Australian Garden History Society - JOURNAL: RECENT ISSUES

Albury: Cultivating a city in the country
Bruce Pennay takes a look at the history of Albury’s regional landscape.

Alfred Patterson and Bathurst’s Machattie Park
A history of Machattie Park, Bathurst, and the influence on its early development by inaugural head gardener Alfred Patterson.

‘Return to Lutyens’: Florence Taylor and the folly of architecture
Florence Taylor’s copy of Lawrence Weaver’s Lutyens Houses and Gardens reveals her thoughts about the architecture of Edwin Lutyen.

Tasmania Revisited Gail Douglass and Trisha Dixon
The opportunity to join another trip to Tasmania – and to be led by Trisha Dixon and Jackie Courmadias – is one many AGHS members would not miss, regardless of hoew many times we have visited this beautiful isle.

Albury: Cultivating a city in the country Bruce Pennay
An inland settlement, Albury grew into a municipality, a regional city, and a growth centre within a rural contect. As host city for the AGHS’s 28th annual national conference, Bruce Pennay takes a look at the history of Albury’s regional landscape.

Alfred Patterson and Bathurst’s Machattie Park Spencer Harvey
Bathurst’s Machattie Park was established in 1890. As its inaugural head gardener, Alfred Patterson was in a strong position to influence its early development.

‘Return to Lutyens’: Florence Taylor and the folly of architecture Richard Aitken
Books can occasionally reveal more than covers promise, and this is certainly the case with Sydney architect Florence Taylor’s copy of Lawrence Weaver’s Lutyens Houses and Gardens.

Conference Review Max Bourke
An overview of the 28th AGHS national conference.

Themes of delight
A selection of Nina Crone's garden writing celebrates the range and wit of the Journal's former editor.

Linnaeus: art and nature
Three exhibitions celebrate the tercentenary of Linnaeus' birth.

Tending a legacy: the National Gallery's sculpture garden
Barbara Buchanan and Richard Vidler outline the principles behind the heritage listed gardens, at a time when the integrity of the design faces significant challenges.

Meet your National Management Committee
Journal editor Genevieve Jacobs in conversation with NMC member Ivan Saltmarsh.

The scent of memory: old roses of the Barossa
Pat Toolan discusses the foundation of the Barossa Old Rose Repository.

Themes of Delight: Nina Crone's Writings
The Journal's former editor wrote a wide variety of garden related articles for The Age. In tribute following her recent death, the Journal reprints her articles on pomegranates, figs and Eucalyptus camaldulensis.

Linnaeus: Art and Nature Scott Carlin
As the worlds of botany and gardening celebrate the tercentenary of Karl Linnaeus' birth, three displays at Elizabeth Bay House reflect on the scientist's ongoing influence and connections with Australia.

Members of the original landscape architecture team for the National Gallery's sculpture garden outline the principles behind its design. masterminded by the late Harry Howard. They warn that significant changes to the gardens run the risk of damaging an important landscape that was listed on the register of the National Estate just five years after its completion.

Tasmanian member Ivan Saltmarsh discusses a passion for travel, a late blooming love of gardens and the need to teach garden owners how to identify and document historic gardens.

The scent of memory Pat Toolan
Rose conservator and co-ordinator of the Barossa and Beyond regional group of Heritage Roses in Australia, Pat Toolan, describes the journey towards establishing an Old Rose Repository at Angaston. She describes finding a site for the Repository, the process of collecting a number of old roses and attempting to identify them, often an ongoing puzzle for rose detectives and local historians.

Opening the Wardian Case
Richard Clough investigates the first successful experiments in live plant transportation

Spanish Lessons
Stuart Read discusses lessons to be learned from Spain's response to environmental challenge and a harsh climate

Meet Your National Management Committee
Journal editor Genevieve Jacobs in conversation with Max Bourke

Horticultural Heritage
Albury writer and 2007 conference speaker Prue Smith on Albury's rich plant legacy

The Pinjarra Park Puzzle
John Viska tracks down the possible origins of Western Australia's oldest camellias

Reviews
A Country Garden by Fiona Ogilvie and Canberra: City in a Landscape by Ken Taylor

ABSTRACTS

George Seddon, A Tribute Peter Watts
George Seddon's outstanding contribution to Australia's cultural and natural landscape led the way towards a new understanding about how to protect it and plan for change, while his willingness to challenge the big issues was inspirational.

Opening the Wardian Case Richard Clough
View article - pages 4-5/ pages 6-7
The 1833 voyage of the schooner Persian was to be the first test for what ship's captain Charles Mallard described as "a simple but beautiful discovery". This was the Wardian case, based on the premise that entirely enclosed glass cases could transplant new specimens around the world. The Wardian Case was to dramatically increase the speed of plant distribution around the world, on the eve of the great plant hunting era.

Spanish Gardens: Shade, Mystery and Lessons Stuart Read
Stuart Read discusses the long held ties between Australia and Spain, including many native plants that are both familiar and happy in our gardens. Spain's complex history and demanding climate makes its long tradition of gardening of particular interest to Australians, from the earliest patio and courtyard gardens to those of the present day.

Meet your National Management Committee: Journal editor Genevieve Jacobs in conversation with Max Bourke
Former science broadcaster and agricultural scientist Max Bourke reflects on a life spent engaged with landscape, conservation and heritage. Max argues that good conservation and development can co-exist if there is a basis of good scholarship and sound environmental management.

Horticultural Heritage by Prue Smith
Albury gardening writer Prue Smith discusses the city's rich horticultural history. Community involvement was encouraged from the outset and the Albury Horticultural Society is one of the oldest continually operating organisations of its kind in the country.

The Pinjarra Park Puzzle John Viska
A visit to historic Pinjarra Park south of Perth drew John Viska's attention to a remarkable collection of camellias, nurtured by the Fawcett family since 1861. Family records showed that these had been imported into the colony at great expense but all names had been lost. Researchled to the intriguing possibility of a link between the two.

October in Albury
Max Bourke outlines an exciting and diverse programme for the forthcoming Albury event.

Painting colonial plants
The sale of an epiphyllum hookeri med., illustration prompts examination of this fascinating colonial plant.

Atmospheric vileness
Senators selecting the national capital site faced many challenges in Albury a century ago.

Meet your NMC member
Genevieve Jacobs in conversation with NMC secretary Di Wilkins.

A sense of discovery
The Adelaide post-conference tour discovered layers of garden history in South Australia.

For the bookshelf
Reviews Seeds of Change by Richard Aitken; Garden of a Lifetime by Anne Latreille.

France Fleurie at Courson
An invitation to enjoy a distinctly different garden festival.

ABSTRACTS

October in Albury Max Bourke
Meandering about the Murray is the theme for this year's annual conference of the AGHS, to be held in Albury on October 19–21. Max Bourke reports that the venue enables consideration of a wide range of issues including garden history, environmental issues and biodiversity management in times of climate challenge.

Painting Colonial Plants Colleen Morris
View article - pages 6-7/ pages 8-9
Sydney botanical artists Beverly Allen was awarded a Gold Medal at the annual RHS botanical art show in London this year for her series of eight illustrations depicting Epiphyllum species and hybrids, one of which was subsequently purchased by the Lindley Library. Given their brief flowering period, the task was described as having a "degree of difficulty of eleven out of ten . Technical issues proved complex but Beverly also discovered a minefield of identification and nomenclature problems.

Atmospheric Vileness Ian Warden
On February 1902, a group of senators set out on an inspection of suggested sites for the new nation's capital city, among them Albury. Piecing together an amusing account from newspaper articles of the time, Ian Warden relates that the senators faced drought, searing temperatures they found comparable to the Black Hole of Calcutta and at one point were required to fight a bushfire on the railway line near Wagga.

Meet your National Management Committee: Journal editor Genevieve Jacobs in conversation with NMC secretary Di Wilkins
Recalling a childhood where gardens were a treasured part of family life, Di Wilkins considers the importance of activism to protect historic gardens and landscapes, and the changes in attitude she has witnessed while working in Federal and Local Government. Following the successful Adelaide conference, Di also discusses the significance of South Australia's considerable garden legacy and the monumental task of organising such an event.

