Australian garden history : journal of the Australian Garden History Society

X” 1 Australian 1 October/November/December 2012

Uarden

HISTORY

Cover: Dryandra tenuifolia (now
Banksia tenuis) from the Capturing
Flora exhibition at the Art
Gallery of Ballarat (see page 28),
hand-coloured engraving from
Curtis’s Botanical Magazine,
Vol. 63, August 1836,
plate 35 1 3 (detail).
Art Gallery of Ballarat (purchased with
funds from the Joe White Bequest, 20 1 2)

Right: Looking out from the garden
of Dalvui, designed by William
Guilfoyle in 1 9 1 0 for the Palmer
family ofTerang, in Victoria's
Western District: detail from a
suite of images by photographer
Simon Griffiths recently donated by
the AGHS Victorian Branch to the
State Library ofVictoria in memory
of the late Suzanne Hunt
(see page 29).
State Library ofVictoria

AUSTRALIAN

GARDEN

HISTOBY

Patron

Sue Ebury - Countess ofWilton

Executive Officer

Phoebe LaGerche-Wijsnnan

Publication

Australian Garden History, the
official journal of the Australian
Garden History Society,
is published quarterly

Editors

Christina Dyson
Richard Aitken

editor@gardenhistorysociety.org.au
8 Eastern Place, Hawthorn East,
Victoria, 3 1 23

Enquiries

TollFree I 800 678 446
Phone 03 9650 5043
Fax 03 9650 8470

Email

info@gardenhistorysociety.org.au

Website

vwww.gardenhistorysociety.org.au

Postal Address

AGHS, Gate Lodge
1 00 Birdwood Avenue
Melbourne Victoria 3004

ISSN 1033-3673

Subscriptions (GST
INCLUSIVE)

For I year

Single $67

Family $92

Corporate $2 1 5
Youth $22

(UNDER 25 YEARS OF AGE)
Non-profit organisations $92

Advertising Rates

1/8 page $ I 32
(2-1- issues $ 1 2 1 each)

1/4 page $220
(2-1- issues $ 1 98 each)

1 12 page $330
(2+ issues $275 each)

Full page $550
(2+ issues $495 each)

Inserts $440

for Australia-wide mailing

Pro-rata for state-wide mailing

Editorial Advisory Committee

CONVENOR
Christine Reid

MEMBERS
Glenn Cooke
Timothy Hubbard
Colleen Morris
Prue Slatyer
John Viska

NATIONAL MANAGEMENT

John Dwyer (Chairman)

John Taylor (Vice Chairman)
Lynne Walker (Secretary)
Kathy Wright (Treasurer)

Elected Members

Ray Choate
John Dwyer
Trisha Burkitt
Stuart Read
Jan Schapper
John Viska
Lynne Walker
Kathy Wright

State Representatives

ACT Nancy Clarke
NSW Laurel Cheetham
QLD John Taylor
SA Richard Nolan
WA Caroline Grant
VIG Pamela jellie
TAS Mike Evans

BRANCH CONTACTS

ACT /Monaro/Riverina

Dr Louise Moran
44 Wilson Street
Curtin ACT 2605
Phone: (02) 628 I 2493

Queensland

John Taylor
I I joynt St
Hamilton QLD 4007
Phone: 07 3862 4284
jht@hotkey.net.au

COMMITTEE
South Australia

Ray Choate
Barr Smith Library
University of Adelaide
Adelaide SA 5005
Phone: 08 8303 4064
ray.choate@adelaide.edu.au

Southern Highlands

Laurel Cheetham
28 Charlotte Street
Burradoo NSW 2576
Phone: 02 486 1 7132
l.cheetham@bigpond.com

Sydney & Northern NSW

Stuart Read

Phone: 02 9326 9468

Stuart 1 962@bigpond.com

Tasmania

Elizabeth Kerry

PO Box 89, Richmond TAS 7025
Phone: (03) 6260 4216
liz.kerry@keypoint.com.au

Victoria

Dr Anne Vale

PO Box 7, Koonwarra VIC 3954
Phone: 03 5664 3104
heriscapes@optusnet.com.au

Western Australia

Caroline Grant
9 A Grange Street
Claremont WA 60 1 0
chhgrant@yahoo.com

Disclaimer

The views expressed in this journal are those of the contributors and
are not necessarily shared by the Australian Garden History Society.

2

Australian Garden History, 24 (2), October/November/December 2012

Contents

Mike Evans

August in Vanuatu, a week away
from chilly Tasmania: warm
but not hot, and wet from unremitting rain. Disappointed — no — delighted.
Reading on the veranda of a coral-walled fale with palm-thatched roof and
alfresco shower (hot water, cool rain, very refreshing) and surrounded by tropical
verdure. Memories flood back of years spent in Micronesia, island-hopping to
collect plant specimens for a Flora of Micronesia; intense blue sea and sky, hot
coral sand, tiny islands forming huge atolls, drift seeds, WW2 relics, delightful
people leading simple lives.

In one sense our memories are our past and the future is just more memories
in the making. For plant-lovers (that must include all members of our Society)
many of our best memories linger in the gardens and landscapes that surround
us every day. It is quite clear that our members love to visit gardens, other
peoples gardens — to see what they grow, where, how they succeed, and then to
go back home for another look at their own patch with renewed determination
to change something. And the delight of gardens and plants is that you can
indeed make changes with as much or as little effort as is needed.

A love of plants seems to go hand in hand with curiosity, from the most basic
question ‘what is it.^’ to ‘where is it from.^’, ‘how did it get here.^’, on and
on. The search might be for basic information about cultivation to the most
in-depth scientific queries about taxonomy or genetics. Last year’s Victorian
Branch seminar at The University of Melbourne was essentially an enjoyable
treatise on taxonomy — it was fascinating and the large audience was enraptured
by a series of knowledgeable speakers.

A couple of years ago the Tasmanian Branch spent a day at Port Arthur looking
at the beautiful grounds, the re-created Government Gardens, the Memorial
Garden, and the surrounding bush land. What was evident is that the bones of
the historic site are the buildings — old and not so old — that have been salvaged,
stabilised, and restored to provide a picture of a short moment in Tasmania’s
history. Their conservation is ongoing and its aim is to preserve the picture. The
flesh of the site is what surrounds the buildings — the gardens, the trees, the hills,
and the bay with its own vegetation. These are in a constant state of change:
the house gardens manicured, renewed to provide a picturesque setting for the
buildings, new features added as information comes to light (the arched pergola
at the foot of the Government Garden), and other features reaching maturity
then over-maturity like the 1918 Soldiers’ Memorial Avenue — no new stone
walls there, perhaps a young avenue to grow for the next hundred years.

In every one of our members there is a wealth of experience. Our Society’s
committees are just groups of people who want to help members to share those
experiences. Please help them by sharing yours.

Netscape: Australian Plant
Name Index

4

Garden plants and
wildflowers in Hamlet
JOHN DWYER

5

The French Garden at
La Perouse
IVAN BARKO
9

The rural garden at
Oakhampton: a century in
the making
LESLEY GARRETT
11

World War Two: the
Commonwealth Vegetable
Seeds Committee
MEGAN MARTIN
15

A slide odyssey: the Noel
Lothian collection
ED MCALISTER
19

Heart and mind: linking
gardens, plants, and history
JOHN VISKA
22

For the bookshelf

25

Recent releases

27

Dialogue

28

AGHS News

29

A parting gift
JACKIE COURMADIAS

30

Profile: Phoebe LaGerche-
Wijsman

32

Diary dates

33

In praise of working bees
FRAN PAUL & MALCOLM PAUL
35

Australian Garden History, 24 (2), October/November/December 2012

3

Netscape: Australian Plant Name Index

www.cpbr.gov.au/anpi/

Plants are one of the basic ingredients of garden
history and yet they bedevil the researcher by
the very complexity of their nomenclature.
Modern plant naming harks back to 1753 with
the publication of Species Plantarum of Swedish
botanist Carl Linnaeus, wherein genera and
species were first set out in the currently accepted
binomial or two-part form.

There are many reference tools to assist the
botanist and garden history researcher, but
covering all the ground is an insurmountable task
for any one person. Even for Australian plants
alone, there are numerous books, journals, and
websites that could and should be consulted if
accurate naming is to be undertaken. But websites
seem by their flexibility of input and linkage,
supremely well placed to keep up with name
changes and other revisions.

Organisation. Nancy Burbidge had trained at the
University of Western Australia (BSc 1937, MSc
1945, and DSc 1961) with stints at the Royal
Botanic Gardens Kew, the Waite Agricultural
Research Institute, and from 1946—73, the CSIRO.

Upon her appointment in 1973 as Director of the
Flora of Australia project. Dr Burbidge initiated
the compilation of plant name lists from literature
in herbaria and botanical libraries around the
world. Arthur Chapman of the Australian
Biological Resources Study compiled the list
over a fifteen-year period, published in 1991 as a
4-volume Australian Plant Name Index treating
over 60,000 names. The underlying database was
transferred to the Australian National Botanic
Gardens in 1991 as its foundation dataset, and
subsequently became an Internet resource hosted
for public benefit.

Botanist Nancy Burbidge
in the field with
traditional tools of trade.

Courtesy CSIRO Archives
(Image 710.0074)

In short, there needs to be a concise, up-to-
date, and easily accessible point of reference.

One Australian botanist who inspired action was
Dr Nancy Burbidge, formerly Senior Principal
Research Scientist at the Division of Plant Industry,
Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research

APNI is easy to navigate and has the added
benefit for historians of the understanding it can
bring to plant exploration, botanical literature,
and garden history. We can trace the earliest
publication of Australian plant names in the
eighteenth century, witness the rise of interest
by gardeners outside Australia in ‘New Holland
exotics’, and appreciate the rapid spread of
botanical journals in the late eighteenth and
early nineteenth centuries. Just as easily we can
follow recent debates about renaming, explore
plant name synonyms, and search for Australian
cultivars. Coupled with the Biodiversity Heritage
Uibrary (see our Netscape on BHL in AGH,

21 (4), 2010), which has digitised copies of many
of the botanical publications cited, this pair of
websites forms a remarkably powerful tool for
Australian garden historians.

Nancy Tyson Burbidge died in Canberra on 4
March 1977. She had been born in Yorkshire,
England, on 5 August 1912, and throughout
her life enjoyed pursuits of kindred interest to
systematic botany. She was a founding member
of the National Parks Association of the ACT,
was prominent in lobbying for the Tidbinbilla
Nature Reserve and Namadgi National Park,
and an expert of Australian grasses. She died in
an analogue age on the cusp of a momentous
digital revolution, and surely would weep with joy
could she have seen the fruits of her inspiration so
widely and generously disseminated.

Richard Aitken

4

Australian Garden History, 24 (2), October/November/December 2012

John Dwyer

Garden plants and wddflowers
in Hamlet

Shakespeare’s plays are grounded in a world of
plants. More than one hundred species of wild
plants are referred to in his writings. The English
writer Frederick Savage discussed hundreds of
plants referred to by Shakespeare in a series of
articles in the Stratford-upon-Avon Herald in the
early years of the twentieth century, republished
in book form as The Flora and Folk Lore of
Shakespeare (1923). Savage brought to bear his close
acquaintance with Warwickshire ways and farming
practices in his analysis of Shakespeare’s flora.

In addition to literal usages in which the plants
form part of Shakespeare’s scenery, as it were,
the imagined world which he invites us to enter,
there are many uses of plant imagery to add
resonance to a point, or embellish a phrase. The

references would have been readily understood by
his Elizabethan audiences, but need a little more
explanation to an Australian audience today. At
the same time, many of the plants have become
established in the countries colonised by the
English, so that they are familiar to audiences here
and in many countries.

There are two memorable passages in
Shakespeare’s Hamlet in which garden plants
and wildflowers have an important role. Both
concern the tragic figure Ophelia, wooed and then
abandoned by Hamlet. The following lines are
taken from the scene in which it is made apparent
that Ophelia’s mind has been overcome with grief
at her father Polonius’ violent death and the loss of
Hamlet as a husband:

John Everett Millais’s
mid-nineteenth century
painting shows in
glorious detail plants
referred to by Ophelia
in Shakespeare’s
Hamlet. Many of these
are familiar ’volunteer’
plants in Australia today
yet the multi-layered
meanings they carried
for an Elizabethan
audience are perhaps
less well known.

John Everett Millais
(1 829- 1 896), ‘Ophelia’,
oil on canvas, 1 85 1-52.

©Tate, London 2012

Australian Garden History, 24 (2), October/November/December 2012

5

Ophelia There's rosemary, that's for

remembrance; pray, love, remember:
and there is pansies, that's for
thoughts.

Laertes A document in madness, thoughts
and remembrance fitted

Ophelia There's fennel for you, and

columbines; there's rue for you;
and here's some for me; we may
call it herb of grace o'Sundays. O!
you must wear your rue with a
difference. There's a daisy; I would
give you some violets, but they
withered all when my father died. . .

(Hamlet Act IV Scene V)

The plants referred to by Ophelia are a mixture
of those we recognise as culinary herbs, rosemary
(Rosmarinus officinalis L.), rue (Ruta graveolens L.),
fennel (Foeniculum vulgare Gaert.), and those
which occur in both the wild and in gardens:
columbines (Aquilegia vulgaris L.), pansies
(Viola tricolor L.), daisy (Beilis perennis L.), and
violets (Viola odorata L.). Some had well-known
associations, as Shakespeare reminds us. These
symbolic associations may be less well-known
today, so it is worth setting them out.

