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Many neighbourhood houses and local libraries offer ‘introduction to the web’ courses. A number of genealogical societies also run seminars on using the web for online genealogical research — a great introduction to online research. You can also try Wikipedia to search for terminology you’d like definitions for or discussions about (http://en.wikipedia.org). The ABC and the BBC also have useful explanations on their websites for growing your web savvy-ness and confidence (http://www.abc.net.au/technology/techexplained/ and http://www.bbc.co.uk/webwise/). Peeling off the floaties: Use the web to learn to use the web ! I have found great ideas for history researchers using Twitter, such as http:// blog.historians.org/resources/ 1 393/five-ways-for- historians-to-use-twitter. William J. Turkel’s blog, especially this lovely Going Digital post is also a favourite (http://williamjturl IP ■ I-.J •n I ihi (http://www.worldcat.org/) and the Hathi Trust (http://www.hathitrust.org/) provide an invaluable way of locating electronic copies of books across a range of publication hosts. There is a general misconception that when we talk about online information we are referring only to content in image form, whether it is a painting, photograph, manuscript, or published work. The reality is that only a small percentage of the world’s historic information is available as an image and that online sources are frequently limited to brief text-based records available through databases such as the Colonial Plants Database (http://www.hht.net.au/research/ coloniaLplants), indexes, online catalogues, and other finding aids. Neither should we forget that the most pertinent sources may not yet be listed online at all ! Accessing the local via the global Libraries within Australia are making some effort to scale up the digitisation of locally published historic texts, including works relating to the history of gardens. Titles such as The South Australian Vigneron and Gardeners’ Manual (1843) Flower Garden in Queensland (1875) readily available online though, perhaps tellingly, are not titles available through major sites such as Google Books or the Internet Archive. This is not to say that Australian publications do not appear on these international sites as one can access titles like The Sydney Magazine of Science and Art (1858—59), digitised from a Stanford University Library copy, and Gatalogue of Plants in the Royal Society’s Gardens, Queen’s Park, Hobart Town, Tasmania (1857) digitised from a copy belonging to the University of Chicago Library. It is clear, however, that if we relied solely on international institutions to digitise their copies of Australian works, the title choices would be arbitrary and the coverage incomplete. The recent announcement by the British Library that Google Books will scan 250,000 of the Library’s titles is welcome, but there is little expectation that this will include many Australian publications. One might hope, however, that more British publications about Australia or those known to have been consumed in Australia will be digitised and offer the opportunity for new ways of researching and understanding Australian garden history. Online access to historic Australian newspapers has already contributed to our knowledge of which British garden texts were being imported and sold in Australia, and many of these are now available electronically through international sites. Australian Garden History, 23 (2), October/November/December 2011 Maintaining an Australian voice I work for the Historic Houses Trust of New South Wales. One of the challenges for its Caroline Simpson Library & Research Collection (CSL&RC) in communicating garden history through its collection is to identify evidence of local activity and thought. This is a nuanced approach that is not always easy in the face of the abundance of printed mass communication of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. One cannot assume, for example, that all British publications made it to Australian shores or, if they did, had equal influence. The CSL&RC always looks for evidence of local use when acquiring early non-Australian titles: is it a copy that was used in Australia, is it listed in early Australian library catalogues, or is it mentioned in the local press of the time? Sometimes we will still purchase a title with little such evidence to provide a broader context to the works we know were used here. One might then ask whether there is a difference between a digitised copy of a book on Google Books from University of Michigan Library and a copy in the CSL&RC in Sydney. I would suggest that there can be. Take for example our copy of J.C. Loudon’s Encyclopaedia of Plants (1836) which was originally acquired in 1841 Annotated title page from J.C. Loudon, An Encyclopaedia of