A Sense of Discovery Craig Burton
The post-conference tour that followed the Adelaide gathering illustrated the depth of garden history in South Australia and the variety of influences that have created a distinctive and important gardening culture in the State. Craig Burton reports on visits to grand homestead gardens rescued from near dereliction, newly made gardens on historic sites and drought resistant innovations responding to a sometimes difficult climate.

New Media, A call to action
Following the successful launch of the ACT/Monaro/Riverina branch DVD, Max Bourke argues that the new media offers significant advantages for the AGHS.

Meet your National Management Committee
NMC chair Colleen Morris in conversation with Journal editor Genevieve Jacobs.

Buda revisited - not just an historic garden?
Buda's curator discusses how recent research has linked the historic Castlemaine garden with social and cultural issues of the time.

Marybank - a find in Adelaide's hills
An early South Australian farm and garden illustrates social change and enduring history

Everything's apples
The demise of the Burnley's experimental fruit collection at the end of the 19th century, and a reflection on the importance of such collections in a time of considerable threat to biodiversity.

For the bookshelf
Reviews The Sun King's garden: Louis XIV, Le Notre and the creation of the gardens of Versailles, and Studies in Australian Garden History, Vol 2.

ABSTRACTS:

New Media, A call to action Max Bourke
Given the Society's mission statement, NMC member Max Bourke argues that the documentation work undertaken by the AGHS needs to extend its range significantly, utilising new media including DVDs. The format has the ability to combine solid intellectual interrogation of a subject - for example Canberra, the city on the Limestone Plains - with social and cultural content, documenting the memories of those who created gardens and places of historic interest. Max Bourke envisages an eventual suite of productions, creating a national snapshot of Australian gardening history at the dawn of the 21st century.

Designs on History: report on the 2006 Adelaide conference Christina Vos
Heritage conservationist and horticulture student Christina Vos reports that the annual national conference in Adelaide, with its theme of keeping garden history in design, included thought provoking papers from Richard Heathcote, who spoke about Ursula Hayward's legacy at Carrick Hill and Stephen Forbes, who placed botanic collections within the context of the Age of Empire. Visits to Carrick Hill and the Museum of Economic Botany followed. Stuart Read's paper on our Mediterranean legacy, Professor Lance McCarthy's explanation of the new Flinders Investigator Garden, Trevor Nottle's overview of Adelaide's gardening history and Marylynn Abbott's personal journey through garden design on two continents were also included in a stimulating and diverse agenda. Visits to The Cedars (Hans Heysen's family home) Urrbrae and the Waite Arboretumn and Forest Lodge enhanced delegates' understanding of Adelaide as a city of garden and gardeners, with a rich and unique history

Meet your National Management Committee
National Management Committee chair Colleen Morris discusses the influences on her life work in conservation and question about assigning value to cultural artefacts, including houses and gardens. The importance of spaces, historical accuracy and the vital question of resources for future management are considered, along with the Society's role in advocating for expert assessment, conservation and financial assistance.

Buda revisited - not just an historic garden? Lauretta Zilles
The Leviny family's garden at Castlemaine, now owned by the people of Victoria, developed in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century during a time of intense change for women in particular. The questions of suffrage, women's arts both decorative and domestic, access to higher education and active involvement in the cultural milieu of the day can all be viewed through the palimpsest of a home where five intelligent, middle class unmarried women spent their lives. The garden and house taken as a whole illustrate rapidly changing tastes, a growing awareness of native flora and a passion for the decorative arts which encompassed Art Nouveau, Arts and Crafts and early Modernism.

Marybank - a find in Adelaide's hills Stuart Read and Sue Lloyd
Dating to 1842, Marybank is one of South Australia's oldest continuously occupied gardens and houses. Rare trees including the palo bianco (now endangered in its native Canary Islands), a majestic Port Jackson fig, cork oaks and many more hardy Mediterranean plants form a garden tapestry that has been nurtured by generations of the Fox family, whose descendants still hold the property today. Changing social conditions and family fortunes, particular passions and new endeavours are all visible in the property's continuing evolution.

Everything's apples Bruce Draper and Allen Gilbert
The demise of the Burnley's experimental fruit collection at the end of the 19th century at the hands of C.B. Luffman is documented through contemporary accounts of dissension between the curator and the Horticultural Board. Initially envisaged as an experimental collection for the purposes of determining which cultivars were best suited to Australian conditions, the collection fell victim to Luffman's desire to create a school of demonstration. Modern apple orchardist Allen Gilbert writes that in an age where biodiversity is under considerable threat, fruit collections have never been more important. Noting the difficulties posed for serious fruit collections by virus contamination, he argues that financial support, education and awareness are necessary to preserve clean, viable and diverse stocks (now mostly privately held).

Tasmania’s first gardener
Three European academics share their research on Tasmania’s Recherche Bay and the French presence there more than two centuries ago.

The Australian War Memorial Garden
Claire Baddeley documents the years of planning that went into creating this Canberra garden.

That was the year ... 1926
A pictorial look back at gardening through the pages of The Australian Home Beautiful

Publishing our plants
An extract from Botanical Riches, the latest book from Richard Aitken

Vale: A giant of gardening
Tommy Garnett is remembered by some of those who knew him best

Eureka, the gardens
A visit to the Ballarat gardens around the Eureka Stockade site

Abstracts

Tasmania’s first gardener Tony Fawcett
For the French navigators and scientists it was seen as a Garden of Eden. Yet the gardener of the expedition that visited Tasmania’s Recherche Bay more than 200 years ago, Felix Lahaye, had little success establishing a garden there. Just how hard is explained in a new and as-yet-unpublished paper by three European academics that looks at the visit from the French perspective. They paint Lahaye as a conscientious but simple man who had to fight hard to exert himself among the far better credentialed scientists who visited Recherche Bay all those years ago.

The Australian War Memorial Garden Claire Baddeley
Millions have visited the Australian War Memorial in Canberra but few know about the to-ing and fro-ing that went on in the first half of last century to create its garden. Added to the Commonwealth Heritage List in 2004 and the National Heritage List in April 2006, the Memorial’s garden was the work of three men – Emil Sodersten, John Crust and Tom Parramore. After winning an international competition, John Crust and Emil Sodersten began collaborative plans for the garden but by the start of World War 2 funds had dried up and Sydney designer Tom Parramore was called in to work with Crust, to create a more realistic landscape. It took until 1941 for the realisation of a design that formed the basis of the Memorial garden through to the 1980s.

That was the year ... 1926
Gardening ‘between the wars’ in Australia was at a peak and no matter who or where you were, everyone seemed to be doing it for all they were worth. For many the inspiration was coming from garden designer Edna Walling via her monthly articles in The Australian Home Beautiful. In her features, Walling encouraged, inspired, shared her own gardening experiences and even criticised officialdom for the brutalising of street trees in the name of maintenance.

Publishing our plants Richard Aitken
Australasian plants had become available through the British nursery trade from the early 1770s, but it was the arrival of the First Fleet and British colonisation of Australia from 1788 that provided the critical impetus for a twoway flow of plants. So writes Richard Aitken in his latest book, Botanical Riches: stories of botanical exploration. In this extract from the book, the author looks at how Australasian plants had become available through the British nursery trade from the early 1770s, and at the promotion of local plants via botanical periodicals. But after gaining immense popularity many of these plants fell victim to fickle horticultural tastes and their use in England declined steadily.

Eureka, the gardens
Most Australians with an interest in Australian history know about the Eureka Stockade but many do not specifically know about the The Eureka Stockade gardens. The gardens were set aside by the people of Ballarat East in the late 19th Century to mark the Eureka Rebellion of 1854, a huge step in the development of political and social democracy in Australia. Today the gardens define the site of the rebellion, although they contain no visible relics of the Eureka Stockade or the battle. But it is suspected that under them might lie buried relics and further insights into those turbulent times.

From the Chair
Colleen Morris looks at some disturbing aspects of a report on the Conservation of Australia’s Historic Places.

Weeds versus history
Historian and author Peter Cuffley and weed expert Kate Blood discuss the question of what should happen when a plant of historic significance is also classed as a weed.

The making of Mt Annan
Two key participants in the establishment of the Mount Annan Botanic Garden in NSW recall its birth.

The Baron’s sad last years
Nina Crone reviews a volume of edited correspondence of Baron Ferdinand von Mueller that reveals the sadness he suffered in his later years.

Reading more into cemeteries
Catherine Brew tells how cemeteries can reveal so much more about the way people lived and even the way they gardened and tended the land.