The plants referred to by Ophelia are a mixture of
those we recognise as culinary herbs ... and those
which occur in both the wild and in gardens

Sir Thomas More described rosemary as ‘sacred
to remembrance’. Pansies, one of the oldest
favourites in the English garden, have a common
name derived from the French pensees (thoughts),
and other eommon names, such as heartsease
and love-in-idleness which refer to the petals
imagined as two faces kissing. Rue, a perennial
evergreen shrub with bitter strong-scented leaves,
is one of the oldest garden plants in England. It
was cultivated for its use medicinally, having,
together with other herbs been introduced by the
Romans. Grieve ’s A Modern Herbal explained
that it was used to sprinkle holy water at High
Mass on Sundays, henee the name ‘herb of grace
o’Sundays’. Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and
Fable (1895) confirms this use and says that rue was
symbolie of penitence, noting that ‘to rue’ means
to be sorry. Hence the expression ‘rue the day’.
Fennel was also emblematic of sorrow, as shown by
the old English proverb ‘They that sow fennel sow
sorrow’. The Elizabethans saw columbines as an
emblem of worthlessness according to Savage, who
quotes the couplet in Chapman’s Comedy of All
Fools (1605):

What's that? A columbine?

No! that thankless flower grows not in my
garden.

Grieve also tells us that ‘Violets, like Primroses,
have been associated with death, especially with
the death of the young.’

We are aceustomed to finding multiple layers of
meaning in Shakespeare, but modern readers
may not realise that most of the plants mentioned
by Ophelia were widely known and used in
Elizabethan England to induce abortions and
control fertility. Eucille Newman, in a paper
published in Economic Botany (1979), has
suggested that Ophelia’s references to these
herbs and flowers should be read as ‘a shocking
enumeration of well-known abortifacients
and emmenagogues’ which would have been
recognised as sueh by Elizabethan audiences.

(An emmenagogue is a drug or agent that
inereases menstrual flow.) Newman refers to the
two-thousand-year tradition of plants used for
fertility regulation, including the common herbs
rosemary, fennel, rue, pansies, and violets. She
gives examples from sixteenth-century herbals
where it was said of rosemary, that it ‘bringeth
down women’s fleurs’; fennel, ‘it provoketh
flowers’; rue, ‘it driveth down floures but it killeth
the bryth’ ; and violet, ‘Seede thereof casteth
out conception of women’. Of pansy, as John
Gerard (1545—1612) wrote in The Herball or
Generali Historic of Plantes (usually referred to
as Gerard’s Herbal), its ‘tough and slimie juice’
was used against the pox (syphilis). The dramatic
point in Hamlet could have been to reinforee the
fact that Ophelia had lost her innoeenee, or that
her references to plants with sexual associations
demonstrated her madness.

The second reference to me, ‘O! You must wear your
me with a difference’ has many possible meanings.

It could be a (punning) reference to repentance
or regret; but difference refers both to the heraldic
meaning of marks of cadency and to a different
medicinal use of the herb me, to reduce male potency
or desire. As Gerard put it, ‘The leaves of Rue beaten
and dmnke with wine, are an antidote or medicine
against passion as Plinie teacheth . . . Rue used very
often whether in meate or drinke, quencheth and
drieth up the natural seed of generation.’ In the
sexually charged atmosphere of the Court of King
Claudius, Ophelia could be taken as suggesting to the
King that he should use ‘the chaste herb’, as it was
called. Savage puts forward the other interpretation,
having Ophelia addressing Queen Gertrude, and

6

Australian Garden History, 24 (2), October/November/December 2012

pointing ‘to the Queen’s unchaste action in so quickly
returning to the wedded state.’ Difference he said is a
heraldic term for an addition to, or change in, a coat
of arms. This is confirmed by Brewer who explains
that Ophelia would wear me as the affianced of
Hamlet, son of the late King, and the Queen ‘with
a difference’ as the wife of Claudius his brother and
the cadet branch. Shakespeare and his contemporary
audiences delighted in such ambiguities and
implications.

The second passage is Queen Gertrude’s account
of Ophelia’s death;

There is a willow grows aslant a brook,

That shows his hoar leaves in the glassy stream;
There with fantastic garlands did she come,

Of crow-flowers, nettles daisies, and long
purples.

That liberal shepherds give a grosser name.

But our cold maids do dead men's fingers
call them:

There on the pendent boughs her coronet
weeds

Clambering to hang, an envious sliver broke.
When down her weedy trophies and herself
Fell in the weeping brook. Her clothes
spread wide.

And, mermaid-like, awhile they bore her up;
Which time she chanted snatches of old tunes.

As one incapable of her own distress.

(Hamlet Act IV Scene VII)

What plants are the ‘coronet weeds’ here referred
to? Some have thought ‘Crow-flowers’ to be
Crow-foots, Rannunculus spp. of the Buttercup
family. The Oxford English Dictionary gives the
meaning ‘a popular name for the buttercup’ with
a reference to this quotation. But Savage presents
a strong argument, based on Gerard's Herball that
it is a mistake to take ‘Crow-flowers’ as referring to
‘Crow-foots’, and that the intended reference was to
Ragged Robin (Lychnis flos-cuculi L.). Gerard wrote
of ‘Crow-flowers’ being used to make garlands:

‘they serve for garlands and crowns and to deck up
the garden.’ Nettles (Urtica spp.) and daisies (Beilis
perennis L.) are straight-forward enough, as plants
widely distributed in England in Shakespeare’s day
(and in Australia today for that matter).

But what are the ‘long purples?’ Some sources,
such as the Oxford English Dictionary give Purple
Loosestrife (Lythrum salicaria) as the plant referred
to. The eminent English writer Richard Mabey
adopts this view:

Purple loosestrife is one of Britain's most
beautiful flowers. John Everett Millais painted
its magenta sprays on the riverbank in his
picture of the drowning Ophelia.

We should accept that this was the plant Millais
depicted. But, despite its beauty, it was not,

I think, the plant Shakespeare had in mind. To
understand the text we must give meaning to the
lines that follow.

That liberal shepherds give a grosser name.

But our cold maids do dead men's fingers

call them:

The Glossary to my Oxford University Press
edition of Shakespeare’s works gives for ‘long
purples’: ‘the purple orchis. Orchis masculah The
usual common name today is Early Purple Orchid.
The ‘grosser name’ may be ‘Dogs Stones’, from
the testicle-like tubers. Orchis is the Greek word
for testicle, (hence ‘orchitis’ for inflammation
of the testicles, ‘orchidectomy’ for castration).
Nicholas Culpeper wrote in The Complete Herbal
(1653) of Orchis: ‘It has almost as many several
names attributed to the several sorts of it, as
would almost fill a sheet of paper; as dog-stones,
goat-stones, fool-stones, fox-stones, satiricon,
cullians, together with many others too tedious to
rehearse.’ One of these ‘grosser names’ seems to
be what Shakespeare meant. Johnson’s Gerard’s
Herball (1633) uses ‘Dogs stones’ as a generic name

English botanist John
Gerard (1545-1612)
from the frontispiece
of his book The Herball,
or Generali Histone of
Plantes (1597): Gerard's
Herball is the nearest
source we have to the
botanical knowledge
of Shakespeare and his
contemporaries of the
late sixteenth and early
seventeenth centuries.
State Library ofVictoria

Australian Garden History, 24 (2), October/November/December 2012

7

for members of the Orchis family. His illustrations
bring out the testicle-like appearance of the tubers.

That Shakespeare was referring to Orchis species is
confirmed to some extent by the line that follows,
although there is a subtle twist. Grieve gives ‘Dead
men’s Fingers’ as a common name for Orchis
maculata L. (Spotted Orchid), the flowers of which
are very similar to those of O. mascula. The tubers
are divided into two or three fmger-like lobes, hence
the name. The testicular basis for ‘Dogs stones’ does
not quite fit with ‘Dead Men’s Fingers’, but Orchis
still looks more likely than Lythrum salicaria as the
plant referred to by ‘long purples’.

Hamlet was published in 1603, but had been
performed many times before publication. When
Shakespeare was writing it, herbals (books on plants
describing their medicinal properties) were widely
available. The best known is Gerard’s Herball
published in 1597. Classical studies included Pliny’s
Natural Historie, an English translation of which,
by Philemon Holland, was published in 1601. Paul
Turner wrote in the introduction to his selections
from Holland’s translation (1962) that ‘Holland
made Pliny, in effect, an Elizabethan author, and as
such he has had a considerable influence on English
literature. Though Shakespeare seems to have
known the ‘Natural History’ in Latin, he probably
read Holland’s version when it came out in 1601.’
But Shakespeare’s knowledge of plants was much
more than book based. The repeated references to
plants in his writings confirm that his upbringing in
rural Warwickshire had given him a countryman’s
familiarity with wildflowers and cultivated plants
and an understanding of their uses in traditional
medicine.

As a result of the English colonisation of Australia,
most of the plants referred to in these passages
are well established here. Daisy, although as
the botanical name Beilis perennis (‘continually
beautiful’) confirms an attractive plant in its own
right, occurs mainly as a volunteer in lawns. Violets
are to be found in many gardens, but is often
self-sown. Nettle (Urtica mens) is a widespread
weed of farmland, gardens, and crops. Our
cultural heritage includes not only Shakespeare’s
texts but also the plants to which he made such
telling references, and which open his writings to
Australians today.

References on page 34

Dr John Dwyer QC is Chair of the National
Management Committee of the Australian Garden
History Society.

Garden

Discoveries

Gardens of Andalucia
and Portugal

with Julie Kinney

GRANADA - SEVILLE - LISBON - PORTO
24 April-9 May 20 1 3

From Granada to Porto, discover the Moorish-inspired
gardens of Southern Spain, the Renaissance palaces of
Lisbon and the temperate gardens of the Atlantic coast.

Landscapes of China

with Fiona Ogilvie

YUNNAN - SZECHUAN - GUANGXI
4-20 March 2013

Explore some of China's most beautiful, varied and
remote natural landscapes. Learn the fascinating history
of Chinese gardening and visit ancient temple gardens,
botanic gardens and national parks.

Renaissance

Tours

For detailed information call 1300 727 095
or visit www.renaissancetours.com.au

8

Australian Garden History, 24 ( 2 ), October/November/December 2012

Ivan Barko

The French Garden at La Perouse

During a short stay at Botany Bay in early
1788, the French Laperouse expedition
planted a vegetable garden near the area
now referred to as Frenchman's Bay — traces
were still visible in 1824 but an exact
location remains to be determined.

On 26 January 1788 two French ships, Boussole
and Astrolabe, anchored off the future Frenchman’s
Bay in Botany Bay. Jean-Frangois de Laperouse,
his officers, and his men were exhausted. Only
six weeks earlier the natives of Tutuila in Western
Samoa — then the Navigator Islands — had
massacred several members of the expedition,
including Astrolabe captain Fleuriot de Langle and
scientist Chevalier de Lamanon.

The ships had sailed from the French port of
Brest in 1785. Although the expedition was well
organised and well endowed, the journey had
become strenuous. Scurvy was growing: although

only one died, many suffered its effects. In 1786
expedition astronomer Lepaute Dagelet thought he
was dying and Laperouse, in a confidential note to
a friend, confided ‘when I return you will take me
for a centenarian, I have no teeth and no hair left’.'

De Langle had believed fresh drinking water was
the remedy. Fiis death was due to his attempt to
collect fresh water before leaving the Navigator
Islands — by which time the French had overstayed
their welcome. Laperouse did not share de Langle’s
belief that stored drinking water deteriorated and
needed frequent replacement. He was convinced
that provided water was pure, it would remain so.

He considered sauerkraut, malt, and spruce beer
the best remedies, but more importantly attributed
great value to cleanliness — personal hygiene and
uncluttered surroundings, neither easy to implement
on the crowded ships of the era. Although James
Lind’s Treatise of the Scurvy had been published
in 1753, the theory of citms treatment was not yet
widely known or accepted in Laperouse’s time.

'Le Prouse's [sic]
Monument Botney [sic]
Bay’ by Samuel Thomas
Gill (1 8 1 8-1 880), from
his album of original
sketches, I 844-66.

ST Gill. Mitchell Library
State Library of NSW -
(PXE 722/1839/1 I)

Australian Garden History, 24 (2), October/November/December 2012

9

The recurrent theme of scurvy in Laperouse’s
journals concerns the importance of a good
diet, quality liquids and solids (such as wine
and flour), and fresh produce. In a letter from
Botany Bay he praised the benefits of roast beef
and steak, tortoises, fish, herbs, and fruit, and as
early as September 1787 he had paid tribute to
surgeon Rollin on Boussole, who also believed in
prevention.

Awareness of the value of a diet including fresh
vegetables and fruit explains why gardener
Jean Nicolas Collignon was encouraged to plant
‘European seeds’ wherever the expedition landed.
Whether they hoped to derive benefit from these
before departing (they left on 10 March 1788,
after just six weeks) or considered the plantings
an integral part of their civilising mission,
Collignon always attempted to grow European
plants on stopovers.