Plants, Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, Green and Longman, London, 1 836. Caroline Simpson Library & Research Collection, Historic Houses Trust of NSW William Wood & Son Limited, Recent Work, William Wood & Son,Taplow, Bucks., [September 1936]. This copy belonged to Eric Hammond, Edna Walling’s close associate and foremost garden builder Caroline Simpson Library & Research Collection, Historic Houses Trust of NSW Australian Garden History, 23 (2), October/November/December 2011 19 Searl & Sons, Pocket Garden Guide, June [1922], FromThrosby Park, Moss Vale. Caroline Simpson Library & Research Collection, Historic Houses Trust of NSW by Charles Sturt (1795 — 1869) while assistant commissioner of lands for South Australia, and then later owned by nurseryman, Elisha Hackett (c. 1826—1914), founder of a prominent South Australian nursery firm. We also note in our catalogue that this was advertised locally as a ‘popular and standard work’ and that an 1841 edition was owned by William Sharp Macleay at Elizabeth Bay House, Sydney. Understandably, this Australian context is completely absent from the volume digitised at Michigan and its accompanying record on Google Books. This is not to say that the Google Books copy is not of use as it is the only copy of this edition available online, but what if the Australian copy has been marked with the thoughts of its owners ? We have, for example. Governor George Grey’s copy of the Royal South Australia Almanack and Directory for 1840 in which Charles Sturt is Ownership annotation of Eric FHammond on his copy ofWilliam Wood & Son’s Recent Work (1935). Caroline Simpson Library & Research Collection, Historic Houses Trust of NSW listed as a government employee. Grey has left no comment next to Sturt’s name but notes his opinion of other employees, such as Keeper of the Park Eands, Nick Boys Ball Esq., who Grey rates as ‘useless’ ! The pages with these comments have been digitised and added to our catalogue record for this title. More recently we have acquired two English catalogues of garden ornament which had belonged to Edna Walling’s close associate and garden builder, Eric Hammond. These two catalogues. Liberty’s Garden Pottery (1910) and Recent Work by William Wood & Son Eimited (1935) provide an interesting context to the work of both Walling and Hammond. The Historic House Libraries Database Our interest in provenance and book history in Australia is now focussed on the development of the Historic House Eibraries Database. The libraries from a number of the houses under the care of the Historic Houses Trust are to be listed and the database will note copy-specific details such as ownership, bookseller and binder labels, and the existence of annotations. The first library to be added to the database consists of 500 titles recently acquired by the Historic Houses Trust as part of the transfer of Throsby Park, Moss Vale, from the National Parks and Wildlife Service. Included among a number of treasures is a series of monthly Pocket Garden Guides produced by Searl & Sons in 1922. Digitised copies of these rare little booklets have been attached to records in our catalogue and provide a possible clue to the source for plantings at Throsby Park in the early 1920s. The speed with which new resources have come online has been remarkable and Australia has led the world in connecting collections with its community. The sheer size of international digitisation programs such as Google Books, however, means that an Australian perspective on the many historic texts made available is likely to come from institutions on the ground interested in local contexts rather than the international players. Entering the garden of digital delights is sure to provide not only rich research rewards but immense pleasure as well, but it will take a concerted effort on the part of our institutions, local societies, and individuals to ensure it is a garden that we recognise as our own and not solely a vision of American and European interests. Matthew Stephens reference librarian at the Caroline Simpson Library & Research Collection, FHistoric FHouses Trust of New South Wales. 