Drawing on the past
Tony Fawcett interviews award-winning botanical artist Lauren Black about her newly-released portfolio of Tasmanian botanical art based on the principles of past masters of the medium.

Meet your National Management Committee
NMC National Treasurer Malcolm Faul discusses his background and how he became involved with the AGHS.

Victoria’s oldest apple tree?
Bruce G. Draper investigates an apple tree that some suspect could be linked to the fruit garden of the founder of Melbourne, John Batman.

Around & about

Another historic garden saved
A look at the restoration of the gardens and grounds of Melbourne’s Abbotsford Convent.

Abstracts

Weeds versus history
What happens when a plant deemed to be historically significant is also branded a weed? It’s a dilemma that faces historian, gardener and weed-fighter alike. Author and historian Peter Cuffley and weed expert Kate Blood discuss some of the questions that need to be answered, from how historically important plants that are also weeds should be treated, to whether there is a place at all for weeds in the garden environment.

The making of Mt Annan
The birth of Mount Annan Botanic Garden, one of Australia’s most ambitious botanic gardens established in recent times, is examined by two people who were there throughout all the planning – Edwin Wilson who at the time was responsible for media and promotions and Dr Barbara Briggs who was then Senior Assistant Director (Scientific) and deputy to the Director and at times acting Director of the Sydney Botanic Gardens. Launched at a time when national fervour was strong in Australia, the Garden might not have eventuated but for the enthusiasm and opportunism of many of those involved.

The Baron’s sad last years Nina Crone
He is hailed by many as one of the great botanists and plant collectors of Australia’s past but, as Nina Crone reports, after reviewing the book Regardfully Yours: Selected Correspondence of Ferdinand von Mueller, in the last 20 years of his remarkable life he was deeply hurt by his “dismissal” as the head of the Melbourne Botanic Gardens. A team of scholars led by Emeritus Professor Rod Home spent 15 years tracking down correspondence from and to von Mueller to produce this, the last and, for those Australians interested in our garden history, the most revealing of three volumes based on his writings.

Reading more into cemeteries Catherine Brew
Cemeteries are primarily the last resting place for the departed but they also give us a fascinating insight into the way people lived and the plants they liked to grow. As cultural landscapes, cemeteries provide a tangible and evocative link to past communities. In many cases, the vegetation can be a vital research clue. According to the author, a landscape architect specialising in cemeteries, patterns of European progress and settlement are documented in cemeteries, as are major events in local communities like epidemics, agricultural booms and busts, mining disasters and war.

Victoria’s oldest apple tree? Bruce G. Draper
Growing close to the Plenty River in suburban Melbourne is an old tree that has long been referred to as Batman’s Apple Tree because of its supposed links to the colourful founder of the city, John Batman. If you believe the story, the tree was possibly taken from a planting of trees that once formed part of John Batman’s fruit garden, making it the oldest living apple tree in Victoria. Bruce D. Draper researches the story, examines past reports, looks at what others have claimed and comes to his own conclusion.

From the Chair
Colleen Morris looks at the importance of the campaign to conserve Recherche Bay in Tasmania, outlines its history and explains how the Australian Garden History Society has played its part in the project.

The case of the missing notebook
Colin Mills sheds new light on one of Australia’s earliest and brightest botanists

Conifer charisma
David Jones visits one of South Australia’s best preserved historic gardens – possibly the largest private mature pinetum in Australia

Dame Elisabeth’s garden haven
Lyn Johnson looks at Dame Elisabeth Murdoch’s garden of Cruden Farm today and delves into the part Edna Walling played in its creation.

Meet our new patrons
He is a former Victorian Governor and she is a journalist with impressive credentials writing about Australian gardens – and today they are the new patrons of the Australian Garden History Society.

For the bookshelf
Ian Jack reviews The Forgotten Gardens:The Story of the Last Market Gardens in Willoughby and Northbridge, NSW by Ian Rannard.

Diary dates

25th Anniversary picnic
A photographic round-up of the Australian Garden History Society’s 25th Anniversary picnic

ABSTRACTS

The author, an avid garden history researcher, relates how his research into early Australian botanist, horticulturalist and hybridiser John Carne Bidwill unearthed a missing notebook listing Bidwill’s experiments and hybridising work with varieties of Amaryllis belladonna and other plants. The notebook, it seemed, had passed to William Macarthur following Bidwill’s death and was bound in with another publication and so had been overlooked by previous researchers. Colin Mills was able to authenticate the notebook’s history thanks to the handwriting being unmistakably that of Bidwill.

The South Australian garden of Forest Lodge holds an important place in Australian garden history as it is possibly the largest pinetum or garden of conifers in the country. A large Victorian-styled property with hill station residence and intricate parterred garden, it is located between Stirling and Aldgate in the Adelaide Hills. As David Jones explains, the garden is an extensive representation of the 1800s but also includes a renovation in the 1930s-40s that gave it a northern Italian feel with its many striking statuaries. AGHS members will be able to visit the garden in October this year in conjunction with the Adelaide Convention.

Much of the horticultural magic at Dame Elisabeth Murdoch’s Cruden Farm on the outskirts of Melbourne has been supplied thanks to its owner. But there was another great gardener involved in its creation, Edna Walling. Lyn Johnson looks at the garden today to discover how much of Walling’s influence is evident there today, and how Dame Elisabeth and her gardener, Michael Morrison, have skilfully given the garden a more welcoming and romantic feel.

Best known as a former champion runner and more recently as a Governor of Victoria, John Landy has always been a keen naturalist and fascinated by plants and the natural beauty of the landscape. A butterfly collector, author of natural history books and a talented photographer, he and his wife Lynne, formerly the Melbourne editor of magazine Country Style, have become joint patrons of the AGHS. In this feature on the Landys, they share details of their own country garden and their plans for the future.

Noel Rannard was the last of the market gardeners in the Valley of Sailors Bay Creek in Sydney and in this book by his son, Ian Rannard, much history of 10 of the market gardens is shared. As Ian Jack explains, these 10 gardens, six of which were operated by Chinese Australians, were the only ones to survive the Second World War. Here is a detailed study of the gardening families, their networks, their flowers and their vegetables.

Roadsides and Gardens: the 2005 Post-Conference Tour
Susan Reidy describes the delights of the trip to the Margaret River area – its gardens, landscapes, roadsides and wine!

Carrick Hill – a twentieth century garden
Trevor Nottle and Richard Heathcote discuss aspects of Sir Edward and Lady Hayward’s home – the house, the garden and Lady Hayward’s predilection for flowers and painting.

Gostwyck – an ongoing history
Lynne Walker begins to unravels the the threads that make up the history of an early property in the Uralla district of Norther New South Wales.

For the Bookshelf
Trevor Nottle reviews Remembered Gardens: Eight Women Gardeners and their Visions of the Australian Landscape by Holly Kerr Forsyth.

Diary Dates

The 90 th Anniversary of our Avenues of Honour
Michael Taffe researches the story behind two early Avenues of Honour in Victoria

ABSTRACTS

This detailed account of the tour that followed last year’s Annual National Conference in Perth shows the appeal that such activities hold for AGHS members - gardens, landscapes, social and botanical history, camaraderie, fine dining and wining. The gardens visited on the first day were: Amberley Estate winery and Heronsbrook, featuring native, particularly West Australian, plantings. The following day, in the Margaret River district, the group visited the garden at historic Wallcliffe House and that of Swallows, home of botanical artist Pat Negus before lunching at Voyager Estate, based on the Cape Dutch style of architecture. The original garden was designed by Marion Blackwell, the idol of many AGHS members for her knowledge and use of native species. The final section of the tour brought visits to gardens in the Bridgetown area - Sunnyhurst, c. 1890, Montaza c. 1916 and Bella Vista (1909).

On the return journey to Perth stops were made at Southampton Homestead (1862) on the Blackwood River which was Western Australia’s biggest wine producer in the 19 th century, and the Vision Splendid Gardens, a late 20 th century version of the older tea garden or pleasure garden form.

Carrick Hill – a twentieth century garden Richard Heathcote & Trevor Nottle

One of the most generous gifts of public benefaction in Australia, the Carrick Hill bequest included the house, 40 hectares of ground, Sir Edward and Lady Hayward’s collection of art, furniture and antiques. Until now the 1930s garden has received only modest attention although the article concludes with an account of its planned renewal.