After the British Eirst Elect had transferred to
Port Jackson on 26 January 1788 — the very day
of the Erench arrival — the site at Botany Bay
was left to Eaperouse, except for intermittent
objections from Aborigines. A camp was
established somewhere between today’s Eaperouse
monument, the Museum (former Cable Station),
Eather Receveur’s grave, and the Erenchman’s
Bay beach. Although several contemporary
descriptions of the camp by visiting British officers
(including future governors King and Hunter)
exist, they don’t mention the garden explicitly.

Philip Gidley King’s account says of Eaperouse:

I found him quite established, having thrown
round his Tents a Stoccade, guarded by two
small guns in which he is setting up two Eong
boats which he had in frame. An observatory
tent was also fixed here, in which was an
Astronomical Quadrant. Clockes &c under the
Management of Monsieur Dagelet Astronomer,
& one of ye Academic des Sciences at Paris. ""

The first (and apparently last) descriptions of the
garden we have are by Erench visitors in 1824,
when its traces were still visible and its reputation
alive. These were by men on board Coquille,
under Eouis-Isidore Duperrey’s command.

Victor Lottin: An enclosure in which Eaperouse
had vegetables sown is still there, it has kept the
name of the Erench garden. It is surrounded by
a hedge but the inside is almost uncultivated;
some vegetables saved by the detachment

perished because of lack of water. We searched
in vain for a flower in this plot located at 300
paces’ distance from the tower; everything was
dry and burnt. We were told that Governor
Macquarie had intended to plant a beautiful
garden in that place and keep its name. 3

Rene Lesson: As Erenchmen, as travellers, we
wished to pay our tribute by visiting the spot
on which the illustrious and unfortunate Ea
Perouse wrote the last dispatches which have
arrived in Europe, the encampment which he
formed at the north point of Botany Bay. There
he made a garden in which he sowed plants to
be used as remedies for his crew so weakened
by sickness. The English have respected this
piece of land, which bears the name of Erench
Garden among them, and this garden to-day,
partly uncultivated, formed in the sandy scrub,
provides some vegetables for the soldiers who
are quartered in a small tower built a short
distance away on one of the points of the bay.
The fruit trees are dead and could not take
root here, shaken as they are by the winds
from the sea. Quickly growing weeds have
taken possession of the greater portion of its
surface, like a symbol of the vain toil of man.

A wretched wooden fence surrounds this plot,
which Governor Macquarie had planned to have
enclosed with substantial walls. ^

Everything we know is in these accounts. And
unless some forgotten document suddenly
emerges or excavations reveal the remains of the
hedge or the surrounding ditch, this is all we are
likely to know of the Botany Bay Erench garden.

Baron Hyacinthe de Bougainville who as leader
of the expedition of Thetys and Esperance,
visited Sydney in 1825, left descriptions of the
camp, yet without explicitly mentioning the
garden. But we can credit him with instigating
and funding construction of the Eaperouse
monument, for which he obtained the support of
Governor Sir Thomas Brisbane, a noble gesture
to an ill-fated explorer.

Notes on page 34

Born in Hungary in I 930, Ivan Barko was Professor
of French at Monash University (1968-75) and
McCaughey Professor of French at the University of
Sydney (1976-90). He is a Fellow of the Australian
Academy of the Humanities.

10

Australian Garden History, 24 (2), October/November/December 2012

The rural garden at Oakhampton:
a century in the making

Oakhampton, near Manilla, north of
Tamworth, NSW, sustained by generations
of the Nixon family, is a fine example of the
large, diversified garden once common in
rural Australia.

Some thoughts on rural gardens

It is true that any garden survives only as long
as its gardener: if the gardener quits the stage,
the garden will soon be reclaimed by nature and
revert to a wild state. At some time most readers
will have come across a deserted rural homestead
where only one chimney remains standing, but
been amazed to find that a riot of garden plants
flourish close by. These could include japonica,
iris, oleander, plumbago, and agaves, as well as
the old standbys jonquils, rosemary, snowdrops,
fruiting citrus, woody pears, olives, roses gone to
briar, Chinese elms, yuccas, violets, bunyas, and
date palms. This ability of the planet to return to
a natural balance after human intervention is one
of its saving graces: without it, the natural world
would quickly disappear.

City and country gardeners alike learn by
experience that gardens take time to mature and do

not come about in the timeframe much of current
reporting would have the hopeful believe.

The rural garden differs from its urban counterpart
in many ways, the most obvious being its generous
layout. As there are no restrictions on size it will be
determined by an individual’s store of energy and
free time. The garden can expand in any direction
so size is irrelevant and no specimen tree need fear
for its life while growing to maturity. Plants in the
garden will in part be drawn from the surrounding
bush and in New England may include such
species as Casuarina, Eremophila, Pandorea
pandorana, or Cymbidium canaliculatum found
growing wild in the forks of apple gums along
creeks. Some domestic escapees leap the fence in
the opposite direction to pastures greener, there to
embark on life in the fast lane. Notable amongst
these are Vinca major, Agave americana, and the
tiresome olive.

Oakhampton, nestled
into the foothills where
the New England
tablelands step down
to the great western
plains.

Photo: Lesley Garrett

As these gardens are far removed from urban
clamour and artificial light, the senses are stirred
to recognise a different order, one where nature is
alive with the sounds of the natural world. Birdsong,
crickets, and croaking frogs strike up overhead,
underfoot, and in the waterways. A stroll in the

Australian Garden History, 24 (2), October/November/December 2012

11

Oakhampton in 1 939,
showing the driveway
flanked by formal
plantings.

Courtesy of
the Nixon Family

garden after dark will reveal the wonder of the night
sky with its play of moon, stars, and shadow.

As rural gardens are likely to evolve over generations,
a dynasty of related gardeners will collectively shape
their gardens over a long timeframe. They do not
move house every seven years and are eventually
rewarded with a delight unknown in the city. Such a
gradual evolution allows for a type of person-to-plant
history to emerge, one that sees a garden’s story
woven into the family narrative. And so it has come
about that at Oakhampton there is a wedding tree,
and over there, the ghost of an apricot tree which —
just like the fish that got away — filled untold
buckets with apricots in its youth keeping everyone
busy for weeks.

Gardeners in rural Australia have
traditionally been women

Gardeners in rural Australia have traditionally
been women. They made those few garden acres
close to the house into their own domain, one at
the centre of an outer world dominated by their
menfolk. It therefore comes as no surprise that
many botanical artists throughout Australia’s
history have been women, lovingly recording in
ink or watercolour plants from their own gardens.

Some of these mementos hang in our national
galleries. Others may be hidden in a girl’s autograph
book compiled in the nineteenth century: there
folded away behind the corner of one page may be
the astonishingly beautiful depiction of a long lost
fuchsia or fern.

While weather governs the availability of water, the
lack of it does not seem to prevent country gardens
from flourishing or influence their longevity. In fact,
it is more likely to promote plant resilience and
result in the survival of a wider range of species.
Inherent in the DNA of all country gardeners is the
knowledge of how to propagate plants and keep
them alive. Nor is fashion as likely to dictate plant
selection or cause old favourites to be discarded.
Cuttings and seeds are often exchanged over
morning tea with careful instructions on care and
fond memories of the plant’s glory days.

This begs two questions: what sort of plants will be
found in rural gardens and which built structures
are likely to be included ? Expect a mix of plants,
one made up of romance and longing for the species
of the northern hemisphere plus indigenous plants
common to the surrounding bushland and food
plants such as olives, vines, and fruit trees. All will
express the heart’s desire; all need to be hardy.

12

Australian Garden History, 24 (2), October/November/December 2012

Built structures are likely to include shade houses;
extensive paths of crushed bauxite or gravel; rain
water tanks covered in passionfruit vines (cool
damp root run and head in the sun) with a carpet
of violets underneath the stand; a shade house
for ferns and orchids; copious birdbaths; arbours,
arches, trellises, and pergolas; planters made from
truck tyres to wheelbarrows; interesting sheds; and,
with luck, a fountain and tennis court.

About Oakhampton

Oakhampton is located near Manilla, where the
New England tablelands step down to the great
western plains. Originally comprising grassy, white
box woodland, the eountry was largely cleared
after European settlement, but some remnant
woodland with an intact understory can still be
found in the region.

Oakhampton has been under the stewardship of
the Nixon family for well over a hundred years, the
present owners being descended from Adam Nixon
who immigrated to the colony in 1 840. His sons
George and John established their own families
on neighbouring properties called The Pines and
Oakhampton. The next four generations developed
their enterprises on land well suited to the mixed

farming and grazing pursuits that continue to this
day. With country ranging from gentle hills to river
flats and enjoying a moderate summer rainfall, the
pioneer garden went from strength to strength.

It survived recurrent drought, flood, frost, wool
crashes, two world wars, the retirement of the horse
and sulky, and the Great Depression. Over time it
has seen a succession of family gardeners come and
go, with countless children playing on its lawns and
eating its produce.

Both the house and main gateway are built of
the blue brick popular in New England in the
1 9 30s — stepped pylons, their design echoing those
of the Sydney Harbour Bridge, flank the main
gate on both sides. Historically, landowners of
standing bred horses for use in ploughing, riding,
and occasionally racing. (Even the squatter’s
spectacles reflected this; the cheek pieces sprung
to curve tightly round the ear and secure them at
a full gallop.) Oakhampton is no exception, its’
racing past evidenced by the range of loose boxes
at its western garden boundary. The rural economy
luxuriated in the boom years of the 1950s when
wool was ‘a pound a pound’, but imploded in the
eighties with a sharp economic downturn in part
caused by drought and falling commodity prices.

Near where the
pool is now sited,
the faint outline
of an earlier rose
bed laid out in the
thirties and later
abandoned can
still be seen in a
photograph taken
from the air some
time in the fifties.

Courtesy of the
Nixon Family

Australian Garden History, 24 (2), October/November/December 2012

13

Sadly, many landowners were forced from their
properties at this time but the Nixons were not
amongst them.

Three periods can be
clearly identified in the
garden, shown here
in contrasting colours.

The first period,
commencing in 1880
places the earliest
plantings of olives,
grape vines, wisteria,
and kurrajongs in the
vicinity of the slab barn
and concluded with
the erection in 1910
of a newer timber
homestead. The second
period, in the 1 930s,
saw the building of a
larger brick house, with
the addition of a fish
pool, adjacent oval-
tiered flower bed, rose
garden, and distinctive
entry gate pylons.
Finally, the third period,
commencing after
World War II continued
through the fifties to
the present.

The present custodian of Oakhampton’s garden
is Belinda Nixon, and the historian has much to
thank her for as certain distinctive garden features
created by earlier generations have been carefully
retained and refined by her. With one eye for the
garden as it was in the generations before her,
Belinda has progressively improved its layout,
working largely on her own and with some help
from her son James. This almost daily endeavour
for close on fifty years has resulted in a garden
enlarged on all sides. Both house and garden
retain vibrant Art Deco design features because
Belinda, as their curator, has been at pains to
retain them.

A walk through the garden

Typical of rural holdings, the homestead is
surrounded on all sides by garden, this one
being about one and a half hectares in size. As a
working property, the Oakhampton garden can be

approached from many directions, the formal front
entries being linked by a semicircular driveway.

A first impression on passing through the front
gate is of a private botanical garden that over time
has developed an arboretum of its own, one where
it might be possible to discover plants unheard of
for years. Paths and driveways seem to spread out
in every direction round wide lawns interspersed
with garden beds. On either side of the homestead
the side gardens are extensive, made up of
scattered beds that in places lead the eye out of
the garden to a distant horizon where hills meet
sky. No one vantage point reveals the entire
garden, so on walking through it there is a sense of
being drawn on, around the next corner and to the
next surprise. The overall effect is of alternating
belts of light, shade, and colour.

The oldest surviving plants in the garden are
grouped round the original house. Here several
wisterias — now gnarled and leaning, flowering
in spring to give way in winter to a thicket of
canes — mark out the original path leading to
the house. Of the same vintage, and close by, a
Muscat grape soldiers on, carefully supported
by a timber trellis. On the far side of the back
garden kurrajongs transplanted from the paddock
shade the northern side of the old house. In
summer the scent of countless flowers lives on in
the memory.

I noted with interest in Robin Walsh’s recently
published book In Her Own Words that Elizabeth
Macquarie, en route to Australia in 1809 during
a voyage lasting seven months, visited a newly
established botanical garden containing in excess
of four hundred species. If she could have seen into
the future and glimpsed Oakhampton’s garden, she
would surely have been equally delighted.

Acknowledgements

For assistance with the preparation of this article
I wish to thank Belinda and Jannes Nixon, and
Narelle Sonter Botanica for mapping and help
with plant identification.

In memory of Jenny Watts (nee Bright),
plantswoman extraordinaire.

Lesley Garrett is an AGF3S member with a keen
interest in historic gardens and fine arts. She has
gardens in both Sydney and rural NSW.

14

Australian Garden History, 24 (2), October/November/December 2012

Megan Martin

TOMATO

Enrliana

World War Two: the Commonwealth
Vegetable Seeds Committee

The acquisition of the Claude Crowe
papers by the Historic Houses Trust's
Caroline Simpson Library & Research
Collection has kindled interest in the
activities of a little-known wartime
organisation, the Commonwealth
Vegetable Seeds Committee.

