AGH Vol. 29 No. 2 October 2017

Mawallok        Peter Watts
Approval for wind turbines affects the views from the terrace of historic Mawallok, Vic.
 
The poinciana: icon of a Queensland summer        Glenn R Cooke
The poinciana has made a considerable contribution to the tropical image of Queensland and to the development of tourism there. Its wide plantings have also given it a central place in the memories and imaginations of many Australians.
 
Searching for Saumarez        Liz Chappell
Establishing the Heritage Rose Garden at Saumarez homestead in Armidale kindled a greater interest in the origins of this property and its founders, the Dumaresq brothers, among members of AGHS in northern NSW. So the opportunity to visit the original Saumarez in the Channel Islands beckoned. But which one was it?
 
Convicts and cabbages        Julie Tolley
When the first English settlers arrived in South Australia, their highest priority was to grow produce for their own consumption. Evidence from official government documents, diaries, ship logs and newspapers shows that Kangaroo Island has a long history of productive gardens and small farms with a wide variety of fruit, flowers and vegetables, and also wine grapes grown by whalers and sealers, convicts and early colonists who arrived in the 1830s.
 
Traces of Sayce        Trevor Pitkin
‘Who is Mr Sayce? What are the particular qualities that recommended him to the notice of the Minister of Lands as a fitting person to superintend the ornamentation of the new Government Domain?’ So asks Melbourne’s Leader newspaper in July 1873 at the height of the angst over the development of said Domain. Not being a public figure, Joseph Sayce is still obscure in relation to the highly rated and documented landscapers of his day.
 
Willows and the Australian landscape        John Dwyer
Until 30 or 40 years ago no-one would have thought of willows as weeds. Many, especially the weeping willow (Salix babylonica), have been much cultivated in Australian gardens and landscapes since the settlement of New South Wales. Despite a centuries-old association with humans, they have come to be called weeds by some in modern Australia.
 
Stately spires: the capital’s arboreta        Matthew Higgins
Canberrans and visitors to the national capital could be forgiven for thinking the new National Arboretum is the only such enterprise ever established in the ACT. Decades before the National, there were other arboreta. While the new one has a high public profile, these others had a high‑altitude profile.
 
Remembering a Preston garden        Max Nankervis
The author remembers the Wilkinson house and garden in Cramer St, Preston, Vic, where he found employment as a 14 year old doing odd gardening jobs. And so began my lifelong interest – and by default, education – in gardens and gardening.
 
Scotland and Australian botany in the colonial era        Ben Wilkie
From the early encounters of Sydney Parkinson to the consolidation and growth of some of Australia’s finest botanical gardens, Scots were prominent in the world of early Australian botany.
 
Marginal landscape
Helen Armstrong’s book Marginal landscapes was published in 2016. Here, she discusses her motivation in writing about landscapes seldom noted.