20 Australian Garden History, 23 (2), October/November/December 2011 Trevor Mottle Remembering Tim North Always known as ‘Tim’, David Arthur Guy North (1921— 2011) was born in London between the great world wars and died in Canberra ninety years later after a long, productive, and eventful life. He will be remembered fondly by many of those who knew him as a warm hearted, generous, encouraging, and thoughtful person who had a deep love of horticulture, writing, and gardening. Educated at Uppingham School, and at Cambridge, Tim stepped down to enlist aged 19 and made a career in the Army where he served as a Captain in Italy and Gibraltar during WWII. Promoted to Major after the war Tim saw active service in Palestine during ‘the troubles’ that accompanied the founding of Israel. After his retirement from the Army Tim settled in Norfolk and then Essex, growing bulbs and cut flowers, and beginning his long love affair with plants and gardening. During 1962 he began writing for Amateur Gardening. Arriving in Australia in 1965 he had recently decided, while still in the UK, on a career as a journalist who wrote about popular gardening and more seriously, horticulture. He made quite an impact, bringing with him as he did an historical perspective drawn from a heritage of English gardening, practical experience there, and a strong list of contacts with gardening journalists in that country. Tim had a strong entrepreneurial streak as a free-lance journalist writing for magazines ranging from Australian Horticulture (20 years), Australian House & Garden (23 years) to local newspapers. Marrying Keva, in 1979, the couple began a remarkable career as publishers of a gardening magazine called Garden Guttings which found a readership among passionate gardeners in Australia and beyond. Paired with this venture the couple also offered a range of garden tours within Australia and overseas in which Keva’s organisational skills perfectly matched Tim’s knowledge of gardens and gardeners. At first set up in a small office converted from a downstairs room at their home in Wiolhara, the business prospered and eventually shifted house when Keva and Tim moved to Bowral. Chris Webb, Wollemi pine, and Tim North (spade in hand), at Milton Park, Bowral, in 2006. Planted by the Southern Highlands Branch for the Society’s 25th anniversary celebrations, this memorial tree planting celebrates Tim’s contribution to the AGHS. Photo: Charlotte Webb Australian Garden History, 23 (2), October/November/December 2011 21 A founding member of the Australian Garden History Society Tim had definite and positive views about how such an organisation should operate and what its objectives should be. He put his convictions forward and argued his case with others equally committed to getting the AGHS firmly established as a vital and learned society. The discourse and engagement were, and remain, significant drivers in the formation and success of the Society. The balance of academic and populist appeal proved a challenge to negotiate and review, as it still does today. This is one of the great strengths which keeps the Society in the forefront of gardens as signatures of our cultural ambitions. Tim played a major role in developing and maintaining the dialogue between professional and amateur interests in the history of gardens in Australia. By happenstance Tim and Keva were able to offer the society their Garden Cuttings magazine as the vehicle to deliver the means of reaching a significant readership. This rose from around 300 in 1982 to 2750 in 1989 and included several hundred overseas subscribers. The magazine changed name at this time (1983), becoming Australian Garden Journal; ownership and editorial control remaining with the North’s but with significant input from the Society and its learned members. This mutually advantageous arrangement lasted until 1989 by which time the Society was sufficiently established financially to venture on its own publications and administration which continue to the present. During this period Tim was the Secretary of the AGHS. GARDEN DISCOVERIES Whether you are an avid horticulturist or simply love 'smelling the roses'. Sn Lanka: Gardens in Paradise COLOMBO - SOUTH COAST & GALLE * HIGHlArJOS & KANDY ■ SlGtfltYA Be f^EJOflNAftLI^A 17 adii - 1 Mciy vviUi Fions Ogilvj^ An exotic blend lush tropical ftora, beaches, wildlife^ nriDuntains and World Heritage Cwltural treasures. With visits to OQlanialj contemporary and botanical gandensp Japanese Gardt?ns in the Spring KAGOSHIMA * KUMAMOTO * HIRO^IMA • OKAYAMA p KYOTO 12 - 2 ^ Aprf 20 12 kvith Raben On tWs ‘off-tJie’beaten'lTgck' itinerary from Kyu&hu to Kyoto, discover the extraordinary history, design and art of Japanese gardens. Tim, ever thoughtful and organised, had decided that by his 75th birthday he would retire as a publisher and took steps to wind up his business career. Unable to find a buyer in a very difficult time for publishers the magazine was wound up in 1996. Passionate gardeners in Australia, who believed gardening was as much an art form and a science as it was a recreation, lost a national mainstay for their convictions. The Horticultural Media Association of Australia honoured Tim’s contribution to the industry in 2002 by awarding him the ‘Silver Laurel Hall of Fame’ award for his longstanding contribution to communicating and encouraging a love of gardening to the public. Trevor Nottle describes himself as a friend and a beneficiary ofTim’s guidance and encouragement. He wishes to acknowledge John Stowaij Chris and Charlotte Webb, Keva North, and the National