Exhortation to ‘Dig for Victory’ and posters
promoting the Victory Garden are the sorts
of ideas and images that most of us usually
associate with the idea of vegetables and World
War Two. In January 1942 Prime Minister John
Curtin launched ‘Dig for Victory’, a publicity
campaign urging householders throughout
Australia to grow their own vegetables as a
contribution to the war effort.

The Dig for Victory campaign was taken up by
many organisations including the YWCA, which
called for the creation of ‘Garden Armies’. These
volunteer groups undertook mass plantings on
parcels of land made available for the purpose.

So, for example, in July 1942 Melbourne’s
‘Garden Army’ planted 2 acres of onion seed on
a Saturday afternoon as part of its campaign to
produce 50 tons of onions for the Department of
Supply to send to the troops.

The idea wasn’t new — citizens had been digging
for victory in England for some time — and
many Australians had already established Dig
for Victory gardens months before the official
government campaign.

Seed growers like Arthur Yates & Co. began
sounding the alarm about protecting and
expanding the seed harvest early in the war. In
its 1940 Annual the firm declared that the matter
of seed supplies was of national importance
as the foundation of all horticulture, and that
the Australian industry was already having
some difficulty in getting stocks of seed from
‘overseas non-sterling countries’. Of course, many
Australians were already keen home vegetable
growers and companies like Yates had always
catered to this market.

Pre-war seed packets
from Sydney merchants
Anderson & Co.

Caroline Simpson Library &
Research Collection, Historic
Houses Trust of NSW

Australian Garden History, 24 (2), October/November/December 2012

15

BROAD BEANS
CABBAGE >
ONION - ”
SPINACH i

BRUSSELS SPROUTS
CABBAGE -
LETTUCE V:-":
CELERY • GARLIC

LETTUCE > i
LEEKS "
CAULIFLOWER
TURNIP

AfOW

CAULIFLOWER
SHALLOTS -i
SILVER BEET
• LEEKS

tHftx AifP rfti Sisr

Awe wf^rsA ajvp tprjmc nAf^Tiffii

V FtfUSif bfr i

Victorian Railways
poster (c. 1 942)
exhorting commuters
to grow vegetables in
home gardens and
'Dig for Victory'
State Library of Victoria

The Dig for Victory campaign was launched
around the same time as a Vegetable Seeds
Conference was held in Melbourne (5—7 January
1942). The Council for Scientific and Industrial
Research (CSIR) had called the conference
when war broke out with Japan (following the
December 1941 attack on Pearl Harbour).
Representatives of the CSIR, Department
of Commerce, Department of Supply and
Development, state departments of agriculture,
and seed merchants, attended the conference.
The main recommendation of the conference
was that the Commonwealth government should
appoint a Vegetable Seeds Committee to ensure
adequate supplies of vegetable seeds in the event
that the usual imports of vegetable seeds from
Europe and the United States might not be able
to reach Australia.

Another conference one a week later (14—15
January) was called by the Customs Department.
This second conference was attended by
agricultural officers and seed merchants, and its
task was to decide what vegetable seeds should
be ordered from the United States for delivery
towards the end of 1942 and early 1943. The
conference opted to order a full year’s supply
of the more important vegetables. A review of
the seed position had shown that there were
practically no reserve stocks of most kinds of
seeds and it was thought that, as a safeguard
against crop failure and damage by enemy action,
Australia needed to produce two years’ supply of
most kinds of vegetable seeds.

A review of the seed position
had shown that there were
practically no reserve stocks
of most kinds of seeds

The War Committee approved the appointment
of a Vegetable Seeds Committee and the first
meeting was held in Canberra on 17 February
1942. It was composed of two representatives of
the Commonwealth government, two Agricultural
officers (‘technical men’), two growers (G.W.

Peart of Box Hill, Vic., and H.D. Yates from
Arthur Yates & Co. Pty Ltd, Sydney), and two
representatives from the Australian Federation of
Seeds Merchants (K. Field from Field & Co. Pty
Ftd, Devonport, Tas., and G.A. Fuff from Faw,
Somner Pty Ftd, Melbourne).

It had been thought originally that seed
merchants might be able to arrange for and
finance all the production required but this was
found to be impossible. They had capacity only
for about half the necessary production. The job
of the Vegetable Seeds Committee was to organise
production of the remainder.

The Committee drew up a list of vegetables
that were considered essential. This list included
carrot, beetroot, parsnips, swedes, potatoes,
onions, leeks, cabbages, cauliflowers, silver
beet, lettuce, peas, white turnips, sweet potato,
pumpkins (including Hubbard squash), marrow,
cucumber, tomatoes, French dwarf beans, broad
beans, navy and butter beans, rhubarb, and
spinach, plus the herbs thyme, marjoram, and
sage. The Committee also identified the varieties
required and the target quantity of each seed.
Celery and asparagus were regarded as luxury
lines — although celery did get a reprieve a couple
of months later. And in July 1942 sweet corn was
defined as a vegetable and added to the list as

16

Australian Garden History, 24 (2), October/November/December 2012

were other later additions such as watermelon
and rockmelon.

The committee considered the problem of
labour, including the possible use of internee or
prisoner-of-war labour and it recommended that
the industry be declared essential and people
engaged in the industry to be reserved.

The Committee found that i8 merchants
accounted for about 90% of Australia’s vegetable
seed trade but it drew up a list of 23 approved
seed merchants who would be entitled to contract
for seed production. There were a couple of
Sydney firms on this list, headed by Anderson &
Co. At the second meeting of the Committee in
March 1942 the firm of P.L.C. Shepherd & Son
Pty Ltd was added to the list and other merchants
were added in subsequent meetings.

Nurseryman Claude Crowe was working at
Anderson’s when the war began and we know
from the Crowe papers that early in 1942 the
company began sending men to Berrima in the
Southern Highlands to develop vegetable seed
production capacity, entering into some sort of
arrangement with Paul Sorensen (who had leased
the old rectory at Berrima). Crowe himself was
sent to Berrima around July 1942.

Claude Crowe resigned from Anderson’s in
September 1943 and the firm pulled out of their
vegetable work at Berrima around this time
although Claude and his wife Isobel continued
to produce seed for the Vegetable Seeds
Committee — under contract to a company called
United Seed Growers Pty Ltd, headed by Eric
Rumsey. Claude Crowe kept a diary of these
early years at Berrima (1943—44) which gives a
sense of the hard slog involved in seed production.
Consider the entry for 25 April 1944: ‘washed
4 barrels of tomato pulp for about 7 or 8 lb seeds’.

Producing tomato seeds was clearly a messy
business and questions regarding seed purity
and germination standards were issues that the
Vegetable Seeds Committee addressed early in
their deliberations. There was a concern about
the possibility that ‘farmer-dressed’ vegetable
seeds in Australia might be harder to clean up to
required standards than normally, owing to lack
of experience on the part of Australia’s new seed
growers. Only eight firms in Australia (and only
Yates in NSW) had the full equipment needed for
the cleaning of vegetable seeds.

Apart from the problems of cleaning seed, the
Committee soon began discussing a scheme for
producing ‘mother’ seed — that is developing

strains of seed most suitable for Australia’s market
garden requirements. Crops were selected as
‘mother’ seeds on the basis of their performance
in the field. Before a crop was approved for
‘mother’ seed purposes it had to be examined by
a government official at the vegetable and other
stages. A government agricultural agency might
also grow a crop from the same seed at a central
trial ground.

Murray Tonkin’s
humorous novelette
(1944) brings a light
touch to a serious
subject for South
Australian readers.
Caroline Simpson Library
& Research Collection,
Historic Houses Trust of
NSW

Claude and Isobel Crowe grew ‘mother’ seed
for the United Seed Growers. They had 6 acres
available, split into three lots of 2 acres each. Eric
Rumsey had suggested that they could grow small
lots of various kinds of selected ‘mother’ seeds
for United Seed Growers or they could grow a
more limited number of varieties of crop seed.

The ‘mother’ seed crops carried a higher price
but they needed almost constant attention. As

Australian Garden History, 24 (2), October/November/December 2012

17

Extracting seeds from tomato pulp (illustrated in Yates’
Annual 1941), a process Claude Crowe found hard going.

Caroline Simpson Library & Research Collection, Historic Houses
Trust of NSW

well as agreeing to inspections growers had to ‘do
all reasonable “rogueing” of the crops to ensure
trueness to type and strain’.

The Claude Crowe papers include several
examples of seed growing contracts, each for a
specific named variety of vegetable. This material
complements the official records of the Vegetable
Seeds Committee in the National Archives
of Australia. These official records comprise
hundreds and hundreds of pages of minutes of
meetings, draft regulations, and the like, mostly
now digitised and freely available on the NAA’s
website. They make fairly dry reading.

The composition of the Committee was changed
at the beginning of 1943 and representatives
of the seed merchants were dropped from
membership. By the end of the war the merchants
were chafing under what they considered to be
excessive bureaucratic interference and control. In
July 1945 Eric Rumsey wrote a letter to his local
MP about the matter. He outlined the problem:

We have trained men in the science and
art of producing satisfactory seed crops
and have plans for absorbing others who
will shortly be returning from the services.
Unfortunately we are in the position where
we have a Federal Government Seeds
Committee which is not sympathetic to
private enterprise and for some reason
seems very reluctant to give up any of
their wartime controls although Australia's
vegetable seed supply position is now secure
and there is a surplus of some kinds of seeds
in Australia.

I can’t tell you the end of the story: my research
has not yet embraced this period. When did
market forces regain dominance ? To what extent
did regulations and controls developed under the
Vegetable Seeds Committee regime stay in place ?
Who grew what seeds where? These are questions
for another day.

Megan Martin is Head of Collections & Access at the
Historic HousesTrust of NSW, responsible for the
continuing development of the Caroline Simpson Library
& Research Collection. This paper was first presented
at the ‘Glamour & Grit: new stories for garden history’
seminar jointly hosted by the Historic HousesTrust and
Australian Garden History Society on 21 July 2012.

18

Australian Garden History, 24 (2), October/November/December 2012

n4vV - nL -

'1__ ^ J.^^ (£ ,-^i.-,™*-^

^.0TC;3J.

■f ’5 fo

>

^ul ii T'Th^^j^^ rwi*

i - -^

h /

S-il

A

Ed McAlister

A slide odyssey:

the Noel Lothian collection

The Herculean task of sorting and labelling
the 22,000 slides in Noel Lothian's
collection has now been completed, but
the 9000 images selected for retention
now require funding for incorporation into
a digital catalogue.

Shortly after hosting a lunch at my home in
December 2005 for a group of fellow horticulturists,
I was contacted by Thekla Reichstein, a former
long-serving employee of the Botanic Gardens of
Adelaide who had returned to work as a volunteer.
She asked if on my retirement at the end of
January, I would be interested in checking and
accessioning approximately 7000 of Noel Lothian’s
slides which had been donated to the library by

his widow, Viv Lothian. As I had worked for Noel
when he was Director and knew him well, I agreed
with alacrity.

On arriving at the library in 2006 I was informed
by Thekla and Tony Kanellos, Manager of
Cultural Collections, that actually there ‘more like
17,000 slides’! I was not totally surprised because
Noel’s attitude had been that if one slide was good
then obviously two or three were better. Only
slightly daunted I began the task.

What I found was a veritable treasure trove of great
value, covering the period from approximately
1952 until just a few months before Noel’s death
in 2004. The slides were not just plant studies and
images of botanic gardens around the world, but
many had been taken in the field. Some of the

Noel Lothian’s slide
collection, taken over
a wide date span,
reflects the interests
of a botanic garden
director from plant
collecting expeditions
to overseas travel and
flower show judging.
Noel Lothian Collection,
Botanic Gardens of
Adelaide

Australian Garden History, 24 (2), October/November/December 2012

19

All Images courtesy Botanic most interesting slides Were those taken by Noel
Gardens of Adelaide ^

during his iield trips in the and zone or Australia
in the early 1950s. Having accepted the position
of director of the Adelaide Botanic Garden in 1948
Noel was exploring and collecting plants in the
arid zone by 1952. These long field trips explored
this zone, not only in South Australia but also in
Queensland, New South Wales, and the Northern
Territory. Legend has it that Noel would not stop
for the day until he had collected 100 specimens!

Noel Lothian
(1915-2004) in the
early years of his long
tenure as director
of Adelaide Botanic
Garden (1948-80).

Botanic Gardens of
Adelaide

This policy was not always well received by his
travelling companions.

There were, of course, many thousands of other
slides in addition to plant studies (Australian and
exotic, in cultivation and in the wild) and the
many botanic gardens he visited during his long
career. Others were of significant events in the life
of the Botanic Gardens of Adelaide, for example
Royal visits, tree plantings, and unveilings of
plaques. I smiled on a number of occasions when
I would come across a slide which had been taken
by Noel in a botanic garden somewhere and I
knew that 20 years later I had stood in the same
spot and taken the same photograph.