Richard Heathcote, the current director of Carrick Hill, describes the early history of the site and discusses the influences on the Haywards when they planned the house and garden. Trevor Nottle covers the way Ursula Hayward (née Barr Smith) brought an Arts and Crafts approach to the house as she endeavoured to break away from her conservative, aristocratic background and move toward a life of self-expression and creativity. The result was a property very much in the English Country House style and the garden was integral to that although it is difficult to determine how much real engagement Lady Hayward had with the garden at Carrick Hill.

Three projects are currently in progress for the garden at Carrick Hill – the remaking of Lady Hayward’s Flower Gardens, the application of water-wise techniques to educate the public and the Children’s Literary Trail with a series of landscape features inspired by children’s stories.

Gostwyck - an ongoing history Lynne Walker

Lynne Walker likens the history of Gostwyck to ‘a mystery inside an enigma’ explaining the research is ongoing as more photos and information come to hand. There is no written history but oral stories and recollections dating back to the 1940s are being followed up. The property was first taken up by Edward Gostwyck Cory probably in the 1820s. It was then sold to Henry Dangar in 1834, thereafter being transferred to Dangar brothers over the years.

Photographs from the 1900s show two gardens: the lower of these has now disappeared, but elements such as the avenue of elms, planted in 1856, indicate the beginning of gardens around the homestead. The upper gardens surrounding the house are still beautifully planted and maintained and the borders abound in roses and perennials. The sunken garden with its pond was originally a tennis court.

The garden at Gostwyck shows strong evidence of professional design but to date no records of a designer working on it have been found.

Michael Taffe is doing formal research into Victoria’s Avenues of Honour and he finds that the best known, Ballarat’s Avenue of Honour, was by no means the first. He details the first two as those at Eurack, near Beeac in Victoria’s western district and at Sassafras on the Dandenong Tourist Road. Brief accounts of these two avenues are given in this back cover article.

From the Chair
Colleen Morris discusses the question of membership encouraging everyone to return the Membership Survey Questionnaire and to enter the draw for a copy of Anna Pavord’s acclaimed book The Naming of Names.

The Novel Industrial Enterprises of Daniel Bunce
Ruth Dwyer investigates a little known activity of Curator of the Geelong Botanic Gardens.

Beyond Neatness
Sarah Cains challenges the Southern Highlands tradition of gardening.

The Napier Building Courtyard
David Jones focuses on a South Australian example of a garden design by John Stephens

Greek Gardens in West End
Glenn Cooke writes of the Greek contribution to gardening in Brisbane..

Visit to Myall Park, Glenmorgan
Susan & Bruce Martin record in word and picture a visit to the home of the ‘Gordon’ grevilleas.

Diary Dates

Valete
Pamela Jellie pays tribute to Ruth Tindale and David Jones writes of the life and work of Gavin Walkley.

Southeby’s Wollemi Pine Auction
Peter Cousens experiences the excitement of an important botanical event.

Abstracts

The Novel Industrial Enterprises of Daniel Bunce Ruth Dwyer
Original research reveals how the curator of the Geelong Botanic Gardens to advantage of the Victorian Selection Act of 1862 to lease land in the Parish of Gnawarre, just 10 miles out of Geelong, for a Novel Industrial Enterprise – the establishment of a vineyard and a garden for medicinal plants. Ruth Dwyer traces the fate of this lease and that of neighbouring ones. After Bunce’s death his widow, Julia, took up residence on the land and increased her holding to 150 acres through constant correspondence and representation to the authorities.

Beyond Neatness Sarah Cains
Through an evocative description of her garden in the Southern Highlands, Sarah Cains makes a plea for greater sensitivity to the natural environment when establishing a garden. She challenges the gardening traditions of the area – essentially that of the ‘hill station garden’ – with her garden full of native plants and she highlights the pleasures such a garden brings. Her message is that ‘committed and experienced gardeners need to set an example, to show flexibility and intelligence in responding to new challenges by recognizing that an essential element of gardening is the ability to change.’

The Napier Courtyard, South Australia David Jones
This is the first of several articles on South Australian garden design to prepare for the Annual Conference in Adelaide (20 th to 22 nd October 2006) on the theme ‘Keeping History in Garden Design’. Associate Professor David Jones, Director of the Landscape Architecture Program in the School of Architecture and Urban Design at the University of Adelaide discusses a South Australian example of the work of John Stevens, who worked with some of the most innovative and contemporary architects in Melbourne – Robin Boyd, Stephenson & Turner, Bates Smart & McCutcheon, and Geoffrey Spowers. The article discusses the influence of Brazilian landscape architect Roberto Burle Marx on Stevens’ work.

Greek Gardens in West End Glenn R. Cooke
Brisbane ’s inner suburban West End continues to be a suburb in transition, Notable as a refuge for workers, migrants, students and the underprivileged for generations, West End is now a ‘trendy’ address and is being gentrified. The result is a threat to the gardens established by Greek migrants. Glenn Cooke discusses elements of the Greek migrant garden with a ‘scented garden’, a culinary or herb garden and a productive or vegetable garden. He gives example of plants usually found in these gardens and points up the possible disappearance of such gardens as the next generation move out to newer, outer suburbs like Carindale.

Visit to Myall Park, Glenmorgan, Queensland Susan Martin
A detailed and well illustrated account of a trip by the Queensland Branch of AGHS to Myall Park Botanic Garden established by David Gordon who developed the noted ‘Gordon’ grevilleas A comprehensive account of some of the remarkable Australian plants that Gordon acclimatized is given together with an account of the nursery (now closed) and well respected herbarium. The Gallery which houses the permanent Dorothy Gordon botanic art exhibition has become a busy centre for many artistic and educational activities for community groups

For the bookshelf
Nina Crone reviews Anna Pavord’s latest book The Naming of Names explaining why she considers it the year’s best buy in the field of botanic history.

Valete
Pamela Jellie pays tribute to the work of Ruth Tindale (nee Adams) 1918-2006, a noted artist and puppet-maker who with her husband George established an exceptional exotic garden among the lofty eucalypts at Sherbrooke in the Dandenong Ranges. Ruth’s particular interest was bulbs, rock and alpine plants and she belonged to many international societies interest in these plants. .

David Jones highlights the work of Gavin Walkley in the field of landscape architecture and education, giving an account of his career and work for BHP, for landscape work in Burra and Murray Bridge and, at Noel Lothian’s invitation, on the glasshouse for the Adelaide Botanic Gardens. Most importantly ‘he actively sought the establishment of a single unified Australian environmental design instate that brought together all planning and design professions’

Sotheby’s Wollemi Pine Auction Peter Cousens
Peter Cousens attended the Wollemi Pine Auction and he describes the first sale of these trees – detailing the lots, the first bid, the crowd reaction and the outcome of the sale.

Australian Garden History Vol. 17 No. 3 November/December 2005/ January 2006

From the Chair – Colleen Morris reports on deliberations at the National Management Committee Meeting

Plant Auctioneers & Travelling Salesmen – Richard Clough’s research reveals an interesting aspect of John Baptist’s business.

Walling on a Wall – a community project in Mooroolbark recognizes one of the district’s former residents.

The Italianate Gardens of Hepburn Springs – Gael Shannon discusses the way today’s owners have maintained the spirit of the original gardeners at Lavandula and Villa Parma.

For the Bookshelf
Christine Reid reviews English Gardens of the Twentieth Century by Tim Richardson, Trevor Nottle reviews The Old Country – Australian Landscapes, Plants and People by George Seddon, Nina Crone reviews Picturesque Pursuits: Colonial Women Artists & the Amateur Tradition by Caroline Jordon, Paul Thompson reviews The Afterlife of Gardens by John Dixon Hunt, Colleen Morris reviews A Passion for Plants: the Treseders of Truro by Suzanne Treseder and Nina Crone reviews Tasmania’s Recherche Bay, a globally inspiring story by Bob Browne.

Town and Country – Suzanne Hunt visits an exhibition of portraits of colonial homes and gardens.

Three York Beauties – Nina Crone reports on the gardens visited in York, WA, on the ‘Conference Optional Day’.