Library of Australia for their assistance in preparing this tribute. Provence, Cote d'Azur and Lake Como AIX • JUAN-LEB-PINS * MEtITOH * LAKE COMO 13-28 April 2012 Julie Kinney Discover a stunning array of villas and chateaux, private homes and rOyal residences^ gardens and parks, and enjoy superb regional cuisine. R Renaissance Tours For detailed inform a cion call l300 727 095 or visit www.renaissanceCour 5 .co 1 n.au 22 Australian Garden History, 23 (2), October/November/December 2011 Netscape: www.nearmap.com It is not normally our custom to review commercial websites in Netscape but for the exchange of a trifling amount of personal detail it is not hard to play Faust to NearMap’s Mephistopheles. The advent, development, and refinement of digital photography — which has moved with remarkable pace in such a short space of time — has enabled companies such as Perth-based NearMap to produce aerial photographs of stunning resolution and speed. Many readers will be familiar with Google Earth (discussed elsewhere in this issue by Abigail Belfrage), with its ability to zoom photographically and topographically into far corners of the earth, NearMap does this for many parts of Australia with stunning clarity. Such digital photography is entirely compatible with web-based platforms, giving great flexibility in end point use. But first to the commercial transaction. NearMap operates principally on license fees derived from large-scale corporate and institutional users. It is highly likely that a local or state government body near you is using the company’s services to track illegal vegetation clearance, unauthorised building activity, or monitor progress on a major infrastructure project. At the other end of the scale, registration of some basic details permits almost unlimited personal use. For uses in between, the company’s website lists numerous categories and appropriate licensing conditions. Unlike traditional aerial photography, which for many decades has relied on film-based photographs, this service is powered by digital imagery, seemingly flown at relatively low levels. This has many advantages. Firstly, by keying the imagery into digital coordinates, it is possible to ‘toggle’ (or switch) between photography of different dates with chilling exactitude. It is not hard to see why corporate and institutional users would appreciate this form of surveillance. Secondly the digital imagery is far quicker to upload than film-based products, and so ‘runs’ are able to be processed within a relatively short time — aerial images of the recent Brisbane floods, for instance, were posted within days of the main peak being recorded. And thirdly, the clarity of the imagery is quite breathtaking. At each stage, it is possible to switch a mapping layer on or off at will, and to zoom in or out for a wider or closer view as the need arises. For garden historians — and for those interested in rural landscapes, town and regional planning, urban infrastructure, geography, and a host of other disciplines — this service will be of immense value. Although NearMap has only been in operation for several years, already the amount of product is impressive. Coverage of the Australian continent, or at least its most populous parts, is very good; somewhat less so in some remote areas. For sketching site plans, analysing tree cover, discerning path layouts, checking for evidence of old property and other physical boundaries, appreciating vegetation between years of drought and plenty — all these and more are easily achieved. Try for yourself and look for your own home or garden — you’ll possibly be quite shocked at the results and perhaps better informed when debate around the dinner table turns to electronic surveillance and the digital revolution. Richard Aitken Harvested paddocks on the Thunder Plains north of Bendigo, Vic., captured by NearMap in January 20 1 0, towards the end of a long drought. Australian Garden History, 23 (2), October/November/December 2011 23 For the bookshelf Land, survey, and title These three books form a curious yet interlinked grouping and are perhaps best approached in reverse order — title, survey, and land. Coming to Terms charts the most contentious territory of the three. Eight authors offer different perspectives of Aboriginal Title in South Australia, after prefatory remarks by three Aboriginal Elders writing of ‘unfinished business’ and a foreword by Australian lawyer Geoffrey Robertson, who introduces the crucial evidence contained in SA’s 1836 Eetters Patent that nothing contained therein ‘shall affect or be construed to affect the rights of any Aboriginal Natives of the said Province to the actual occupation or enjoyment in their own Persons or in the Persons of their Descendents of any Eand therein now actually occupied or enjoyed by such Natives’. Although often couched in legal language. Coming to