Legend has it that Noel would not
stop for the day until he had collected
100 specimens

All the slides had one thing in common: they
had all been annotated in Noel’s very individual
handwriting. Anyone who has seen this
idiosyncratic script will know what I mean when
I say it is difficult to read and interpret. I came to
the conclusion that I had been asked to take on
this task, not just because of my BSc in botany
and my horticultural background, but because I
was one of only four or five people who could read
his writing!

I spent many hours looking at maps and
gazetteers to check exact locations of the slides.
Knowing that a photograph had been taken 4
miles NW of ‘squiggle’ was of little value. When it

20

Australian Garden History, 24 (2), October/November/December 2012

came to plant names I was slightly better off, even
though many of the plants endured name changes
during the past 50 years. I confess, however, that
without a computer program in use in the library
I do not believe I could have finished the task.

In this particular program I would put in the
first letter or letters of the genus, which I could
decipher, and then add an asterisk. The result was
a list of plant names from which I would make
my final selection. The process often had to be
repeated with the specific epithet (second part of
the binomial).

I set myself a target of completing the task before
my seventieth birthday and was pleased to see
the number of slide boxes beginning to dwindle
to a small number. It was at this point that Tony
Kanellos called again, telling me that ‘the Field
Naturalists have dropped off another box of Noel’s
slides’. In my innocence I envisaged another box
of about 250 — what I found was an apple crate
full of slide boxes containing another 5000 slides.

Noel Lothian ... was a visionary^
had an incredible work ethic ... and
once determined upon a goal he
would let nothing stand in his way

By the time I finished in 2010 I had looked at
approximately 22,000 slides. I accessioned for the
Gardens a total of 9097 slides. Approximately one
thousand slides were donated to the State Library
of South Australia as they were of great social

history value. Quite a number of a more personal
nature was returned to the Lothian family and
approximately two thousand slides were discarded
because they had deteriorated. What the Gardens
did receive will be of great value to many people
in the present and in the future.

This task, which I truly enjoyed, confirmed
my thoughts about Noel Lothian. He was a
visionary, had an incredible work ethic (and
expected others around him to share his
enthusiasm), and once determined upon a goal
he would let nothing stand in his way. The fact
that the Botanic Gardens of Adelaide now
manage three gardens — Adelaide, Mount Lofty,
and Wittunga — rather than the one which Noel
‘inherited’ is but one testament to his vision.
Others include his establishment of formal
horticulture training in South Australia and his
establishment of the State Herbarium under the
control of the Board of the Botanic Gardens.
Truly this is a record to be envied.

Dr Ed McAlister AO was employed at the Botanic
Gardens of Adelaide from February 1979 until July 1991,
being Assistant Director for more than a decade. He left to
accept the position of CEO of the Royal Zoological Society
of South Australia, which he held until January 2006.

Australian Garden History, 24 (2), October/November/December 2012

21

Heart and mind: linking
gardens, plants, and history

John Viska in his Perth Perth-based plant enthusiast John Viska has
garden, August 20 1 2 . recently been elected chair of the West

Australian Branch and is also chairing the
conference committee for the 2014 AGHS
WA conference — in this profile he recounts
his love of plants, gardening, and history.

I was bom on 26 November 1948 on a hot day in
Subiaco. My father had migrated from Albania
to Western Australia in 1936 at the age of 16 and
became a tailor; my mother was from an early
Greek migrant family who had arrived around the
turn of the twentieth century. When the family
house was built at Floreat Park in 1953, this
garden suburb consisted of quarter-acre blocks,
ample parks, and street trees amidst pockets

of surviving native vegetation. It was a young,
developing suburb and Floreat Park Primary
School was still surrounded by black sand and
bushland. I remember the wildflowers but there
was no gardening or natural history club.

My first interest in growing plants was about
1953 — I can remember my father planting out
poppies and the first roses being put in. Roses
were the mainstay of most Perth gardens — the
gutless sand was completely dug out and we
imported lovely chocolate loam from the hills.

But my first memory of growing my own plants
was of succulents in tins. Anywhere my parents
went — and they were very social — I remember as
a young child walking round and ending up in the
shade house or wherever the plants were.

22

Australian Garden History, 24 (2), October/November/December 2012

My Greek and Albanian grandfathers were not
ornamental gardeners, but they were of course
vegetable gardeners. My Albanian grandfather
grew okra at a time when no one knew what it
was. My Greek grandfather, who spent about
1 6 years in the goldfields, came to Perth around
1916. I was intrigued that he grew plants in olive
oil tins amid a garden of figs, pomegranates, olive
trees, and grape vines — his grape variety ‘Isabella’
made very good vine rolls.

So when it came to gardens and gardening it was
just something I wanted to do. I started off with
my succulents in pots, then a rock garden that got
bigger and bigger, and one thing led to another. I
used to go around the suburbs swapping plants and
asking people — little old ladies — ‘would you mind?’
or ‘could I ?’ I had no money to buy plants and I
remember by about second year high school saving
up for about a month the pennies left over from
lunch money to buy Your Garden magazine — I still
have the first one dated 1962. Just reading those
and being exposed to pictures and garden ideas was
really where my learning started.

I went to Hale School for five years and in fifth
year I wrote to Perth City Council to ascertain
if they had any gardening courses. A letter
back from the Director of Parks and Gardens,

Ken Hunter, advised they were instituting a
horticultural trainee course. I commenced in
1966 but apart from night school botany classes
I was just doing hackwork around the nursery.

I thought ‘is this what I really want to do ?’ and
so I undertook teacher training. I was posted to
Esperance in 1969 and then at the end of 1972
came back to Perth.

My new head teacher at Graylands Primary
School was very interested in natural history and
native plants and so I started doing this with
my classes. They were just at the right age and
we became involved with the Gould League.
Because of this experience, I was asked if I would
like to apply for a job in the education centre in
Kings Park. I was initially employed in 1980 on
a two-year secondment. Probably 5000 students
a year came through — I was a one-man band,
organising everything from bookings to cranking
the old Gestetner running off the activity sheets.

I was eventually there for five years and whilst
there completed a Bachelor of Education. I
wasn’t thrilled at the thought of going back to
teach a primary class and luckily a cousin alerted
me to a job as lecturer in horticulture at Bentley
TALE College. I was finally offered the job,
made permanent in 1988, and lectured for almost
25 years.

One of my great loves has always been libraries
and in the 1970s I was exposed to illustrated
books on the great gardens of the world. I became
aware of the romanticism of older gardens and
travelled overseas in 1979 — with my interest
in the history of gardens I had a mental list of
gardens I wanted to see. In the early 1980s I came

My variegated plants
light up dark areas
and have a wonderful
decorative aspect
(even though a lot of
designers have decreed
that such plants are on
the nose).

Australian Garden History, 24 (2), October/November/December 2012

23

across a copy of the Australian Garden Journal
with application details to join the Australian
Garden History Society. I didn’t know anyone
who was a member and I just sent off my
subscription. There were probably about half a
dozen people in Western Australia who subscribed
but we were not an organised body and didn’t
know each other. I got the journal and especially
enjoyed reading the historically based articles.

I started my Diploma in Horticulture and one unit
was a researeh unit. Most of the students took
some wheat, grew it, measured it, and after six
months wrote about it, did all the graphs and that
became a research project. I remember telling the
tutor ‘I don’t want to do one of those things; I’m
more interested in the history side of something
to do with gardens’. He said ‘well, if you can give
me a topic you can do that’. So I thought OK:
horticulture, history, or say a nursery, that was
just an idea. I went off to the Battye Library and
staff suggested that I look at early directories. In
the list was Dawson Harrison, Wilson and Johns,
Newman, and then there was Barrett’s Wellington
Nursery. I used to help out at the National Trust
property Woodbridge and by extraordinary
luck I met a lady who had an old friend whose
grandfather used to have a very old nursery in
West Perth. It turned out to be the Wellington
Nursery of her great grandfather, an invaluable
lead that allowed me to trace its history.

By this time, in the mid-1980s, I was creating my
own garden. I had started with a blank canvas
in 1977. I had visited Sissinghurst and was
tremendously impressed. I didn’t try to emulate
it but it was more of an idea or inspiration — my
garden is really a textural eomposition of a whole
group that are survivor plants, tough plants,
plants that work well in Perth. I haven’t bought
from nurseries — they are ones I have dug up from
demolition sites and seen what works. Having
been a plant eollector from an early age, I have
always grown things that I like, so the way I have
developed my garden is really as the eolleetion
of an enthusiast. I have always particularly liked
bulbous and succulent plants, roses, and plants
with variegated foliage.

The early newspapers are very good for garden
history and now with Trove you ean put in a
plant name and it will pick up on how to grow
certain plants, detail what ornamentals were

in the colony, and when they were popular.

Fruits of a collecting 1 • 1 • • 1 r

expedition in theViska ^ou can also pick up certain regional features,

garden and surrounding sueh as ‘summer gardens’ (which implied that

neighbourhood. , , • • , .

the location enioyed sumcient water to grow

All garden photos: . . . .

Richard Aitken plants in Summer without artifieial watering)

and ‘vine trellises’ (the colonial equivalent of
the English pergola, but shaded with grape
vines). In and around Perth the marris and
jarrahs were predominant indigenous trees; along
watercourses flooded gums, which were the
equivalent of red river gums in the East. A lot
of those eucalypts were left because they were
shade trees.

The Cape of Good Hope was the last port of
call before ships reached Perth and the early
Dutch settlement at the Cape meant that many
Mediterranean plants were well established,
augmenting the rich local flora. These plants
were certainly transplanted to Western Australia,
mostly ornamentals interplanted or underneath
more productive trees I believe. By summertime
most of them would die away — by that time the
fruit tree would be in full foliage.

What I have generally gleaned is that there
was a need for growing food — the backbone
was grape vines, stone fruits, fig trees, citrus
fruits, and all the Mediterranean elements,
even olives, done in a distinctive style. In fact,

I think our ornamental gardens started with
these utilitarian origins rather than any grand
notions of emulating English landscape gardens.
A lot of Perth gardening was piecemeal — it was
not documented; there was no one specialising
landscape design in the very early days.

I always find that looking at our garden history
transports me into an era I don’t know. Plants
and gardens are like all collecting — when I find
something it gives me this magic thrill that
transports me back. So in researching, say, the
Wellington Nursery and looking baek to the
written advertisements and at a couple of historic
photographs I’m suddenly transported back to
early Perth. I always have that thrill of looking at
old photographs, trying to identify the plants they
depiet, visualising the location, and bringing it all
together as an experience. And that gives you an
inner glow.

24

Australian Garden History, 24 (2), October/November/December 2012

For the bookshelf

Alistair Hay, Monika Gottschalk, & Adolfo
Holguin, Huanduj: Brugmansia, Florilegium with
the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, Sydney, 2012
(ISBN 978 1 8763 1 4309): hardback, 424pp,

RRP $95

This superb book is beautiful to handle.
Huanduj is one of the indigenous South
American vernacular names for the genus
Brugmansia. Known in English-speaking
countries as Angel’s Trumpets, these poisonous
small trees have sumptuous flowers and an
extraordinary history. Skilfully written, the
three expert authors have put together years
of study to create Huanduj: Brugmansia. It
is outstanding. The images are marvellous
and include many ideas for home or public
gardens to create a rich, splendid display using
Brugmansias mixed in delicious contrast with
other shrubs and perennials. There is a useful
chapter on how to grow them and which species
or cultivars will do best in cooler or warmer
climates.

Photos of the South American habitats where
the seven species in the genus are distributed
give insight into their origin. It is interesting
to see Huanduj planted in old gardens and on
farms in Colombia, Ecuador, and Brazil and
realise how these sacred and valued plants are
a part of everyday life on that continent. The
question of whether or not the genus should be
Brugmansia or Datura is revealed in a fascinating
chapter of history that covers almost two
centuries of botanical study and hot taxonomic
debate. According to the authors, Brugmansias
are extinct in the wild and only survive within
their native range because of their cultural
significance to humans.

Recently I had a delightful experience
wandering along a woodland garden path that
was cut through a mini forest of pink Angel’s
Trumpets. Eor me this was an unforgettable
pleasure. Brugmansias are most certainly an
intriguing genus and this book tells their story
beautifully. I highly recommend it for bedside
reading either to dip in to or for serious study.

It is a book for anyone interested in beauty,
gardening, history, taxonomy, and culture.

Terry Smyth

Curator, Southern China Collection
Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne

Seamus O’Brien, In the Footsteps of Augustine
Henry and his Chinese plant collectors, Garden
Art Press,Antique Collectors Club,Woodbridge,
Suffolk, 20 1 I (ISBN 9781870673730): hardback,
367pp, RRP £40

Gardeners and foresters have much to
remember Augustine Henry for; his career as
a plant hunter in China began in i88i when
he entered the British Customs Service as a
medical officer at the treaty ports recently
established at major commercial centres in
China. His hours of work not being too onerous
he quickly developed an interest in the flora
of China and within a few years moved from
his position to become a plant hunter. This
book retraces his travels across China exploring
for plants. A well organised person he made
thorough travel plans, trained native Chinese as
plant collectors, made high quality collections
of botanical material, and documented almost
everything he saw and did so in extensive
diaries and collection notes. He also took
numerous glass-plate photographs of the plants
he saw and of the country and towns through
which he passed. By great good fortune most
of his material arrived safely at herbaria at Kew
and elsewhere. Seamus O’Brien has utilised this
archive to retrace Henry’s expeditions and write
his own journal which compares and contrasts
what he found with Henry’s observations.