Plant Auctioneers and Travelling Salesmen Richard Clough
Sydney nurseryman John Thomas Baptist sent plants for auction to fourteen cities in Australia beginning in 1857 in Melbourne. Others like William Paradise, Joseph James, junior, and Francis Ferguson followed suit, but Baptist’s activities appear the most widespread with consignments going to Queesnsland, New Zealand and even India during the 1860s. Clough details some of the stock included on the auction lists as well as the vicissitudes of the ventures. Although Baptist, junior, gave up retailing plants after his father’s death, other nurseryman continued the practice of travelling plant sales. Two catalogues in the Mitchell Library evidence French nurseries sending stock to Australia - M. Gaugin-Gaudillon after 1856 and Pellorce and Co. after 1879.

‘From Sea to Scarp’ – Report of the 26 th Annual National Conference in Perth.
This report presents the highlights of Christopher Vernon’s summary of the lecture component of the conference, detailing the keys points raised by participating speakers.

The Italianate Gardens of Hepburn Springs Gael Shannon
Two properties in the Hepburn Springs area of Victoria originally developed by Swiss and Italian immigrants are described, together with a brief outline of the contribution these settlers made. A detailed account of Carol White’s ‘romantic notion’ of developing a productive farm similar to those of in Ticino, Switzerland led to Lavandula, while Richard Rigby set about restoring the property once owned by Italian immigrant Fabrizzio Crippa and then making an Italian inspired garden. Shannon explains how the surrounding Australian landscape influenced both White and Rigby, contending that the resulting gardens were ‘in a quite Australian representation’.

Town and Country: Portraits of Colonial Homes and Gardens Suzanne Hunt
In her review of this important travelling exhibition curated by Tracy Cooper-Lavery for the Bendigo Art Gallery, Suzanne Hunt emphasizes the relatively short period of portraying colonial houses and gardens in painting – from 1830 to 1870. Thereafter photography superseded the commissioned portraits. She encourages viewers to note the ‘artistic licence’ which characterised many of the paintings and she admires the sweeping landscapes depicted by Clark, von Guerard and Chevalier.

Vale: Frank Ugody 1925-2005 David Jones
David Jones pays tribute to an expert nurseryman outlining how Hungarian born Ugody, a graduate of the University of Agriculture in Budapest, suffered dispossession of property and detention following the Soviet invasion of Hungary in 1945. After his arrival in Adelaide in 1949 Ugody established a nursery and garden design business and became a well respected expert in matters horticultural,

Vale: Barney Hutton 1911-2005 Peronelle Windeyer
Barney Hutton’s daughter gives a personal account of her father’s life and love of plants, gardens and history from the days in Kashmir, through boarding school in England, study at Cambridge, teaching at Geelong Grammar School to the making of the garden at ‘Woodbury’ at Mount Macedon. He had many and wide-ranging interests – writing about gardening for TheAge and for the Australian GardenJournal (fore-runner of Australian Garden History), membership of the Species Peony International Network (SPIN) and the Victorian (later Australian) Open Garden Scheme.

Three York Beauties Nina Crone
York , established in 1851 as the first town beyond the Darling Scarp in Western Australia, is notable for early colonial buildings and challenging climatic conditions for gardeners. Three gardens in York, visited on the ‘conference optional day’ – Lowe House, Tipperary and Wynobbing – are impressive examples of ‘no lawn’ gardens. Use of lateritic gravel paths, hardy plants, and imaginative design make them particularly appropriate to the harsh inland environment.

A Gentleman’s Park cover17_2

Carol Mansfield traces the story of Woodbridge at Guildford. Originally selected by Governor Stirling as a country retreat it later played an important role in Western Australia’s nursery business.

International Auction of the Wollemi Pine
Jan Gluskie details arrangements for the first sales to the public of ‘the botanical find of the century’.

Strathfieldsaye
Susan Thompson culls the essence from her conservation report to give a history of this historically important property on the shore of Lake Wellington in Gippsland and John Hawker, horticulturist with Heritage Victoria provides a comprehensive plant list with a plan drawn by Pamela Jellie.

A Charter for Tree Management
Warwick Mayne-Wilson reports on a forum held to consider the formulation of a ‘tree charter’ akin to the Australian ICOMOS Burra Charter for heritage items and places.

For the bookshelf
Suzanne Hunt reviews The Unusual Life of Edna Walling by Sara Hardy and Nina Crone reviews Arts and Crafts Gardens by Wendy Hitchmough.

A Gentleman’s Park Carol Mansfield
Captain James Stirling, Western Australia’s founding governor first selected this land on the Swan River upstream of Perth in 1829 and used it as a country retreat for ten years. After a long period of leaseholders, Charles Harper purchased a portion of the property. A man of considerable enterprise and many interests – ‘explorer, pastoralist, pearler, agriculturalist, inventor, educationist, newspaper proprietor and member of parliament’ – Harper employed Thomas Price as gardener. Price had worked in the London nursery of James Veitch and that of Thomas Laing and Harper invited him to become a partner in ‘Woodbridge Nurseries’ which was gaining a local reputation for excellence. By 1906 Harper had opened Ferndale, a satellite nursery at Ballingup in the south-west of the state.

After Harper’s death in 1912 Woodbridge property suffered neglect, the house being put to a variety of institutional uses until it was vested in the National Trust and opened to the public in 1970. A brief description of the much reduced remnant garden is described. .

International Auction of the Wollemi Pine Jan Gluskie
Over the coming months the first generation of pines propagated from the wild population discovered in 1994 in the Wollemi National Park will be offered for sale to the public. Sales of Wollemia nobilis, ‘the botanical find of the century’ will take place as follows:

The fascinating story of the remarkable discovery of these trees is told in the book The Wollemi Pine by James Woodford, Text Publishing 2000 which is available in most bookstores and libraries.

Strathfieldsaye Susan Thompson
Susan Thompson culls the essence from her conservation report to give a history of this historically important property on the shore of Lake Wellington in Gippsland. John Hawker, horticulturist with Heritage Victoria, provides an up-to-date plant list together with a plan drawn by Pamela Jellie .

The homestead has a notable garden developed in the Disher period with contributions from Ellis Stone and Edna Walling. It suffered a decline after Dr Clive Disher’s death but there are rich horticultural records from the property in the Melbourne University Archive and it is listed on the Victorian Heritage Register (H 262). The challenges faced by the current ‘garden committee’ are discussed together with a projected management plan.

Illustrations include the original 1892 plan of the homestead and garden, an photograph by Ellis Stones, invoices from contractors and nurserymen and pictures from the Neumann Album which was given to Dr Disher by the family that managed the property over two generations.

A Charter for Tree Management Warwick Mayne-Wilson
Warwick Mayne-Wilson details the speakers and the issues they raised. These covered such things as individual connexions with significant trees, ‘fitness of purpose’ over time, natural and cultural values, issues faced by developers, managing mature to senescent trees, the physiology of declining trees, tree preservation orders, community issues, management plans, and policy and management issues.

For the bookshelf
Suzanne Hunt reviewed The Unusual Life of Edna Walling by Sara Hardy and Nina Crone reviewed The Arts and Crafts Garden by Wendy Hitchmough.

Working in tandem
Richard Clough & Megan Martin each discuss aspects their work and enthusiasm for books which provide valuable material for research into aspects of garden history

William Paterson, amateur colonial botanist
Nan Smith, President of the Norfolk Island Historical Society, provides an insight into the life of William Paterson and his association with Norfolk Island as an amateur botanist.

On the move
Keith Jorgensen and John Viska recall moments of gardens visited during the Annual National Conference in Sydney last October. Nina Crone and Heather Thomson record the Norfolk Island trip in word and picture. John Hawker describes the significance of Strathfieldsaye, a historic estate in Gippsland which will be visited later this year by the Victorian Branch.

Postcard memories – or more?
Ken Duxbury’ s nostalgic postcards of the Bougainvillea Rest House in the Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne inspire an article on William Guilfoyle’s ‘carefully controlled visual experiences’ for visitors to the Gardens.

For the bookshelf
Trevor Nottle reviews The Royal Horticultural Society: a history 1804-2004 by Brent Elliot.

The Convent: a new working bee site.
An account of the Contemplative Garden being restored by volunteers under the leadership of Pamela Jellie.