Terms can be easily followed by the non-legal reader keen to learn more of the struggle for recognition of Native Title. Throughout the text, and in several long appendices, considerable historical background is covered, essential for anyone wishing to gain a nuanced understanding of colonial land settlement and reconciliation with Australia’s Aboriginal peoples. esssential for anyone wishing to gain a nuanced understanding of colonial land settlement Eor colonial surveyors, the business of colonial land settlement and reconciliation was a first-hand experience, and in his biography of E rederick D’Arcy, Andy Macqueen deals at length with the first, but is at pains to state that his subject left very little by way of record of his dealings with Aboriginal people. Working under Surveyor- General Mitchell in New South Wales from the late 1820s, D’Arcy was alternately in field and office, surveying and charting inhospitable terrain north and northwest of Sydney and later at Port Phillip. In 1838 D’Arcy left for Van Diemen’s Eand under something of a cloud, circumstances that tell much about early colonial surveying and its diverse participating cast. Our protagonist fared little better as a contract surveyor and was back in Sydney by 1844, then in Queensland by 1859. Although a descendent, Macqueen casts his subject in a broad context. He also gives special note to D’Arcy’s artistic tendencies, a common attribute amongst colonial surveyors. Beautifully produced, the author and publisher deserve our thanks for adding to the stock of knowledge about the processes and personalities of colonial land surveying. The Lands Guide is a very different mode of publication, intended as a working guide to records of Crown land held by the Public Record Office Victoria. Abbreviated in style, yet comprehensive in scope, this is an indispensable aid to anyone contemplating research into the colonial Victorian landscape and one for which the painstaking authors deserve generous praise. Setting the scene is Bendigo-based historian Charles Eahey’s essay- length introduction entitled ‘Unlocking the Eand’. There follows a massively detailed listing and guide to the myriad records which governed Crown land disposal in Victoria. Although specific to one colony/ state, this guide will be read with interest more widely for the wealth of questions it asks and answers about the mechanisms of land survey, sale, occupation, and disposal. So often we consider garden history in terms of the end product and its reception, yet as these three books suggest, a multitude of influences and attitudes have already shaped the designed landscape before it has even been gardened. In particular, links between colonial land surveying and garden design seem alive with promise for the dedicated researcher. Richard Aitken Shaun Berg (ed.), Coming to Terms: Aboriginal Title in South Australia, Wakefield Press, Kent Town, SA, 20 1 0 (ISBN 978 1 86254867 1 ): 592 pp, paperback, RRP $39.95 Andy Macqueen, Frederick Robert D’Arcy: colonial surveyor, explorer and artist, c. 1 809- 1875, The Author, Wentworth Falls, NSW, 20 10 (ISBN 9780646533599): 272 pp, hardback, RRP $45 (available post free from the author at andymacqueen@gmail.com or PO Box 204, Wentworth Falls, NSW, 2782) Phillippa Nelson & Lesley Alves, Lands Guide: a guide to fnding records of Crown land at Public Record Office Victoria, Public Record Office Victoria in association with Gould Genealogy and History, Melbourne, 2009 (ISBN 9780975 1 96877): 432 pp, paperback, RRP $49.95 (also available in cd-rom and PDF formats via www.gould.com.au) Australian Garden History, 23 (2), October/November/December 2011 Patricia Sumerling, The Adelaide Park Lands: a social h/story, Wakefield Press, Adelaide, 201 I (ISBN 9781862549142): 304 pp, hardback, RRP $49.95 Arguably the Park Lands that surround the city of Adelaide are its greatest asset and have a long history of being the centre for numerous community activities from raucous Formula One car races to sedate croquet matches, as well as for private assignations and more scandalous and nefarious behaviour. Patricia Sumerling delivers a detailed text rich in facts, discoveries, and things we have almost collectively forgotten such as public executions and traditional Indigenous gatherings. As an historian of long-standing with a special interest in Adelaide she has amassed an impressive array of documentation and images about the life of the city dating from 1837 when William Light decided on the site and layout of the city, up to the present. Sumerling has organised her material under categorical headings such as ‘Major events’, ‘The dark under-belly’ and ‘Cows only’ within a two-part framework of public use, and planning and design. The book is well illustrated with many evocative and significant images. A very readable style makes the book accessible to a wide