The result makes fascinating and informative
reading, not only reminding gardeners of the
huge gift of Henry’s introduction to gardens
but also providing numerous insights into
conditions today in the environments in which
Henry collected. O’Brien’s photographs of the
Three Gorges on the Yangtze river, for instance,
contrast shockingly on the changes there since
Henry first photographed them.

Trevor Nottle

Derelie Cherry, A/exonder Macleay: from Scotland
to Sydney, Paradise Publishers, Kulnura, NSW,
2012 (ISBN 9780646557526): hardback, 452pp,
RRP $59.95, AGHS price $45 plus $9 postage
(www.gardenhistorysociety.org.au)

What pleasure to read this book: the author has
done Australia a service. The author undertook
a doctoral thesis on Macleay under supervisor
Dr Brian Eletcher of Sydney University and the
graft into book form loses nothing in translation

Australian Garden History, 24 (2), October/November/December 2012

25

into a highly readable, thoroughly researched,
and fluidly-written tome. That it is long and
heavy is apt, given the multitudinous interests
of this ‘Renaissance Man’.

Readers might know Elizabeth Bay House and
its lost garden — once ‘the finest in the colony’
and even in today’s fragments, still intriguing
and rather grand. I declare an interest: I’ve
long been musing. I live in a flat built on part
of his former ‘Orangery’ and (kitchen) ‘Garden’,
part of a former 55-acre estate. Every day I
stroll up Ithaca (note the Greek reference,
no coincidence) and Elizabeth Bay Roads,
following Macleay’s carriage drive, past the site
of his stables, through Eitzroy Gardens where
his gates once stood, and along Macleay Street
atop Woolloomooloo Hill. I hang my washing
out on a loth floor rooftop gazing at the
sandstone canyon cradling the bay, at a sharper
angle than he saw it, but the same prospect.

This year marks the
1 25th anniversary
of the Yates seed
company in Australia,
commemorated by a
revised Yates Garden
Guide (with historical
introduction) and this
limited-edition tin
of seeds ($22 from
selected outlets).

Anyone who could go bust from gardening
gets my vote! Even Brownlow Hill, one family
farm in which he partly spent his dotage,
is evocative, hinting at his learning, global
connections, curiosity, and taste. How much
more there was than gardening. Anyone who
has enjoyed the Macleay Museum collections
at the University of Sydney owes him a debt;
or the State Eibrary, Australian Museum, and
democracy in New South Wales (he was first
Speaker in the first Parliament in the colony
and thus, Australia). Or visited or learnt from
Sydney Botanic Gardens, the Australian Club,
and the other institutions he helped form,
shape, and grow.

Macleay’s origins, family, and banking
connections; gentlemen and scientific circles;
large family (including many daughters); and
shortage of money are outlined
patiently. Insights from
eloquent letters of eldest
daughter ‘Eanny’ and
son William pepper the
text. His at times testy
relations with players —
his sons included — in
a changing empire and
colony are telling. William
Sharp Macleay basically
kicked his parents out
of Elizabeth Bay House
(to pay off their debts)
causing a rift that never
really healed. Alexander’s erudition

and generosity of spirit led to benefits such as
Thomas Shepherd’s praise in our first published
garden design book and employment for
Robert Henderson, one of our earliest trained
gardeners. Macleay donated many unusual
plants to the Botanic Gardens, Shepherd’s
Darling Nursery, and Camden Park, and thus to
our nursery industry — the jacaranda, wisteria,
and many more imports derive from him.
Thoroughly recommended.

Stuart Read

Laura Mayer, Capability Brown and the English
Landscape Garden, Shire Publications, Botley,
Oxford, 20 1 I (ISBN 9780747800490): 64pp,
paperback, RRP $ 1 5; Twigs Way, The Cottage
Garden, Shire Publications, Botley, Oxford,

201 I (ISBN 9780747808183): 64pp, paperback,
RRP $15

Shire Books have received quite a spruce
up in the last few years. Eorget the homely
layouts, simple typesetting, and black & white
reproductions. Instead think crisp design and
high-quality colour images. Unchanged though
is the inherent quality of the information,
usually distilled by an expert in his or her field,
of modest compass, easily read, and accurately
referenced.

Way’s Cottage Garden traverses safe Shire
ground. Although quintessentially British in
coverage, there is nevertheless much social
comment here that has wider relevance, and the
planting palette she describes was one eagerly
emulated in many Australian cottage gardens.
The author’s other Shire titles — Topiary,
Allotments, Garden Gnomes, and Gertrude Jekyll —
are indicative of her fields of interest, as is her
recent book (with Mike Brown), Digging for
Victory: gardens and gardening in wartime Britain
(Sabrestorm, 2010).

Meyer’s book is perhaps the richer of the
pair. Building on the considerable scholarship
of those who have gone before — Clark,

Stroud, and Woodbridge, to name some of the
pioneers — and her own detailed researches,
we see Brown’s work and those of his
contemporaries placed within the context of
the eighteenth century landscape garden, its
patrons and proponents. Eaura Meyer is one
of the new faces of garden history, and if this
synthesis is representative, we look forward to
more from her pen.

Richard Aitken

26

Australian Garden History, 24 (2), October/November/December 2012

Recent releases

Andrea Gaynor & Jane Davis (eds),
‘Environmental Exchanges’, special issue of
Studies in Western Australian History, 27, 20 1 I
(ISBN 9781740522267): paperback, 252pp,

RRP $25 ($20 for students) plus postage —
contact details at www.cwah.uwa.edu.au

The dozen essays that comprise this volume
form a virtual environmental history of Western
Australia during the twentieth century. From
nature protection and wildflower legislation to
water scarcity, forest protest, and late-century
city planning, a compelling picture emerges
of Australian western third in a time of rapid
change. Particularly welcome is Geoffrey Bolton’s
overview of environmental history in WA for
his deeply personal and thoughtful insights. An
excellent selection of book reviews (eighteen in
total!) rounds out this special issue of Studies.

Alex George, A Banksia Album: two hundred years
of botanical art. National Library of Australia,
Canberra, 20 1 I (ISBN 9780642277398): I32pp,
RRP $34.95

Alex George is amongst our most knowledgeable
and prolific authors on Australian botanical
history and in A Banksia Album he turns his
hand to a genus long cherished by gardeners. The
informative introduction on ‘The art of Banksias’
is followed by a lengthy illustrated section with
notes, arranged alphabetically by species (what
else would you expect from a botanist?) and
illustrated with splendid works of botanical art
from historical to contemporary.

Linda Groom, A Steady Hand: Governor
Hunter & his First Fleet sketchbook. National
Library of Australia, Canberra, 2012 (ISBN
9780642277077): hardback, 236pp, RRP $49.95

This is a major new monograph on the art of John
Hunter, captain of the First Fleet flagship Sirius,
explorer, and second governor of New South
Wales. Comparatively little known. Hunter’s
paintings are amongst the earliest of the colony’s
flora, covering the Sydney region and Norfolk
and Lord Howe Islands. The author, a former
Curator of Pictures at the National Library, has
used that institution’s collections and resources
to the fullest, resulting in a substantial, beautiful,
and fascinating publication on the early natural
and human history of New South Wales.

Maria Hitchcock, A Celebration of Wattle: Australia’s
national floral emblem, Rosenberg, Dural, NSW,

20 1 2 (ISBN 978 1 92 1 7 1 956 1 ): paperback, 304pp,
RRP $29.95

With Wattle Day just passed, this substantially
revised edition of Maria Hitchcock’s celebration
of wattle is more than welcome. Combining
history, lore, and horticulture this is a passionate
advocacy of the wattle as Australia’s national
floral emblem by one of its greatest supporters.

Trea Martyn, Queen Elizabeth in the Garden:
a story of love, rivalry, and spectacular gardens,
BlueBridge, New York, 20 1 2
(ISBN 9781933346366): hardback, 336pp,

RRP US$22.95

First published in England under the title
Elizabeth in the Garden (Faber and Faber Ltd,
2008), this edition has been released for an
American market. Martyn has drawn on a rich
cache of sources (including various household
papers, inventories, handwritten plans, domestic
and foreign state papers, memorials for royal
visits, diaries, letters, Gerard’s Herball, and
sixteenth and seventeenth century visitors’
accounts), to create a lively read, full of richly
textured details emphasising the centrality of the
garden in the court of Elizabeth I.

Andrea Wulf, The Brother Gardeners: botany,
empire and the birth of an ofasess/on. Windmill
Books, London, 2009 (ISBN 9780099502371):
paperback, 376pp, RRP $27.95

First published in hardback by Heinemann
in 2008, we notice this eminently readable
book here rather belatedly. Interweaving the
voices of Collinson, Bartram, Miller, Linnaeus,
Banks, and Solander, Wulf paints an
engrossing picture of eighteenth-
century botany,
plant collecting,
horticulture, and
garden making.

Perfect background
for those visiting
Ballarat’s Capturing
Flora exhibition, and
if you enjoy Brother
Gardeners try Wulf ’s sequel
The Founding Gardeners, which
fleshes out the North American

dimension of her story.

Banksia serrata (from
Andrews' Botanist’s
Repository, 1 800)
featured in books
by Alex George and
Andrea Wulf and in

Australian Garden History, 24 (2), October/November/December 2012

27

Dialogue

Ballarat's Capturing Flora exhibition

‘Capturing Flora: 300 years of Australian
botanical art’ is a major new exhibition
at the Art Gallery of Ballarat. Running
from 25 September until 2 December
2012 (9am— 5pm: entry $i2/$8),
the show includes over 300 works of
Australian botanical art from the very
early eighteenth century until the present.
Accompanied by a varied programme
of talks, concerts, and workshops,
a lasting memento of the show will
be a lavish 280 page hardback book,
profusely illustrated, with five essays.

The exhibition is exclusive to Ballarat, so don’t
miss this rare opportunity to see an unparalleled
thematic retrospective.
www.capturingflora.com.au

Ballarat Botanic Gardens history

A new illustrated history of Ballarat
Botanic Gardens is to be launched later
this year. Prepared by members of the
Gardens’ Friends group, the publication
traces the history of this highly significant
garden from its inception in the 1850s
to the present with text, reproductions
of early plans, and many other historic
images. Why not combine a viewing of Ballarat’s
Capturing Flora exhibition with a visit to the
Botanic Gardens and Lake Wendouree precinct
(armed with new-found historical insight gained
from this publication) ?
www.fbbg.org.au

Australian Network for Plant
Conservation conference

The Australian Network for Plant Conservation
Inc. turns twenty-one this year. Their ninth
national conference, ‘Plant Conservation in
Australia: achievements and future directions’, held
in Canberra from 29 October— 2 November 2012,
will provide a forum for reflecting on the ANPC’s
history and successes, their long collaboration
with the Australian National Botanic Gardens,
highlight current issues for plant conservation, and
identify directions for the next two decades.

www.anpc.asn.au

Saundridge owner mourned

Stuart Read and Gwenda Sheridan have both
drawn our attention to the recent death of Rod
Thirkell-Johnston, aged 72, of Macquarie Hills
and Saundridge at Cressy in the Tasmanian
Midlands. Although closely involved with the
Australian wool industry, the trees and designed
landscapes of the Midlands were amongst his
abiding interests. AGHS delegates visited the
historic estate Saundridge — with its marvellous
sweeping drive and richly stocked arboretum — as
part of the 1986 annual national conference.

Dr David Symon (1 920-201 1 )

The Australian Systematic Botany Society
newsletter (June 2012) includes two generous
tributes to David Symon, a venerable contributor
to Australian botanical history, still working
(voluntarily) at the State Herbarium in Adelaide
until not long before his death. Of wide interests,
history and poetry were two that captured David’s
imagination. His widely praised book on the Sturt
Pea (jointly authored with Manfred Jusaitis) was
reviewed in AGH (19 (3), 2007—08).

www.anbg.gov.au/asbs

Guilfoyle in cyberspace

Stuart Read’s article ‘Before Victoria: William
Guilfoyle in New South Wales’ in our last issue
created a storm of interest in cyberspace. The
flurry of email correspondence brought to light
fresh evidence relating to the provenance of the
Principal’s garden at Hawkesbury Agricultural
College. We hope to furnish readers with more
about this in a future issue as further information
comes to light.

'Gardens by the Bay'

A quick travel advisory from Max Bourke: ‘Just
back after 2 months away, a lot of time spent
in new and old gardens in France, Scotland,
Switzerland, and most spectacularly Singapore.

We were enormously impressed to spend half a day
in the very newly opened ‘Gardens by the Bay’
in Singapore. Wow! A billion dollars buys a lot to
think about. Somewhere between Disneyland with
plants and the best didactic systems/ materials/
technology I have ever seen re biodiversity, plant
growth, and relationships with humans, climate
change, and impacts. The two domes ‘East of
Eden’ (a pun on the UK Eden project) are truly
mind blowing. It is now a crucial place to visit for
anyone interested in plants or gardens.’

28

Australian Garden History, 24 (2), October/November/December 2012

AGHS News

The Garden of Ideas

This AGHS national touring exhibition is on
display at the Red Box Gallery of the Royal
Botanic Gardens, Sydney, until 30 November.