Working in tandem Richard Clough & Megan Martin
Professor Richard Clough worked with Sylvia Crowe on the landscape of Basildon New Town, in England, before appointment as the first landscape architect employed by the National Capital Development Commission between 1959 and 1981. Thereafter, until his retirement in 1986 he was Professor of Landscape Architecture at the University of New South Wales. In this article he reflects on his passion for book collecting, his love of history, his interest in plant catalogues and he discusses some of his ‘special’ books. Last year he donated his book collection to the Caroline Simpson Library and Research Collection at the Historic Houses Trust which is now situated on the Old Mint site in Macquarie Street, Sydney.

Megan Martin spent her childhood in western and Far North Queensland before taking a degree in Old Norse and Old English at James Cook University. Work in Tasmania and London followed and led to a M. Litt. at Sydney University. Megan has worked for the HHT since 1997 in its library and research section. She outlines the nature of the collection she has responsibility for, describing its range of formats, its focus, the value of the Clough Collection, recent bibliographic work and the provenance of works in her care.

William Paterson, amateur colonial botanist Nan Smith
While in Norfolk Island members of AGHS attended a meeting of the Norfolk Island Historical Society at which its President, Nan Smith, gave a talk on William Paterson.
This article is the text of her talk. It outlines Paterson’s early interest in botany and time spent collecting botanical specimens in southern Africa. There followed a commission in the 98 th Regiment, service in India and then gazettal as Captain with the New South Wales Corps and travel to Sydney with the 3 rd Fleet. On arrival at Sydney Paterson was immediately sent to Norfolk Island where he did some botanising and maintained contact with Sir Joseph Banks. A brief account of Paterson’s subsequent career is also given.

On the move Keith Jorgensen, John Viska, Nina Crone, John Hawker
Accounts of visits, excursions and tours, past and future, organised by AGHS. Keith Jorgensen from Queensland writes of the garden at Bronte House in Sydney, John Viska, from Perth, describes three properties (Ellensville, Denham Court and Horsley) visited on a post-conference tour, Nina Crone, from Victoria, outlines aspects of a trip led by Timothy Hubbard to Norfolk Island and John Hawker, horticulturist with Heritage Victoria, explains the significance of Strathfieldsaye which will be included in a week-end trip to Gippsland in November.

Postcard Memories – or more? Ken Duxbury
Ken Duxbury discusses the placement and design of rest houses in William Guilfoyle’s Botanic Gardens in Melbourne. He concentrates on the Bougainvillea Rest House which was damaged by a falling branch in 1969 and the house was demolished and replaced by a severely functional shelter. Duxbury puts a case for re-instatement of the Bougainvillea Rest House following Guilfoyle’s original design.

For the bookshelf
Trevor Nottle reviews The Royal Horticultural Society: a history 1804-2004 by Brent Elliot.

The Convent: a new working bee site.
Originally the site of the French religious order, Sisters of the Good Shepherd, the focus of the working bee is restoration of the Contemplative Garden in which the sisters used to walk. A list of the surviving plants along this walk is given.

National Management Committee News
Colleen Morris . Chair of the Australian Garden History Society reports on the work in progress and future projects.

An Appeal to Patriotism
Richard Clough describes an initiative taken by the Feminist Society during World War I to encourage women to take up horticultural pursuits.

Barratt’s Wellington Nursery
John Viska outlines the career of a convict gardener who arrived in the Swan River colony in 1851, became Government Gardener and established a thriving nursery by 1890.

Nursery Blooms
Cas Middlemis discovers that the Adelaide nursery of C.E. Newman and Sons was at the forefront of introducing the African violet to the world.

Is it Edna’s or Claire’s Garden?
Sandra Pullman details her research into the garden at Mooramong near Skipton in Western Victoria and concludes it was Claire Mackinnon rather than Edna Walling that influenced its design.

The Reminiscences of Alfred Gelding, nurseryman
Extracts from the memories of the fourth son of John Gelding, prominent Sydney nurseryman, written in 1937.

For the Bookshelf
SuzanneHunt reviews Green Pens, compiled and edited by Katie Holmes, Susan K. Martin and Kylie Mirmohamadi, and Trevor Nottle reviews George Forrest: Plant Hunter by Brenda McLean.

Hard to Believe
George Jones offers some additional information about Picconia excelsa.

Capetown: halfway to Sydney
Details of a fascinating exhibition of art works from the Oppenheimer Africana Collection now open at the Museum of Sydney.

An appeal to patriotism Richard Clough
Professor Richard Clough traces the short history of the Women’s Horticultural and Home Industries Society Limited which was established in New South Wales soon after the outbreak of the First World War by the Feminist Club, a group supported by Rose Scott, the pioneer of women’s suffrage.

This group lobbied the state government and received promises that residential schools for training women for horticultural and rural pursuits, viz. a Training Farm and Demonstration Orchard at Dural and the Pitt Town Farm ( Scheyville). It also to have a day school for horticulture set up at Moore Park.

The Moore Park proposal never eventuated but was replaced by a ‘ Demonstration School and Nursery’ at Scarness, the home of William Harding, in Darling Street, Chatswood. A shop, located in Victoria Arcade, Castlereagh Street was also established to sell preserves, vegetables, seedlings, flowers, cakes and honey. However, by 1921 the Women’s Horticultural and Home Industries Society had sunk into oblivion.

Barratt’s Wellington Nursery John Viska
John Viska outlines the history of early plant nurseries in Western Australia from the first attempts at acclimatization on Garden Island, through the plant growing enterprises advertised in the press during the 1830s and 1840s and the arrival of the convict gardener Enoch Barratt in 1851.

By 1866 Barratt was winning prizes in the Horticultural Society’s Show for rhubarb and pansies. The same year he successfully applied for the post of Government Gardener, a position he held until 1880. He and his son James maintained the nursery business, becoming agents for the renowned Darling Nursery in NSW which was owned by Thomas Shepherd and Company. Barratt’s nursery it rapidly expanded with the discovery of gold in Western Australia but began to face competition from other nurseries. By 1904 the lots that made up the Barratt Nursery were sold to the timber company of Bunning Bros.

Nursery Blooms Cas Middlemis
Research by Cas Middlemis shows how the Adelaide nursery of C.E. Newman and Sons was selling the seed of the African violet (Saintpaulia ionantha ), just two years after it was discovered (1892) in Tanzania. Newman who emigrated from Germany in 1846 established contact with the Friedrich Benary Seed Company in Erfurt, a firm that began commercial selling of African violet seed in 1893. That the African violet was unavailable in the United States until the mid 1920s highlights how the South Australian nurseryman was at the cutting edge of his business.

Mooramong: is it Edna’s garden or Claire’s? Sandra Pullman
In the course of work for her studies at Burnley College, Sandra Pullman came to the conclusion that the garden at the National Trust (Victoria) property of Mooramong, in the Western District of Victoria reflects the influence of Claire Mackinnon, the silent movie star who married Kenneth (Scobie) Mackinnon in 1937, rather than that of Edna Walling.

This article details the research undertaken by Pullman as she went through photograph albums, visitor books, plant lists and made archeological excavations. She also interviewed local identities in the Skipton region and considered the professional association between Edna Walling and architect Marcus Martin A comparison was made between the Walling designed garden at Boortkoi and that at Mooramong. Pullman concluded that the Mooramong garden was ‘a Claire Mackinnon garden of the 1930s and 1940s and should be interpreted as such.’

The Reminiscences of Alfred Gelding
In the course of his research on the Sydney nurseryman John Gelding, Silas Clifford-Smith found an account of life in early Sydney written by John Gelding’s fourth son Alfred. Written in 1937 when he was 89, Alfred recalls the family’s moves from Rushcutter’s Bay to Double Bay and then to Petersham, early flower shows in the Botanical Gardens, Sydney personalities of the day – Sir Charles Cowper of Camden, Sir William Macleay of Elizabeth Bay and Sir Daniel Cooper of Woollahra. Of interest.

The grotto area at Yarralla,
West Concord in 2004.
Constructed around 1890
by Italian artisans the grotto
is one of the largest of its
type in NSW and it evidences
the landscape development
of the estate. Its fabric is
extremely fragile and is
currently being restored.

Gardening under threat
Warwick Mayne-Wilson analyses the reasons people garden and considers gardening as we know it is under threat as housing plots become smaller and houses become larger.

Garden Watch – excellent work in Canberra
For the time being the trees in York Park are saved. Despite AGHS advocacy the new rose garden at Old Parliament House has lost its heritage features. The publication Early Ainslie Gardens outlines the history of five gardens in the Corroboree Park precinct.

