries this year, this has not been successful. We intend to renominate her next year: Roslyn has been a tireless advocate (amongst other things) for the better care and appreciation of Rozelle Hospital or Callan Park, leading walks and talks there for some years. She’s also done great work with generosity in interviewing and transcribing the branch’s and now a good number of the Society’s oral history interviews, with a range of subjects.
The historic garden and mansion of Swifts in Darling Point was opened to the public in november for the first time in decades. This marks the beginning of an ongoing programme of fundraising for philanthropic arts, musical and civic causes. The garden has lost ‘wings’ to subdivision and though flanked by high rise flats, Swifts still commands its saddle of the peninsula, sports fine trees (including a very rare palo alto (Picconia excelsa) from the Canary Islands, and a grey Himalayan oak (Quercus leucotrichophora), huge figs and NSW rainforest species. More info on upcoming events is at www.swiftssydney.com.au.
A fine exhibition on over summer that garden historians may find worth visiting is ‘House’ at the Museum of Sydney. Photographer Robyn Stacey has produced luscious, rich photographic tableaux based on artifacts, plants and elements from key house musea collections of the Historic Houses Trust of NSW. The photographs give a real sense of the domestic life of occupants, stories and predilictions of each of these places and showcase some of the treasures of the Trust including its Caroline Simpson Research Collection & Library – with garden design and practice books, scientific instruments, stuffed animals and birds, flowers, textiles, tools, garden productions…It is on 9.30-5pm daily until 5 February 2012: details at www.hht.net.au.
The committees are planning events for 2012, including maximising the opportunity of the Sydney run of travelling exhibition ‘Garden of Ideas’, from July until late November. Curator and companion book author Richard Aitken will give a talk on the exhibition in March in New England. The exhibition will be housed in the Royal Botanic Gardens Sydney’s Red Box Gallery, near the Herbarium. We aim to have a range of walks, talks and gallery guides to extend the themes of the exhibition with some personal views, local examples and lively talks – we hope to partner with the Friends of the Botanic Gardens, Historic Houses Trust and Varuna Writers’ Centre in Leura for events –these will include a few ‘behind the scenes’ looks at rich library collections of garden history treasures. Stay tuned!
Northern members are preparing the 2013 national conference in Armidale, choosing garden visits and possible speakers. The branch is talking about arranging a showing in Sydney in early 2013 of the New England garden history photographic exhibition as a taster for the conference. More on that will come.
Our first Sydney event for 2012 will be a rerun of the paper I gave in Maryborough, celebrating John Carne Bidwill’s life and works, particularly with regard to Sydney and Maryborough. He was an avid horticulturist, explorer, plant collector and hybridizer, introducing many new hybrids, native and exotic species to our gardens and Australian plants to the world. Perhaps he should be better known.
New England’s first event for 2012 will be a dinner with guest speaker Richard Heathcote, director of Adelaide’s Carrick Hill historic house and garden – talking about his Churchill Fellowship trip to Canada and the UK looking at interpretation on heritage sites. Members may not know that Carrick Hill will host the new Museum of Garden History where The Old Mole’s tool collection will be housed in future.
Recent advocacy has included:
We learnt that our long lobbying for the conservation and restoration of the John Baptist Fountain in Hyde Park has worked – restoration works are due to start in February 2012. Hyde Park itself (at our urging) is now ‘with the Minister’ awaiting State Heritage Register listing. Government House and garden, Sydney and an expanded listing curtilage for marine villa Strickland House at Vaucluse are also being recommended for listing. Newcastle City Council has raised controversy planning to cut down mature Hill’s fig trees on Laman Street alongside Civic Park outside the Art Gallery and Memorial Library – the trees are aging. The issue should be heritage listing and ongoing management (which needn’t preclude staged replacement so that the grand proportions of this park and its frame for civic buildings remains). A query from a New Zealand colleague asked whether NSW has examples of formal placement of the Canary Island palms around War Memorials – we do. Some NSW Parks have avenues or lines of this palm, pairs or specimens near or leading up to war memorials. Palms symbolize victory (no coincidence!) and are often used in cemetery landscape schemes for the same reason: they feature in many civilizations for food, fibre and beauty.
And I here pay tribute to the passing of member Helen Proudfoot (1930-7/11/2011). Helen (nee Baker) was a town planner and historian specialising in conservation history. She was a long-time contributor to history and heritage in NSW with a particular love of landscapes and gardens. After finishing an Arts degree she studied town planning at Sydney University and worked with the Cumberland County Council and NSW State Planning Authority (later the Department of Planning). Her interest in historic buildings led to an interest in their wider garden settings – she wrote and co-authored a number of studies which were then published, such as:
Helen completed a PhD in 1995 on the formation of Australian towns up to 1849 with an emphasis on Government Domains and open space in early town plans. Further to that she wrote:
Helen contributed articles to the Australian Garden History Society’s journal on Jocelyn Brown’s Sydney gardens (1(3)1-2); Hyde Park, Sydney (2(2)7); butterflies & hobs of flowers (7(3)9-10); 1950s gardens (8(2)18-19) and on Roman gardens.
She contributed articles to a number of other journals, such as the Royal Australian Historical Society Journal (1979); Heritage (Australian Heritage Society) (1987), The Australian Planner (1991). This is quite a record of achievement and she will be sorely missed.
Glen Innes Examiner 13 October 2011
Berry Weekend - photograhs by Pure Anthony