A highly successful seminar, ‘Glamour & Grit:
new stories for garden history’, jointly hosted by
the AGHS Sydney & Northern NSW Branch
and the Historic Houses Trust of NSW, was held
in Sydney on 21 July in conjunction with The
Garden of Ideas launch. Seven speakers spoke
passionately about their interest in twentieth
century gardens — Megan Martin’s paper appears
elsewhere in this issue and we have previously
published the substance of Chris and Charlotte
Webb’s work on the Berrima Bridge Nurseries —
and in the eloquent summation of co-convenor
Stuart Read ‘the day was a bit of a smash’.

This is also a timely reminder that the National
Trust of Australia (NSW) still has limited stock
available of Interwar Gardens: a guide to the
history, conservation and management of gardens
of 1915 - 1940 , produced by its Parks and
Gardens Conservation Committee some years ago
($25: order online at shop.nationaltrust.com.au
or phone 02 9258 0128).

Studies in Australian Garden History

The third volume of Studies in Australian Garden
History which explores issues of managing change
in historical landscapes is now available. Studies
(vol. 3) can be purchased directly from the
Australian Garden History Society for $25 (or $20
for AGHS members) plus postage and packaging.

Rose breeder Frank Riethmuller

The life and work of Australia’s ‘second-
best-known rose breeder’, Frank Riethmuller
(1884—1965), are celebrated in a forthcoming
publication by AGHS member Eric Timewell.
Frank Reithmuller: life and roses will be available
through Florilegium from November 2012, after
its launch at the November conference of Heritage
Roses in Australia.
www.frankriethmuller.com

Gardens with altitude: The high lean
country' of New England

The Northern NSW sub-branch invites you
to attend the 34th AGHS Annual National
Conference to be based in Armidale from

Gardening at 4,000 feet
above sea-level and
with a wide- variety of
climatic extremes —
recurring droughts,
winter frosts, heavy
rains, and everything in
between, is not for the
faint hearted.

Gostwyck Station, late
nineteenth century.
University of New England
& Regional Archives

18—21 October 2013. For over 150 years, and
sometimes through many generations, old and
new gardeners in the New England region have
dreamed of and developed pleasure gardens, large
homestead gardens, and small town gardens, and
continue to triumph over weather patterns, old
and new, as well as embracing the distinctive local
landscape. We invite you to see the results, as well
as hear outstanding speakers explaining how these
gardens have been developed and maintained.
There will also be many opportunities to enjoy
the natural landscape, cuisine, wines, crafts, and
art of the region. Watch the website and our next
journal for more details.

Dalvui

To honor the memory of the late Suzanne Hunt,
the AGHS Victorian Branch has commissioned
well-known garden photographer Simon Griffiths
to capture the Western District garden Dalvui in
a suite of high-resolution digital images, presented
to the State Library of Victoria (see page 2).
Suzanne was instrumental in promoting the State
Library as a repository for Australian garden
history and this thoughtful gesture recalls her
passion for garden history, marks the centenary of
Dalvui’s designer William Guilfoyle, and embraces
the collecting policies of the State Library.

Dame Elisabeth
Murdoch, Suzanne
Hunt, and Anne-Marie
Schwirtlich pictured
at the State Library of
Victoria's Gardenesque
book and exhibition
launch in 2004.

State Library ofVictoria

Australian Garden History, 24 (2), October/November/December 2012

29

A parting gift by Jackie Courmadias

Members bid farewell to our much-loved
Executive Officer Jackie Courmadias in the
Red Rotunda of the State Library of Victoria
on 30 August 2012 — this is the text of
Jackie's speech.

When John Dwyer suggested a cocktail party I
envisaged a small gathering in someone’s house.
Little did I expect so many people in such grand
surroundings ! Thank you all so much for coming,
especially those who have come such a long way,
and thank you so much Kathy, Pam, Shirley, and
Phoebe for organising this event.

I am sure you have noticed over the years that I
don’t much like standing up in front of a crowd
but I can’t let this occasion pass without taking
the opportunity to thank the very many people
who have made my years at the AGHS such
happy and productive ones.

On my very first day of work at the AGHS office
in the Astronomers’ Residence in 1992 I was
introduced to a building that had a lingering smell
of dead rats, an office the size of a cupboard, and
outside the back door, a huge mound of steaming
manure delivered regularly from the nearby police
stables. The rat problem was temporary, thank
goodness, but the manure, used in the gardens,
remained almost until the time Observatory Gate
site was renovated and the office relocated.

It is hard to believe that
20 years has slipped by

That all aside, I found myself in an office
set in the Botanic Gardens, working with a
subject I was intensely interested in, and all the
while interacting with intelligent and gracious
individuals. I was then and still am so grateful
to the interview panel of the then chairman
Margaret Darling, Sue Keon-Cohen, and Richard
Aitken for selecting me. Since then I have had the
privilege of working with some of the finest minds
in garden history as well as some of the most
committed and enthusiastic, and visited gardens
and landscapes throughout the country. It is hard
to believe that 20 years has slipped by. I’m not
sure the size of the office has changed much but
its situation is certainly a great deal nicer!

In all the years I have worked for the Society I’ve
been surrounded by hard working and inspiring
people who have given their expertise and energy
so willingly and who have been crucial to the

running and development of the Society into what
it is today; patrons, national committees, branch
committees, conference committees, editors, tour
leaders, volunteers, and in more recent years a
wonderful assistant in Janet Armstrong.

And all along the way I have met so many
marvellous and interesting people through the
general membership, some of who have made
enormous contributions to the discipline of
garden history in Australia through their research
and writing, and many more who by virtue of
just being members have helped the Society
to grow and prosper — because let’s be frank —
members are without doubt the lifeblood of this
organisation. Without funds from membership
subscriptions the Society would not be able to
employ staff, publish the journal, or fund projects.
What good too would conferences be without
delegates, tours without participants, or lectures
without audiences ?

Those who have had the most profound influence
on my work have been the National Chairs:
the late Margaret Darling, Peter Watts, Colleen
Morris, John Dwyer, and for a short time, Jan
Gluskie. Each has brought his or her considerable
professional skills and personal qualities to the
task. Few I think amongst members would
appreciate what a huge commitment it is to be
the Chair of this organisation. Their advice and
guidance and support have been pivotal to my
work and I could never thank them enough.

The Treasurers too — Robyn Lewarne, the late
Elizabeth Walker, Mai Faul, and Kathy Wright —
worked congenially with me to ensure the
Society was kept on a sound financial footing.
Again these four have made a huge commitment
in time and expertise.

I have worked with many National Management
Committees over the years, many different
combinations of people, with amazing skills,
committed to improving the way the Society
achieves its objects, whilst keeping it relevant
and exciting. They have needed vision and
pragmatism in equal measure and it is a great
credit to all of them that this organisation has
grown in stature and complexity. NMC members
have almost without exception always been so
loyal and considerate to me and this has had a
huge impact on my work.

I’ve always been astounded by the exciting array
of events branch committees organise, advocacy

30

Australian Garden History, 24 (2), October/November/December 2012

work they undertake, and projects they pursue.

Be they small or large these committees are crucial
to members, providing them with tangible reasons
for being part of the Society. What is astounding
is the way these branches take on the organisation
of the annual national conference. Often no one
on these committees has ever put on such a large
event before and to such exacting standards, but
every year without fail these conferences are every
bit as professional as any organised by specialists,
and bring together the best of speakers and the
most wonderful gardens and landscapes to visit.

I would like to pay special tribute here to all those
branch committees I have had the pleasure to
work with.

When I first starting working for the AGHS I saw
Richard Aitken as very much my mentor. I’m
sure he wasn’t aware of it but he helped me get to
know the history of the Society and through his
editorship of the journal (he was co-editing with
Georgina Whitehead at the time) to appreciate
the standards the Society aspired to, and the
journal in the ensuing years, edited primarily by
Trisha Burkitt, the late wonderful Nina Crone,
and now Richard and Christina Dyson, has
continued to reflect these very exacting standards.
The importance of the journal to members is a
testament to this.

Anyone who has been on Trisha’s tours knows how
wonderful they are. Trisha shares with others her
passion for the subject matter and teaches through
stories and sheer exuberance a deeper way to look
at gardens and the landscapes they inhabit. It has
been a special pleasure of mine to have the chance
to work with her on just a few of these.

The AGHS office is a very busy place with the
equivalent of just one full-time staff member. It is
easy to appreciate then how heavily I have relied
on volunteers to assist me on a weekly, fortnightly,
or monthly basis. I would like to express my
sincerest appreciation to those who have assisted
me at different times over the years, in particular
Laura Lewis, Kathy Wright, John and Beverley
Joyce, the sadly missed Bronwen Merrett, Ann
Rayment, Cate McKern, and Helen Page. And I
thank too the journal packing volunteers who so
willingly responded to my regular call for help.
Lachlan Garland too has been a stalwart volunteer
in keeping the website up to date despite my
often scant and poorly timed instructions.

I wish also to pay tribute to Janet Armstrong
who continues to bring her considerable skills to

the job of Administrative Assistant. I was very
fortunate to have had such an amenable and hard
working colleague.

As always, there are challenges ahead for the
Society; but with a strong NMC, active branches,
superb editors, wonderful staff, and a solid
membership I believe that the Society is well
equipped to tackle these challenges. If I may be
forgiven for making one parting request it is that
members actively firm up the Society’s future by
helping to broaden the membership base — a gift
membership or a positive word to a friend would
go a long way in doing this.

My last words are to welcome my replacement
Phoebe LaGerche-Wijsman. I believe the NMC
has made a wonderful choice in Phoebe and I
have no doubt that you will welcome her as the
new face of the Society.

I wish to sincerely thank the NMC for such a
lovely farewell function, the Patron, John Dwyer
and Colleen Morris for their kind words, the
bestowing on me of honorary life membership
to the Society — an honour I am extremely
touched by, the gorgeous flowers, and the
most beautiful gift of a Georg Jensen bracelet
Simply overwhelming! Thank you also to all
who attended and those who over the last few
months have so kindly sent cards and emails
thanking me and wishing me well.

Jackie Courmadias and
former AGHS National
Chair Colleen Morris at
a recent annual national
conference.

PhotoiTrisha Burkitt

Australian Garden History, 24 (2), October/November/December 2012

31

Profile: Phoebe LaGerche-Wijsman

Executive Officer Phoebe
LaGerche-Wijsman brings
a rich and complementary
suite of skills to the AGHS
as well as a background
with roots in Australian
garden history itself.

I have the garden of a girl
who can’t say ‘no’ due to my
constant curiosity and love for
plants. All plants offered from
friends and family or found
wanting a new home are always
welcome; it’s just hard to keep
finding places for them in an
inner-city terrace ! The cultivation of this tendency
I attribute to my grandmother as I spent many
hours as a child in her large East Ivanhoe garden;
gardening, weeding, pruning, and burning-off!

‘Just gathering a bit of seed, dear’ or ‘Taking a little
cutting’ and ‘doing a bit of light pruning’, were
familiar refrains accompanying the popping into her
pocket a little something gleaned from another’s
garden as we passed by. My mother, who grew up
in Heidelberg when it was mostly farms along the
Yarra, was also always encouraged to garden from a
young age with a plot of her own to garden in. I too
was given a plot of my own when I was little. She
recently bought a garden (the house was secondary)
near Ballarat to retire to.

The La Gerche and Robinson (my grandmother’s
side of the family) genes are strong in our family, in
particular the preservation of our natural and built
history. I have many family members interested
and involved in architecture, horticulture,
archaeology, art, and history. We’re all very keen
gardeners and generous providers of cuttings.

I have taken part in re vegetation projects on
public and private lands, where I’ve planted
saplings that I’ve grown from seed and cuttings.

I find there can be almost nothing more inspiring
than watching a eucalypt grow from seed.

the early-fifties and is recognised as Australia’s
first glass curtain wall ‘skyscraper’ and one of
the buildings responsible for ushering in the
international Modern aesthetic to Melbourne
in the prelude to the 1956 Olympic Games. It’s
listed by the National Trust and was designed by
my grandfather, architect John Alfred La Gerche.
His sister Eugenie La Gerche, my great aunt, was
a botanical illustrator and a very passionate and
precise gardener.

My great grandfather was also an architect, Alfred
Romeo La Gerche. He designed the Old Arts
building at The University of Melbourne and was
chief architect for the Victorian State Electricity
Commission, for whom he designed the Yallourn
township and buildings, modelled on the English
‘Garden City’. My great great grandfather, John
La Gerche, was a forester and known for his
revegetation work at Creswick after the gold rush.

My own formal efforts with plants began with
the establishment of my own floristry business.
This proved to be rather successful and after a
few years, keen to apply my craft at a larger scale,
I was accepted into the landscape architecture
course at RMIT. Here, Jane Shepherd made the
strongest impression with her passion and talent
for intertwining plants and design, much like the
practice of landscape architect, plantsperson, and
AGHS member, Paul Thompson, whom I also
greatly admire.

Serendipity led me into the media side of design
and gardens. After a period with the Australian
Institute of Landscape Architects and Australian
Institute of Architects (Victorian Chapters),
and then as a communications coordinator for
a large architecture and design firm, I worked
as a researcher and writer for the ABC program
Gardening Australia. One of the great rewards of
this type of work, having found a suitable media-
worthy garden, was getting to know the people,
the gardeners connected with it, and discovering
their depth of knowledge and affection for the
plants that they grew and nurtured.