Friendship through flowers
Elspeth Douglas traces the history of the Ipswich Horticultural Society detailing the organization of early shows, noting the exhibits and exhibitors and describing its contemporary role.

Some Ipswich gardens – Booval House, Cooneana and Rockton
Helen Jackson writes of Booval House built in the 1850s as the homestead on a productive rural property. Susan Martin describes the contribution the Welsby and Davies families made in establishing the garden at Cooneanna, a late 1860s property and Jani Haenke and Angela Geertsma recall the development of the garden at Rockton.

From coal mines to rain forests – Lloyd Bird
Glenn Cooke profiles the remarkable contribution Lloyd Bird has made to preserving vestiges of the Woogaroo Scrub landscape through the work he began when he established a small rainforest on the site of a former brickyard.

Correspondence on colonial plants
Stuart Reid offers a list of his favourite plants seen on last year’s post-conference tour and Colleen Morris responds.

For the bookshelf
Lucy Barton reviews Margaret Somerville’s book Wildflowering: the life and places of Kathleen McArthur, and Nina Crone reviews Herbarium by Robyn Stacey and Ashley Hay.

Valete
David Jones celebrates the life and work of two significant South Australian garden identities – Noel Lothian and Christine Michell.

Gardening under threat Warwick Mayne-Wilson
Warwick Mayne-Wilson considers the contemporary trend towards larger ande larger houses on smaller and small blocks is a threat to gardening as we know it. He examines at some length the reasons people garden – for food, for trade, for the joy of production, to imitate nature, to study natural ecosystems or to create a work of art. Further, his discusses the way memories, dreams, and fantasies influence the creation of personal surroundings drawing attention to the current fashion for ‘lifestyle’ designs. When factors such as shortage of water, pressure of time and the increasing tendency of women to engage in full-time work are added to the equation the future of the domestic garden appears bleak. However Mayne-Wilson sees some hope in new initiatives that are emerging in different parts of the world.

Friendship through flowers Elspeth Douglas
The Ipswich Horticultural Society is the oldest in Queensland and the Chairperson of the Queensland Branch of the Australian Garden History Society, Elspeth Douglas, has researched the society from its beginnings in 1866 when its ambit also included agriculture. Her account offers a vivid picture of the early period in the second half of the 19 th century. In 1912 the redoubtable curator of Queen’s Park, Mr Turley, revived the fortunes of the then languishing Society by organizing the separation of the Ipswich Horticultural Society from the Agricultural Society. Douglas’s study concludes with comments about the Society in the Ipswich community today.

Some Ipwich Gardens
Booval House - Helen Jackson
Helen Jackson describes her endeavours to restore a house and garden that had been in institutional use by the Sisters of Mercy for over seventy years. Booval House, built in the late 1850s, was originally the centre of a farm that carried stock and grew grain, citrus fruit and cotton. Jackson is particularly interested in the different plantings that occurred over the years.

Cooneana - Susan Martin
The City of Ipswich acquired Cooneana in 1997 and the Ipswich Historical Society has set in place plans to preserve the property. Built in 1868-69 for Samuel Welsby, Cooneana was associated with the Welsby/Cameron/Davies family for over a century. There were some keen gardeners over the generations and photographs of the garden provide an idea of its graceful yet utilitarian nature.

Rockton - Jani Haenke and Angela Geertsma
Bought by the Haenke family in 1918, Rockton’s history goes back to 1854 and the garden is notable for the number of early plantings that still remain – figs, hoop pine, tulipwood and jacarandas. The garden also shows the preferred shrubs and plants of early twentieth century gardeners (acalyphas, crotons, cordylines, roses and gerberas) and is beginning to reflect twenty-first century tastes with plantings of bromeliads and hippeastrums.

From coal mines to rainforests – Lloyd Bird Glenn Cooke
Glenn Cooke visits the small but towering rainforest that Bundamba coal miner Lloyd Bird created in his back garden on the site of a former brickyard. Bird’s interest in rainforests was kindled during childhood visits in the 1930s to the South Queensland

Coast and when he came to establish his own rainforest he collected seed from Albert Brett’s farm on the headwaters of the Condamine. Believing that ‘if you plant a tree in the right place it looks after itself’ Bird set about finding the appropriate local native species for his rainforest. Involvement with the society for Growing Australian Plants in the early 1970s led to collecting trips and the identification of new plants, co-authorship of the publication Vine Forest Atlas for South-East Queensland, preservation of the Woogaroo Scrub, and advocating the adoption of the Plunkett mallee (Eucalyptus curtisii) as Ipswich’s floral emblem in 1996. Lloyd’s work is recognized in Notelaea lloydii a previously unrecorded native olive discovered in remnant bushland at Mt Crosby.

Australian Garden History Volume 16 Number 3 November/December 2004/January 2005

Research & Researchers
News of recent or current research into garden history and related subjects.

Introducing Ipswich in Queensland
Elspeth Douglas outlines the history of Ipswich, celebrating the centenary of its proclamation as a city.

Queens Park Ipswich
Jan Seto traces the course of Queens Park as a remnant of a unique historical network of regional botanic gardens in Queensland.

Japanese Gardens for Ipswich
Chris Boulton and Rob Sewell introduce Nerima Gardens whose design seeks to capture the philosophy of Japanese garden design while promoting a distinct Ipswich identity through the use of local plants.

Genesis of a Historic Garden – Part 2
Volkhard Wehner continues his account of the garden at Folly Farm outside Melbourne with a description of development after the Edna Walling period and adds information about the original Folly Farm in Berkshire, England.

Gardenesque – a book and an exhibition
Howard Tanner reviews a significant exhibition, curated by Richard Aitken, at the State Library of Victoria together with the accompanying book Gardenesque: A Celebration of Australian Gardening.

Your affectionate child
Pacita Alexander reveals the story of letters, found at Ellensville, from Mrs Rolf Boldrewood (nee Margaret Riley) to Ellen Foreman.

Browned Off: Old Gardens in a New World
Howard Tanner sums up the lecture programme at the 25 th Annual General Conference of the Australian Garden History Society, held in Sydney on 15 and 16 October 2004.

Vale – John Brookes MC, 1921-2004
Jane Lennon pays tribute to a founding member of AGHS.

Much of interest in Edinburgh Gardens, Fitzroy
Lorraine Nadebaum explains why Edinburgh Gardens are regarded as the ‘jewel in the crown’ within the City of Yarra.

Introducing Ipswich in Queensland Elspeth Douglas
In this brief historical survey Elspeth Douglas mentions the discovery of limestone in the local area during the survey by Captain Logan in 1826-7 and the subsequent establishment of a convict outstation to quarry the limestone. A little later coal was discovered close to the Bremer River and it became the principal source of Ipswich’s prosperity, together with manufacturing, the Queensland Railway Workshops, gardening, service and administrative activities.

Original inhabitants were the Jaggera people, followed by settlers from Britain and Ireland and from Europe, notably G e rmans. Chinese were also present cultivating market gardens. With a mean total of 126.6mm of rainfall in January and 43.5mm in July Ipswich offers some challenges for gardeners.

Queens Park Ipswich Jan Seto
In his survey grid for the town of Limestone (later re-named Ipswich) Henry Wade set aside Alma Square as one of the areas for public recreation. It was situated partially in what is now Queens Park, but a public meeting in 1858 called on the governor of New South Wales to grant the town a ‘Public Park, Recreation Ground and Botanic Gardens’ and this was indeed granted.

By 1863 the park was fenced but little is known of its design. An early plan was provided by Walter Hill, curator of the Brisbane Botanic Gardens but has not survived, and on a visit to the park in 1876 Hill noted that his plan had not been followed. There was an ongoing struggle to acquire funding for maintenance of the park as by the end of the 1870s the government horticultural purse strings were being mightily stretched to cover the Queens Park network in Queensland which included parks in Toowoomba, Rockhampton, Maryborough, Gympie, Townsville and Warwick.

Funding became a local problem when the Ipswich Municipal Council took over control of the Queens Park Reserve in 1893 and subsequently various local sporting groups based their activities in the park.