readership and the extensive scholarly indices and notes provide a comprehensive resource for researchers. Trevor Nottle Therese O’Malley, Keywords in American Landscape Design, Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts, National Gallery of Art, in association with Yale University Press, New Haven, CT, & London, 2010 (ISBN 9780300101744): 736 pp, hardback, RRP US$125 In this magisterial work, the author and her considerable team of contributors, researchers, and advisors, examine in detail 100 words or terms found in American garden making from the 17th to the mid- 19th centuries. Useful essays tantilise the reader before coming to the alphabetical presentation of each keyword, summarised in brief prose and supported by historical images, examples of contemporary usage, and citations from contemporary gardening texts. Despite its considerable usefulness, seven pages per term seems excessive — even by American standards — and two pages each for three hundred or more keywords might have provided greater richness. The repetition of the same image in multiple places within the book also detracts rather than enhances, and suggests that such an ambitious work might have been better served by a website, with the considerable funding lavished on this tome devoted to a truly comprehensive history of American gardening. Despite these small misgivings. Keywords in American Landscape Design remains a towering achievement. Richard Aitken Zachary J.S. Faick, Weeds: an environmental history of metropolitan America, University of Pittsburg Press, Pittsburgh, PA, 2010 (ISBN 9780822944058): 280 pp, hardback, RRP US$40 Weeds and cities go together. Human habitations have always been accompanied by plants growing spontaneously on rubbish heaps, waste places, abandoned sites, vacant land, and roadsides. As a class they are called ruderals, from the Latin rudus, ‘broken stone, rubbish, debris’. The expression includes plants volunteering on walls, pavements, drains, and gutters in urban ecologies. He has striven to avoid the bias involved in calling plants ^ weeds] preferring the rather awkward expression happenstance plants^ The author of this interesting study gives a novel perspective of the environmental history of American cities by attending to plants that have volunteered in and around them and the responses of writers and municipal authorities to such plants. He has striven to avoid the bias involved in calling plants ‘weeds’, preferring the rather awkward expression ‘happenstance plants’. He seeks to use ‘weed’ only when reporting the words or attitudes of others. The war on weeds in American cities has been characterised by extravagant language used to demonise unwanted plants and the large scale use of herbicides, including the now notorious 2,4-D. Falck’s fascinating, detailed case studies of court proceedings to compel residents to remove ‘weeds’ from their land remind us that the land of the free has been remarkably authoritarian in its pursuit of the ubiquitous American lawn. The book demonstrates that plant volunteers, whether introduced or indigenous, may make a valuable contribution to urban ecologies. John Dwyer John Dwyer is National Chair of the Australian Garden History Society. His doctoral thesis was entitled Weeds in Victorian landscapes’. Australian Garden History, 23 (2), October/November/December 2011 25 Tasmania's historic homes, the people who built them, and those who live in them now, are the subject of Alice Bennet and Georgia Warner’s evocatively illustrated new book Living in history, published by Allen and Unwin. 26 Recent releases Catherine de Bourgoing et al,Jardins Romantiques Frangais: du jardin des Lumi res au pare romantique 1770-1840, Mus e de la Vie Romantique, Paris, 201 I (ISBN 978275960 1 592): 208pp, hardback, RRP €30 Published as the aecompanying book to an exeellent exhibition at the Museum of Romantie Life in Paris (worth a visit for the tea garden alone!), this beautifully produced book covers a period of intense interest for the history of early colonial gardening in Australia. Although others such as Wiebenson and Hunt have given broader accounts, this jewel-like book glistens with detail. Alex S. George, Australian Botanist’s Companion, Four Gables Press, Kardinya,WA, 2009 (ISBN 97809580341 I I): 672 pp, hardback, RRP $77 (available from the author at a.george@ murdoch.edu.au or 18 Barclay Road, Kardinya, WA, 6163 — postage and packing within Australia $ 1 3; overseas at cost) Companions such as this are indispensable research tools, and in the editorial hands of such a meticulous botanist and environmental scholar as Alex George the product is first class. Adopting a thematic rather than alphabetical marshalling of information, garden historians will be delighted to see extensive biographical notes on many colonial plant collectors, gardeners, and horticulturists as