Contents
Yallum Park: Where the past is remembered and put to work for the future Sandra Kearney
Yallum Park is situated in the Limestone Coast area of South Australia. As you drive through the recently restored gate pillars, an avenue of diverse, ancient and newer trees greets you. Indeed, the observant traveller may have already noticed the established elms, poplars, pines and Tasmanian blue gums that skirt the property along the main road. These merely hint at what lies within. While the original deer park and gate lodge (lost to fire in 1914) are gone, the view soon opens to a circular gravel driveway with a Victorian style fountain commissioned by the Clifford family. Behind it sits the magnificent Victorian Italianate mansion, built for John Riddoch between1878 and 1880, and a significant arboretum.
Violet Days: Remembering the fallen Clare Gleeson
During the First World War a floral initiative was introduced in Australia and New Zealand to raise money for organisations associated with the war effort. Violet Days took place in towns and cities, with different charities benefiting from the money donated.
Trees and memory: Peppertree grows in the old schoolyard Anna Howe
One of the author’s earliest memories is of the peppertrees (Schinus molle var. areira) at each end of the sandpit in the playground at Dural Public School in NSW, where she started school in 1950. The peppertrees went with expansions over the years. Many people would have similar memories of a schoolyard peppertree. The same species was also planted in private gardens across Australia from the mid-19th century.
The singular: Eucalypt on the Glenard Estate, Eaglemont Tim Gatehouse
On a roundabout at the junction of Glenard Drive and Mosman Drive on the Glenard subdivision at Eaglemont, 10 km northeast of Melbourne’s CBD, stands an aged eucalypt at whose base are three boulders of volcanic origin. On one is a plaque commemorating the design of the subdivision by Walter Burley Griffin.
Vale Keva North 1934–1926 Dennis Mcmanus and John Stowar
Western Australia’s first kitchen garden: King George Sound in 1826 John Viska
In 1999, while researching the first Conservation Management Plan for the Old Farm at Strawberry Hill, Albany, the author located the list of plants sent from the Sydney Botanic Garden for the settlement at King George Sound. He also found in the holdings of the Art Gallery of Western Australia, a watercolour painting titled The Settlement King George’s Sound 1828 by Isaac Scott Nind. As Albany celebrates its bicentenary it is fitting to share the discovery.
Remarkable gardens: Thornham Magna Caroline Grant
When seeking out apple collections to visit in Suffolk the author noticed there was a restored walled kitchen garden with an extensive orchard of local apple varieties at Thornham Magna near Eye. What she found was a remarkable garden.
Profile: Maria Hitchcock
A brief profile of Maria Hitchcock, Northern NSW Branch representative on the AGH National Management Committee.
The big snow in New England Maria Hitchcock
It started snowing in Armidale on the Northern Tablelands of NSW on the morning of Saturday 2 August 2025. While much of the snow had disappeared by the following Monday, the devastation was revealed. The big snow of 2025 will be remembered for years to come.
Two pioneering garden authors: Mrs Boldrewood and Mrs Tuckett Sandra Pullman
Gardening books were long dominated by male authors, with a few notable exceptions such as Jane Loudon’s Instructions in Gardening for Ladies (1840), Maria Theresa Earle’s Pot-Pourri from a Surrey Garden (1897) and Gertrude Jekyll’s Wood and Garden (1899). Toward the end of the 19th century and into the early 20th, two Australian women chose to share their practical gardening knowledge with the public. Mrs Rolf Boldrewood published The Flower Garden in Australia: A Book for Ladies and Amateurs in 1893, which was followed 12 years later by Mrs Arthur Tuckett’s A Year in My Garden (1905).
For the bookshelf – The Green Fuse. Essays in Making Sense of Gardens by Peter Dale Reviewed by Kathleen Oakes
The essays in this book cover a wide variety of themes such as mazes, time, theatre, follies, garden parties and childhood. What he achieves is eye opening, amusing and informative. However, this is an academic garden book. If you are not fazed by references to Greek mythology, classical and medieval writers or 18th century poets, are intrigued by the development of a thought‑provoking argument and are curious about the history and culture of English gardening, this book will be rewarding.
For the bookshelf – In Bloom: How Plants Changed Our World by Francesca Leoni, Stephen Harris with other contributors Reviewed by Anne Claoue-Long
Produced to accompany an exhibition at the Oxford Ashmolean Museum in 2026, this book includes a catalogue of the exhibition and a series of richly illustrated essays by several authors who focus on the exhibition theme. Beautiful botanical images accompany the sometimes overwhelmingly detailed text.
Advocacy: Victoria Park/Barrambin Jane Lennon
In February 2026 the Queensland State Government rescinded the several Deeds of Grant in Trust held by the Brisbane City Council and signed by the Governor of Queensland for the 65 hectares of Victoria Park. This converted a State Heritage-listed park, known affectionately as ‘the lungs of the city’ to freehold land.
Repairing and reinforcing the National Gallery of Australia’s garden setting Anne Claoue-Long
The National Gallery of Australia (NGA) in Canberra has a National Sculpture Garden that is celebrated as an exemplar of modernist landscape design. The NGA recently held a competition to enhance the landscape encircling its building, with the requirement to incorporate the Sculpture Garden and retain other important elements, including Lindy Lee’s ‘Ouroboros’ and James Turrell’s ‘Within without’, Skyspace.
From the chair Helen Oates
AGHS national oral history collection: John Hawker
A brief profile of AGHS member John Hawker drawn from an interview recorded for the AGHS national oral history collection.
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