Australian Vol. 24 No. 1 July/August/September 2012 HISTORY Vi landscapes . , Guilfoyle centenary Marginalia arnplified ... JOURNAL OFTHE AUSTRALIAN GARDEN HISTORY SOCIETY Cover: As Australia was metamorphosing during the 1 820s and 1 830s into a settler society British gardening writer J.C. Loudon was proclaiming his message with almost religious fervor ‘It is much to be wished, that large public gardens, combining, as far as practicable, every branch of the art, were established near all our principal towns, as places of public resort, recreation, and instruction.' This desirability of public parks and gardens was a message heeded by colonists and their legislatures alike (demonstrated here by Melbourne Botanic Gardens in 1 875 — see article on page 6) but eternal vigilance is now needed to safeguard this heritage. Detail from plan acconnpanying William Gullfoyle's 1875 annual report on the Melbourne Botanic Gardens (private collection) Right: Sweeps of silver-grey and mauve amongst the granite boulders and eucalypts atWillawa, Moonbah, photographed on the AGHS autumn tour of the Monaro. (See pages 30-3 1 for tour report.) Photo: Howard Tanner AUSTRALIAN GARDEN HISTOBY SOCIETY 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 vww^.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+ issues $ 1 2 1 each) 1/4 page $220 (2+ 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 VIC 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 (1), July/August/September 2012 From the chair Contents John Dwyer Before Victoria: William Guilfoyle in New South Wales STUART READ 4 This issue of our journal celebrates the centenary of William Guilfoyle’s death, with leading articles about aspects of the life and work of this master of landscape. The conservation of Guilfoyle’s renowned Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne was considered at the successful seminar conducted recently by the Victorian Branch of the Society, at which landscape architect Andrew Laidlaw explained how he has sought to maintain Guilfoyle’s vision in dealing with the changes that have inevitably occurred in a garden designed and constructed more than a century ago. The significant cultural landscapes of Australia extend, of course, beyond those created by Guilfoyle and the Australian Garden History Society is a leader in concern for their conservation. We have been actively involved in the conservation of historic public parks, gardens, and designed landscapes ranging from the Avenue of Honour at Bacchus Marsh to the Walter Burley Griffin designed vista from Parliament House to the Australian War Memorial at Canberra. Advocacy by the Society has played a part in achieving successful outcomes in these and other cases. But there are constant threats to significant public landscapes and trees from development proposals, and eternal vigilance is needed to safeguard our heritage. Threats come not only from development. Exotic trees are key components of our significant landscapes in public gardens and street planting, as well as the countryside. Many are now under threat. In part the pressure is based on a widespread belief that introduced plants do not belong here and native plants should be preferred. Many introduced trees, such as willows, are now said to be weeds, and are being removed from urban and rural landscapes regardless of their cultural significance. Accepting that change over time is inevitable, the challenges to the conservation of landscapes presented by change vary. The recent ten-year drought in many parts of Australia brought home the reality of tree senescence and death. Many factors in addition to drought give rise to challenges to conservation. They include development and infrastructure proposals, as well as environmental factors such as changing weather patterns as part of climate change. The forthcoming issue (Volume 3) of Studies in Australian Garden History has as its theme ‘Managing change in historic landscapes’. As individual gardeners and collectively as a Society, there are many conservation challenges ahead. In the margins: William Guilfoyle in conversation with Ferdinand von Mueller JANET HEYWOOD 6 Conserving Bendigo's legacy of significant parks and gardens TIM BUYKX 10 'Get Guilfoyle': a re-discovered landscape by one of Australia's great landscape designers LEE ANDREWS 13 The great hedge at Buda DIANNE THOMSON 18 A voice in the wilderness: Gwenda Sheridan, cultural landscape crusader MANDY STROEBEL 21 For the bookshelf 25 Recent releases 26 Dialogue 27 AGHS News 28 Monaro gardens: AGHS Autumn Tour, 23-27 April 2012 HOWARD TANNER 30 Profile: Laurel Cheetham 32 Diary dates 33 'Capturing Flora: 300 years of Australian botanical art' at the Art Gallery of Ballarat' GORDON MORRISON 35 Australian Garden History, 24 (1), July/ August/September 2012 3 Stuart Read Before Victoria : William Guilfoyle in New South Wales Albury Botanic Gardens is one of many New South Wales gardens where input from William Guilfoyle is part of their design history evidence of the far-reaching influence of this prolific designer Photo: Richard Aitken The work of William Guyilfoyle (1840-1912) from the early 1870s, especially redesigning Melbourne Botanic Garden, is justifiably celebrated, but skills and experience gained during his early life in New South Wales were vital to his successful career. The first 33 years brought influences used all William Guilfoyle’s life. His father Michael helped lay out entrepreneur T.S. Mort’s Greenoaks, Darling Point: ‘finest in the colony’. Mort leased land to Guilfoyle Senior on which he established in 1851 his ‘Exotic Nursery’. The house still stands on the corner of Scott and Ocean Streets. Remnant figs, black bean, araucarias, and jacarandas (Guilfoyle Snr perfected their propagation) pepper