I’m also a keen letter writer, and am pleased
advocacy is a prominent aspect of the AGHS’s
concerns. Two of my recent pet projects have
been lobbying for the protection of the Bacchus
Marsh Avenue of Honour and, on a more personal
note, saving 100 Collins Street. Also known as
Gilbert Court, this building was designed in

Now I’m here, where I have been reacquainting
myself with the Royal Botanic Gardens which
are right at the door of AGHS HQ. Sharing Gate
Lodge with the Lriends of the Royal Botanic
Gardens Melbourne is a constant delight, and I’m
very much looking forward to meeting more of the
wider AGHS community soon.

32

Australian Garden History, 24 (2), October/November/December 2012

pia xyjja tes

OCTOBER 2012

Thursday 4

Managing change in Sydney's RBG

SYDNEY

Talk by Stuart Read entitled ‘Managing change in the Royal Botanic Garden, Sydney’. This is a joint event with the Royal Botanic
Garden, Sydney 5.30-7.30pm, Maiden Theatre, Royal Botanic Garden. Gost: $30 AGHS members/RBG Friends, $40 guests.
Bookings essential. Bookings taken by the RBG Friends on (02) 923 I 8 1 82 or email friends@rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au

Sunday 7

Walking in historic Kangaroo Point

QUEENSLAND

Historic walk through Yu ngaba, from 1887 the Kangaroo Point Immigration Depot, historic Captain Burke and CT White parks, old
Kangaroo Point Gaol, to St Mary’s Anglican church, and afternoon tea in Kangaroo Point Park caf . 1 0am, ‘Garnish’ for brunch, cnr
Rotherham and Goodwin Streets, Kangaroo Point (Refidex Map 23 E I), or I 1 .30am,Yungaba, riverside walkway (Map 19 E 19).
Cost: $ 1 0 members, $ 1 5 visitors. Please RSVP to Elizabeth Teed, geteed@bigpond.com or (07) 385 I 0568

Sunday 7 | Camden Park SYDNEY

Self-drive private visit to Camden Park house, garden, and nursery. 2-4pm, meeting place TBC when booking. Cost: $20 members,
$30 guests, includes light afternoon tea. Bookings essential. Bookings and enquiries to Jeanne Villani on (02) 9997 5995 or

Jeanne@Villani.com

Monday 15

George Chapman's Angas Street garden

SOUTH AUSTRALIA

Betsy Taylor of NSW won the AGHS SA Branch Essay Prize 2011, for a paper on her grandfather George Chapman’s garden on
Angas Street near East Terrace. 7pm, Barr Smith Library, University of Adelaide. RSVP to Ray Choate, (08) 8267 3 106 or

ray.choate@adelaide.edu.au

Saturday 20

Illawarra orchard, Karragullen

Further details to be advised in the forthcoming Branch newsletter

WESTERN AUSTRALIA

Sunday 21

Armidale gardens

NORTHERN NSW

Bus tour of gardens north of Armidale including Balaclava, Ollera, Glen Legh, and Rosecroft; these are some of the gardens being
considered for the AGHS 2013 Conference Optional DayTour For information contact Bill Oates on woates@une.edu.au or
Helen Nancarrow on helennancarrow@bigpond.com

Friday 26

Self-drive tour: Bungendore and Lake Bathurst area

SOUTHERN HIGHLANDS & ACT/RIVERINA/MONARO

A joint event, exploring three country gardens in the Lake Bathurst district: Palerang, Bongalabi, and Terry Hie. Morning tea will be
provided by the committee. Enquiries to Lynette Esdaile on (02) 4887 7122 orgarlynar@bigpond.com

NOVEMBER 2012

Thursday 1

The 'Ornate Effects' of Monsieur Marot

SYDNEY

Robert Nash will present an illustrated talk entitled ‘The man who did everything: the “Ornate Effects’’ of the amazing Monsieur
Marot’. 6pm for 7-8.30pm, Annie Wyatt Room, National Trust Centre, Observatory Hill. Cost: $20 members, $30 guests, includes
light refreshments. Bookings essential. Bookings and enquiries to Jeanne Villani on (02) 9997 5995 orJeanne@Villani.com

Sunday 4

Visit to Markree

TASMANIA

Morning lectures and lunch at the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery followed by a guided tour of the Markree house and
garden, 145 Hampden Road, Hobart. For further details email Elizabeth Kerry at liz.kerry@keypoint.com.au or Mike Evans at

wilmotarms@bigpond.com

Friday 9-Sunday 11 | AGEIS Annual National Conference, Ballarat, Victoria

The Australian Garden History Society’s 33rd Annual National Conference will be held in Ballarat in late Spring,

9-1 I November 2012.

Australian Garden History, 24 (2), October/November/December 2012

33

NORTHERN NSW

Sunday 25

Christmas get-together

Christmas get-together at Richard Bird and Lynne Waiker’s home, Heatherbrae. For detaiis and information contact Biii Oates on

woates@une.edu.au or Heien Nancarrow on helennancarrow@bigpond.com

DECEMBER 2012

Sunday 2 | Christmas party TASMANIA

Piease note that the venue has been changed due to unforeseen circumstances. Detaiis of a new venue are being finaiised. Emaii
Eiizabeth Kerry at liz.kerry@keypoint.com.au or Mike Evans at wilmotarms@bigpond.com for further detaiis.

Sunday 2 ^ End of year celebration QUEENSLAND

Reiax on the deck at John Tayior’s house, and enjoy the company of feiiow members, taik about gardens seen this year; and what
we may see in 20 i 3. 5.30-8pm, i i Joynt Street, Hamiiton (Refidex Map i40 H i 6). Cost: no charge, finger food wiii be provided.
Piease RSVP to Eiizabeth Teed, geteed@bigpond.com or (07) 385 i 0568.

Thursday 6

The coming of the Kauris

SYDNEY

Taik by Professor David Mabberiey entitied The coming of the Kauris: Agath is and after’. This is a joint event with the Royai Botanic
Garden, Sydney. 5.30-7.30pm, Maiden Theatre, Royai Botanic Garden. Cost: $30 AGHS members/RBG Friends, $40 guests.

Bookings essentiai. Bookings taken by the RBG Friends on (02) 923 i 8 i 82 or emaii friends@rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au

Thursday 6

Christmas party

SOUTHERN HIGHLANDS

Christmas drinks at Hiii View, the former Governor’s residence, Sutton Forest. Enquiries to Lynette Esdaiie on (02) 4887 7 i 22 or

garlynar@bigpond.com

Sunday 9 | Christmas get-together SYDNEY

4.30-8pm, Eryidene Historic House & Garden, Gordon. Cost: $20 members, $30 guests, inciudes iight refreshments.

Bookings essentiai. Bookings and enquiries to Jeanne Viiiani on (02) 9997 5995 orJeanne@Villani.com

John Dwyer, ‘Garden piants and wiidfiowers in Hamiet’

(from page 8)

References

E. Cobham Brewer; Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, Casseii,

London, i895.

Nichoias Cuipepen The Complete Herbal (i 653), Thomas
Keiiy, London, i 850.

John Gerard;Thomas Johnson (ed.). The Herball or General
Historie of Plantes, A. isiip, J. Norton, and R. Whitakers,
London, i 633.

M. Grieve; Mrs C.F. (Hiida) Leyei (ed.), A Modem Herbal
( i 93 i), Tiger Books internationai, London, i998.

Richard Mabey, Weeds, Profiie Books, London, 20 i 0.

Luciiie Newman, ‘Opheiia’s herbai’. Economic Botany, 33 (2),
i 979, pp.227-32.

F. G. Savage, The Flora and Folk Lore of Shakespeare,

Ed.J. Burrow & Co. Ltd, Cheitenham & London, i923.

Paui Turner (ed.), Pliny’s Natural History, Centaur Press,
London, i962.

ivan Barko, ‘The Erench Garden at La Perouse’

(from page iO)

Notes

Both the forms ‘Lap rouse’ and ‘La P rouse’ were used in
the navigator’s iifetime, but he signed ‘Lap rouse’ in one
word. The correct speiiing for the area in the Randwick
Municipaiity is La Perouse.

1 Letter to Lecouiteux de ia Noraye, 7 February i788,
transiated by John Dunmore, in Where Fate Beckons:
the life of Jean-Frangois de La P rouse, ABC Books,
Sydney, 2006, pp.248, 275.

2 Phiiip Gidiey King, Private Journai,Voi. i, p.95 (27
January - i February i 788), State Library of New
South Waies, Manuscript (Safe i / i 6).

3 Victor Lottin (transiated by ivan Barko), quoted in
Frangois Beiiec, Les Esprits de Vanikoro: le myst re
Lap rouse, Gaiiimard, Paris, 2006, pp.37-38.

4 Ren Primev re Lesson, Voyage autour du monde:
entrepris par ordre du gouvernement sur la corvette
La Coquille, R Pourrat Fr res, Paris, i 838-39;
transiated by Henry Seikirk in ‘La Perouse and
the French monuments at Botany Bay’, The Royal
Australian Historical Society - journal and Proceedings,
i9i8,Voi. iV, PartVii, pp.349-50.

34

Australian Garden History, 24 (2), October/November/December 2012

In praise of working bees

Fran Paul & Malcolm Paul

A house can survive neglect for some years and look
little different. But a garden is a fragile thing — if there
is no work on a garden for just one year, it becomes an
impenetrable wilderness of weeds, creepers and foliage.
Leave it for lo years and it is all but irretrievable. All
gardeners know this.

So to find an historic garden in private hands and well
maintained is to find a true miracle, for it has come
through several generations, with each generation
caring for the garden and retaining the essence of its
character. If just one of those generations has other
priorities, either by choice or necessity, the historic
garden is lost.

Moreover, a historic home is immeasurably
diminished if it does not have a surrounding landscape
complementary to the period of the house. It is even
better to have the original design, which willing
workers may discover by some simple archaeology —
shapes of beds and paths may be found by a little
investigating and a lot of cutting back. Even better,
when knowledgeable participants can offer advice on
plants available in the period, rather than defaulting to
modern cultivars.

We all have an interest in culturally significant gardens.
And, if we are honest, it is the grand gardens that

we like to enjoy. But without generations of owners
lavishing labour and love of those gardens, we have
nothing to enjoy. The National Trust was born out of a
desire to save significant buildings and to encourage the
wider community to value, maintain and conserve these
assets. The Australian Garden History Society is in part
a child of the National Trust: from its outset, it has had
a major objective of encouraging the conservation of
our stock of historic gardens, both public and private.

Working bees should be a major tool for the Society
to work towards this objective. Consider the
scenario of a fourth-generation farmer inheriting a
nineteenth-century house and large garden. Farm
prices have deteriorated over many years. Perhaps
some of the land has been sold off. Suddenly the new
owner is confronted with difficult choices — a farm
always needs investment in maintenance or equipment.
The garden may originally have had several gardeners;
now there are none. The house itself needs major
maintenance and updating. It is so easy to lose a garden
in the face of these competing pressures.

A working bee is a way to say to an owner or custodian
that they manage a significant asset, one that it is
worth conserving, and that the Society — and hopefully
the wider community — values this asset. Hopefully,
a working bee goes some way towards tipping the

A typical working bee team (atTurkeith) with young apprentice gardeners.

Australian Garden History, 24 (2), October/November/December 2012

35

\y ^ \

Shirley Goldsworthy Sally Randal, and Pamela Jellie planting at Glenara.

owner’s competing priorities in favour of the garden.
Testimonials of appreciation from owners seem to bear
this out.

But a working bee is more than a mark of appreciation.
There are benefits for the workers. It is always more
fun working in a group than alone. There is information
to be shared, plants to be exchanged, major tasks to
be made less onerous. Sometimes we discuss ways to
make a garden more manageable. There is always a
sense of achievement. Benefits always flow both ways.
Workers benefit from such joys as a day in the country,
leisurely chats with other participants, and an exchange
of knowledge and expertise. Sometimes there is special
interest; such as working with a professional dry stone
waller to reconstruct a languishing entrance to the
garden at Turkeith (Birregurra, Vic.) and finding on the

next visit that the owners had been inspired to restore
the full length of the wall.

Working bees should be a significant part of our
activities: is there a better way to fulfil the AGHS
mission of ‘concern for and conservation of significant
landscapes and historic gardens’ ? All expertise is
welcome. But no specific expertise is required for
volunteers — sign up now for a very special and
rewarding experience. It is one thing to visit and admire
a garden with a busload of others. It is quite another to
work alongside the owner with no one else in sight and
begin to feel a love of the place. All it needs is you!

Fran Paul coordinates working bees for the Victorian Branch
of the Australian Garden History Society; Malcolm Paul is a
former treasurer of the Society.

AUSTRALIAN

GARDEN

HISTORY

SOCIETY

Mission Statement

The Australian Garden History Society is the leader in concern for and conservation of significant cultural
landscapes and historic gardens through committed, relevant and sustainable action.

Phone: 03 9650 5043 ■ ToIIfree: 1800 678 446 ■ www.gardenhistorysociety.org.au