Helen May Leach, Emeritus Professor of Anthropology (Otago University) ONZM, AHRIH (née Keedwell), was born in New Plymouth, Taranaki in 1945 and died in Christchurch, New Zealand in January this year. Her long academic career began at the University of […]
A memorial to honour Gil Teague, founder of the Florilegium bookshop, will be held on Friday 27 March at the Petersham Bowling Club, Sydney. RSVP: mmjteague@gmail.com This tribute to Gil was written for the April issue of Australian Garden History: […]
The Australian Garden History Society (AGHS) is opposed to the installation of plastic grass because it contravenes our mission to conserve significant gardens and cultural landscapes. You can read our policy here: AGHS Policy on Plastic Grass Feb 26. In […]
Richard Stringer with a Sinar X camera, Toowong, 2000, State Library of Queensland In the 2026 Australia Day honours, photographer Richard Stringer was made a Member of the Order of Australia (AM). I wrote an article about Stringer’s exquisite […]
Launch of The man who planted Canberra at the Canberra Arboretum, September 2025, photos Tony Maple One of Australia’s most prolific and respected authors and journalists, Robert Macklin, has died at 84 after a long battle with chronic obstructive pulmonary […]
The bad news The mortality rate of trees in forests from Tasmania to the Top End is increasing as the world warms, according to a new study published in Nature Plants. To establish mortality rates for Australian forests, Professor Medlyn, a […]
Welcome to the New Year! In 2026, the Australian Garden History Society will have a particular focus on trees: on the significance of old trees and their preservation and the importance of planting new trees, especially in our cities and […]
Prue Slatyer, Trish Hodge and Tim Jarvis at the launch of Palawa tunapri Trish Hodge’s book Palawa tunapri topped her publisher’s (Fuller’s) bestseller list this week, having been launched in Hobart last week. On Monday 17 November, Tim Jarvis of […]
Clive Lucas, Caroline Bray, Prue Anthony, Penny Holden, Dave Anthony at The Barn, photo Annie Smith If you couldn’t make the conference in Mount Gambier, you can now read a summary of the lectures and visits here: https://www.gardenhistorysociety.org.au/publications/2025-annual-national-conference-mount-gambier/ Richard […]
The October 2025 issue of Australian Garden History is now available. Details of the articles appearing in this issue can be found here. Members can login and download the journal here. Non-members can purchase printed or digital versions of the […]
On the 25 July, two peninsular parklands on Sydney Harbour, Balls Head Reserve and Yurulbin Park and Foreshore, were added to the State Heritage Register (SHR) by the Hon. Penny Sharpe MLC, Minister for Heritage. This occasion was momentous. Their […]
Eugène von Guérard, Crater of Mount Gambier South Australia, 1867, colour lithograph, National Gallery of Victoria Have you booked to attend AGHS’s 45th annual conference in Mount Gambier? If not, the full program of speakers and excursions is now […]
Mounts Bay Road, Perth after the removal of Moreton Bay figs infected with the polyphagus shothole borer, photo Caroline Grant Euwallacea fornicatus (polyphagous shothole borer – PSHB) is a tiny beetle. It bores into tree trunks, stems, and branches and […]
Ryde College of Horticulture, 2021, photo Rowena Slater, an AGHS member, who has taught horticulture at Ryde TAFE for 40 years Delve into the Australian Garden History Society’s national oral history collection and you’ll find mention of the Ryde […]
The Draft Ballarat Botanical Gardens Master Plan, which sets out a 20-year vision for the Gardens, is open for community consultation until 5pm on Sunday 13 April 2025. An interactive map (pictured) allows you to see what changes are proposed. […]
Image: pigface and wattle, Trisha Hodge The latest grant from the Australian Garden History Society’s Kindred Spirits Fund has been awarded to Trisha Hodge, a Palawa woman living near Nipaluna/Hobart for her book project, palawa tunapri – Tasmanian Aboriginal knowledge. […]
One of the benefits of membership of Australian Garden History Society (AGHS) is the opportunity to explore a place more closely than the casual visitor. What lies behind that hedge or that avenue of stately trees or old dry stone […]
The Australian Garden History Society is pleased to provide you with the AGHS Annual Report 2023-24
The Australian Garden History Society is delighted to announce the winner of the essay competition for QUT Landscape Architecture students. The competition arose out of a collaboration between AGHS and QUT to encourage interest among landscape architecture students in the […]
The Australian forest and environmental history communities have lost one of their pioneering figures: the eminent forester and historian John Dargavel. who died in July 2024. Dargavel was a long-standing member of the Fenner School of Environment and Society at […]
Australian Ambassador to Ukraine, HE Bruce Edwards (second from right), inspecting the Wollemi pine in November 2023 What follows is an edited version of an article by Greg Johnson (AGHS ACT) that appeared in the International Society for Plant Pathology […]
The AGHS Annual Conference is a highly anticipated event. While we wait for the 2024 National Conference in Bunbury, WA (18–20 October 2024), recordings and details of the recent conferences in Hobart (2022) and Ipswich (2023) are now available to […]
Stuart Read reviews the Eden Unearthed: sculpture exhibition, Eden Gardens & Garden Centre, 307 Lane Cove Road (cnr. M2/Fontenoy Road), Macquarie Park, Sydney, until April 2024. The curator is Meredith Kirton, a horticultural journalist and curator, and AGHS member. Image […]
Magna Carta Place, Canberra Parliamentary Triangle, one of John Gray’s landscape design projects, photo The Riot Act Tribute by Max Bourke, AM Recently Dr John Gray passed away and all those interested in not only the landscape, but specifically […]
A botanist at Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria, Dr Alastair Robinson, has described a beautiful new species of plant, Rhododendron astrophorum, a slender, canopy-growing epiphyte found only in the montane moss forests of a single mountain range on the island of […]
Since 1974, the Victorian Heritage Register has protected the heritage places and objects that are significant to the history and development of the State of Victoria. The Heritage Council of Victoria is reviewing the coverage of the Register and wants […]
‘Landscapes At Risk: Watch & Action’ List At National Management Committee meeting in June 2015 it was decided to prepare a list of ‘Landscapes at Risk’, as part of our mission to promote awareness and conservation of significant gardens and cultural landscapes […]
Letters of love and love lost, and of exciting expeditions are among the letters that Baron Ferdinand von Mueller received during his lifetime. This week, Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria made these communications accessible by launching a searchable online database of […]
The Minister for the Arts, Tony Burke, has announced that the Government will provide the National Library of Australia with $33 million over four years in the Budget. The Government is also committing to providing $9.2 million in indexed ongoing […]
For the last nine months, AGHS member, Dr Greg Johnson, has been liaising with plant pathologist colleagues in Poland. These people are hosting refugee scientists from Ukraine thanks in part to bursaries from the International Society for Plant Pathology (ISPP). […]