well as a host of other facts and background information essential for researching and writing on Australian garden history. Highly recommended. Philip Goad & Julie Willis (eds). The Encyclopaedia of Australian Architecture, Cambridge University Press, Port Melbourne, 2012 (ISBN 978052 1 888578): 832 pp, hardback, RRP $ 1 50 Alphabetically arranged, biographical and thematic in content, generous in its chronological coverage (especially of the last five decades), and truly national in scope, this book is significant for Australian garden historians not so much for the factual information it contains — which is substantial — as for its potential in future research into modernist and post-modernist designed landscapes and their creators. Stephen J. Pyne, Voice and Vision: a guide to writing history and other serious nonfiction. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, and London, England, 20 1 I (ISBN 9780674060425): 326 pp, paperback, RRP $USI9.95 Pyne’s Australian fire history Burning Bush (1991) is one of many works he has published on fire histories of countries which share our high bushfire risk. In Voice and Vision Pyne guides prospective authors through the processes of writing such histories, with illuminating, enjoyable, and often virtuosic prose. This will be read with interest by aspiring researchers wishing to translate their analysis and ideas into engaging text. Curiously, images are treated as incidental rather than intrinsic to Pyne’s methodology, a small lapse amid great inventiveness. Australian Garden History, 23 (2), October/November/December 2011 Kevin Taylor (1953-2011) The funeral of Kevin Taylor, tragically killed in a road in the Northern Territory, was held in Adelaide Town Hall on 1 8 August. Recognised for his outstanding contribution to Australian landscape architecture — innovative, responsive, and culturally sensitive — the legacy of his collaborative work, and that of his practice Taylor Cullity Lethlean, will continue to inspire. Also killed in the same accident were Greg McNamara and Lena Yali, the two Darwin-based directors of Troppo Architects, in all a shocking loss to the world of Australian environmental design. Bernard Smith (1 91 6-201 1 ) The grand old man of Australian art history has died in Melbourne aged 94. Best known for his books Place, Taste, and Tradition (1945) and European Vision and the South Pacific (i960), Bernard Smith’s pioneering analysis linked art and ideas, assimilating European perspectives with Australasian landscapes. The Old Mole and Australia's new gardening museum At the recent AGHS Maryborough conference Richard Bird and Lynne Walker, custodians of a superb collection of antique, old, and quality garden tools, announced that they will be closing their business known as The Old Mole at the end of 2011. They have donated the tool collection to Garrick Hill Historic House and Garden in Adelaide where it will be the centrepiece of a new gardening museum. The gift includes trade catalogues and other garden-related ephemera. Richard writes: ‘We have enjoyed our 14 years building up the collection, looking for and finding artisans to create some of the items we sell and locating suppliers and manufacturers of the best quality implements we could source whilst doing our best to promote and use local crafts people. We have travelled widely and visited or attended many shows, fairs and conferences and have been able to visit many glorious gardens. We have enjoyed ourselves immensely, have learned a lot, and made many new friends and hopefully have been able to make many aware of the importance of preserving our heritage.’ The gardening museum will allow for the display, study, and teaching of Australian garden history. In thanking AGHS members for their support, Richard adds: ‘Lynne and I are obviously very excited that the collection is to be part of this project. Richard Heathcote at Garrick Hill is taking on an interesting and challenging venture with the setting up of a Gardening Museum Trust. To enable the collection to be housed, maintained and expanded we hope that you will be able to assist by donating either cash or any interesting historic gardening items. The Museum will be a first for Australia’. OldMoleTools@bigpond.com Australasian gardens and landscapes Lrom New Zealand, James Beattie sends a copy of the April— June 2011 issue of Studies in the History of Gardens & Designed Landscapes, a special number entitled ‘Australasian Gardens and Landscapes’ which he has guest edited with Katie Holmes of La Trobe University. The guest editors open with reflections on the journal’s theme, presenting a reading of Australasian garden history, then eight contributors range across wide terrain from Aboriginal landscapes, farming landscapes, use of Australian plants, to transplantation of ideas (particularly from Asia). http://www.tandf.co.ul