Early curators of the park are mentioned – William Haylitt, Joseph Smith Lowis, Alexander Munro, George Jackson, Frederick Turley, and Thomas Wall. It was Turley who made the most significant contribution to Queens Park during his period as curator (1909 – 1935) and much detail of his work and that of Wall is given.

Japanese Gardens for Ipswich Chris Boulton & Rob Sewell
Now nearing completion the Nerima Gardens in historic Queens Park have been designed in collaboration with Ipswich city’s sister city of Nerima in Japan. The aim of the garden design is to create ‘a place of peace and tranquility, a place to meet nature and calm the spirit’. The theme for the gardens draws its inspiration from the topography of the Ipswich area while exhibiting a Japanese style of landscape architecture.

Nerima Gardens takes advantage of the existing vegetation and landform of the site in such a way that the visitor is taken on a journey of discovery where the perspective constantly changes and lightens the heart. The gardens reflect a picture of the local environment and illustrate how Ipswich fits within South East Queensland. The design portrays the distant ocean and the closer features of the Ipswich region, its rivers, mountain peaks and vegetation.

Genesis of a historic garden – Part 2 Volkhard Wehner
Volkhard Wehner lived a Folly Farm from 1978 to 1987. He analyses the development of the garden after the time when Edna Walling worked there and describes the contribution his father-in-law, Dr Leonard Cox, made.

He discusses the original Folly Farm in Berkshire, England where Sir Edwin Lutyens and Gertrude Jekyll worked in 1906 and 1912, and makes an interesting analogy with the work of Edna Walling and Eric Hammond at Folly Farm, Olinda.

Gardenesque - the book & the exhibition Reviewed by Howard Tanner
These two wonderfully rich and rewarding accounts of Australia’s garden history – entwined in their preparation, but quite different in their outcomes – reveal Richard Aitken’s pivotal role in recent garden research and scholarship, and the pursuit of avenues which ensure public accessibility to this interesting material. Their starting point was the substantial resource of the collections of the State Library of Victoria, and then by exploring a wider pictorial base, they were able to convey the evolution of Australian gardening over time.

The book is a pictorial triumph, while the exhibition – often of small, sometimes jewel-like items – is visually less successful. It is not well-served by its relatively bland institutional setting, which would have been better, in my view, transformed into a dark-hued Aladdin’s cave or a semblance of a conservatory.

The book’s main pictorial section (and exhibition catalogue) is preceded by some touching Leunig cartoons and two very fine essays – a beautifully crafted and intimate account of Anne Latreille’s association with gardens and Paul Fox’s insightful analysis of gardening as an expression of changing Australian society.

One of the most important aspects of the book and the exhibition is an emphasis on recent, post World War II history, conveyed by contemporary publications, posters and telling icons. While treasuring our past, Richard Aitken clearly shows us that we must recognize and nurture our present, and our future. One wonders who is collecting the telling sketches of Tom Sitta, Anton James, Craig Burton or Taylor Cullity Lethlean. In undertaking this review other profound images kept emerging from my memory, making me realize that, despite all our various endeavours, the definitive book on Australia’s gardens is yet to appear.

Your affectionate child Pacita Alexander
Recently discovered letters to Ellen Foreman and a book inscribed to her and found on the bookshelves at Ellensville, have brought to light correspondence from Maggie Browne, better known as Mrs Rolf Boldrewood, author of The Flower Garden in Australia. The letters highlight the social life of those living on many of the early homesteads of rural New South Wales.

Maggie Browne, the god-child of Ellen Foreman, was brought up by her aunt Christiana Blomfield at Denham Court. The first letter, from a 14-year-old Margaret, is dated 1851. It refers to ‘ripe peaches’. For over fifty years, more or less frequently, letters from Margaret informed Ellen of moves, family news, social activities, fashions, travels and the making of gardens.

Visits to Ellensville and Denham Court were made during the post-conference tour and visited viewed the original letters from Margaret Browne.

Browned Off: Old Gardens in a New World
Report of the 25 th Annual National Conference Howard Tanner

Craig Burton’s talk gave important insights into the many layers of the Sydney region – the aboriginal regions, the geological regions, the pattern of rivers and the marine interface and the original pattern of native vegetation. One might ask ‘How can more of the original circumstance be regained? Surely this is a topic worthy of a future lecture.

Tim Entwisle spoke of the history and evolution of the Royal Botanic Gardens Sydney and their related scientific role emphasizing that they needed to consolidate their public standing and role across the several holdings, needed to recognize competing demands on the Gardens and the Domain and needed to plan for succession planting.

Elizabeth Ellis spoke of the influence in early New South Wales of the Age of Enlightenment and the strong sense of commitment to a new life in the wilderness where the successful settlers sought to make their own version of Arcadia through what she termed ‘Acts of Possession’.

James Broadbent related the story of his historic bungalow ‘The Cottage’ and how he worked to provide it with a setting evocative of colonial times.

John Adam spoke of his study as a Fulbright Fellow of Californian gardens and gardening in the 1920s, in particular the career of Fred Tschopp who was active in both California and New Zealand.

It would be worthwhile AGHS exploring this topic further as American influence in Australia during the 1920s was profound.

Silas Clifford-Smith described the three National Trust Gardens he is responsible for – Everglades at Leura, the Norman Lindsay Museum at Falconbridge and Experiment Farm at Par r amatta – highlighting the current situation of limite d funding.

Peter Nixon spoke of ‘best fit’ in selecting plants to suit Sydney’s growing conditions and moves to identify and market them through the Designers Growers Network – an important topic that deserves a more detailed explanation.

David Gray discussed the issues related to credibly maintaining and presenting Vaucluse House as a 19 th century gentleman’s estate on poor soil in drought conditions.

Gillian Davies outlined the illustrious career of the Colonial Botanist Charles Fraser, including his Scottish training and his collecting trips around New South Wales, Van Diemen’s Land, New Zealand, Norfolk Island and the Swan River.

At the Conference Dinner, Peter Valder entertained with hilarious and telling vignettes c.1954 of a now vanished world of upper class gardening, with vast estates and numerous staff.

Barbara Buchanan gave a most important insight into the ‘ Sydney School’ of landscape architects, who were active in the 1970s and 1980s: Bruce Rickard, Bruce MacKenzie, and most particularly, her former colleague and mentor, the late Harry Howard.

Noel Merrick provided some most interesting statistics about water now, and in the future - 2.5% of the world’s water is fresh, 66% of that is ice and snow, 0.3% of the fresh water is held in rivers, lakes and reservoirs and 30% of the fresh water is ground water i.e. below the surface. Merrick spoke of the importance of everyone moving away from mains water, and thus the relevance of water storage tanks, and of the use of grey water for irrigation and secondary purposes.

Speaking on ‘Gardens of Hope’ Helen Armstrong contemplated what gardens are and what they can be for us. They provide hope that one can start again. Philosophers had stated that ‘hope arises in a break with the past’, ‘hope is a joyful revolt’. She spoke of international garden festivals such as Chaumont in France, the restoration of the lost gardens at Heligan in Cornwall and of the Eden Project.

Howard Tanner spoke of the need for institutions and professional bodies to re-invent themselves from time to time – by pursuing new initiatives and exploring avenues for enlarged memberships. Twenty-five years ago the English National Trust model provided a framework for Australian conservation bodies – he felt that it was no longer appropriate or applicable for Australia.

The creation of exciting new contemporary landscapes, such as the public gardens at Mount Penang (by Anton James with Diana Pringle, Geoffrey Britton, Craig Burton and others), the new Sydney Harbour foreshore parks, or Craig Burton’s expansive native plantings across a valley in the Hunter region, while all in their infancy, could form the basis of a future conference, perhaps centred on Newcastle.

Much of interest in Edinburgh Gardens, Fitzroy Lorraine Nadebaum
Edinburgh Gardens, Fitzroy are regarded a the ‘jewel in the crown’ within the City of Yarra, representing the most significant heritage public garden in the municipality. The gardens were first set aside as a public reserve in 1862 and from the outset included designated areas for active recreations as well as ornamental passive parklands. The main layout and early planting was predominantly carried out in the 1880s. It includes extensive avenue planting of Dutch elm. Ornamental features that still grace the parklands include a rotunda bandstand (1925) and the charming Chandler drinking fountain. There has been repeated appropriation of parkland for a range of industrial and community service functions but a recently completed Conservation Management and a Master Plan will guide future work in the Gardens in line with contemporary community needs.

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