Ocean Street today. Overthorpe, Sir William Hay’s ‘botanic garden’ is nearby: its microclimate allows huge rainforest trees, palms, and ferns — familiar to William. Michael Guilfoyle is attributed (by William, talking to J.H. Maiden) with ‘scores’ of Sydney gardens. One is Ginnahgulla, Bellevue Hill (John Fairfax’s home). Elements survive: stone works, fountain, Norfolk Island, Cook, and Hoop Pine, Kauri, Moreton Bay and Port Jackson figs. One source attributes to him Clarens, Potts Point, although this may have been jacaranda supply only. Michael was involved with Argyle Place, and supplied 1870 plantings for and was on the Horticultural Society committee managing the layout of Prince Alfred Park. William Guilfoyle was schooled privately by his Huguenot uncle Eouis Delafosse, botanist Rev. William Woolls, plant hunter John McGillivray, scientist William Sharp Macleay, and at St Mary’s College at Eyndhurst. This property, formerly James Bowman’s estate, enjoyed renowned parkland, possibly designed by nurseryman, Thomas Shepherd (who was familiar with J.C. Eoudon’s writings). Eoudon’s books were held locally and all these may have influenced William. In 1868 Guilfoyle was aboard HMS Challenger collecting in the South Pacific armed with a dozen Wardian cases from Charles Moore, director of 4 Australian Garden History, 24 (1), July/August/September 2012 Sydney Botanic Gardens. On his return Moore took six, giving the rest to Michael Guilfoyle, leading to introductions of crotons, coral trees, hibiscus, Auranticarpa (syn. Pittosporum) rhombifolium, frangipani, breadfruit, and Cordyline fruticosa (syn. Dracaena guilfoylei). Guilfoyle published ‘A botanical tour amongst South Sea Islands’ in the Sydney Mail in 1868 describing a trip which opened his eyes to tropical plants, variegated foliage, and strong colour contrasts: all ongoing influences. Moore’s collecting (South Pacific, NSW, and Queensland rainforests) led to Sydney Botanic Gardens’ palm grove (1862) and outstanding subtropical collections. He also extended the lower gardens into F arm Cove for strolling on curving paths. All his life Guilfoyle spoke admiringly of these gardens. Moore also helped landscape Rookwood Necropolis (1868), popular for outings: including visits by Guilfoyle perhaps ? From Melbourne, Ferdinand Mueller tried to coax Guilfoyle to explore Papua New Guinea. He wrote, sometimes weekly. In 1869 William went to Cudgen in the Tweed to run his father’s nursery and experimental garden. And find plants in Scenic Rim and Mount Warning rainforests dense with trees, especially figs (‘Fantastic monster of the forest ... covered in orchids’), climbers, and ferns, including staghorns (later used as column capitals in Melbourne Botanic Gardens’ Temple of the Winds). Melbourne’s Australian Border and Fern Gully were echoes of the Tweed. From the 1860s, Sydney held intercolonial exhibitions in Prince Alfred Park including horticultural products. The 1879 International Exhibition in Sydney’s Domain (with surrounds landscaped by Moore) was popular, and may have influenced Guilfoyle. Albury Botanic Garden (established 1877) took advice from Guilfoyle in 1886, no doubt assisting in softening its Union Jack paths into today’s sinuous paths, sweeps of lawn, and rainforest plant collection. He also designed the Principal’s garden at Hawkesbury Agricultural College on an 1894 visit: its impressive drive, shrubbery, and fairy circle — planted by others — may owe allegiance. Stoneville station, Gundaroo (now Bowylie’s garden), is attributed to Guilfoyle, a friend of owners, the Masseys. Much modified after 1904 and since 1995, its pines, elms, and basic layout may be the few Guilfoylean components left. Guilfoyle is also attributed with a 1904 revamp of the 1850s Yabtree station, Nangus (near Wagga) for the Horsleys. Its long drive of elms and white poplars leads through parkland to a spacious garden with simple layout and features typical of his work — Horsley family history attributes its design to him. In all, these are tantilising glimpses, and much research and evidence remains to be uncovered in New South Wales of this prolific and talented designer. Thick sub-tropical vegetation on Mount Warning, on the northern coast of New South Wales, a key early environmental and aesthetic influence on the young William Guilfoyle when stationed at the family’s Tweed River settlement during the early 1870s. Photo Richard Aitken Stuart Read presented this paper to the recent AGHS William Guilfoyle seminar and extends special thanks to Elisha Long (Lyndhurst), David Sheedy (Ginahgulla), Trisha Burkitt (Yabtree), and Peter Lister (Hawkesbury Agricultural Gollege) for information about these properties. A detailed bibliography is available on request from the author stuartl962@bigpond.com Australian Garden History, 24 (1), July/ August/September 2012 5 V /A tty Janet Heywood In the margins: William Guilfoyle in conversation with Ferdinand von A/Lueller Guilfoyle’s landscaping of Melbourne Botanic Gardens combined plants, buildings, and other embellishments to create his preferred mode of picturesque or 'scenic' gardening, handling diverse elements in a controlled manner that his predecessor Mueller had never quite mastered. Private collection In the marginal annotations of a pamphlet written by Ferdinand von Mueller, we can discern William Guilfoyle's unguarded thoughts on the design of botanic gardens combining ornament and instruction. 'Avoid extremes' ‘Avoid extremes’ — or so the title page motto warned the reader, A message clearly not lost on William Robert Guilfoyle, whose close reading of ‘The objects of a botanic garden in relation to industries’ remains today in the margins of his copy held in the library of the Royal Botanic Gardens Sydney. The text of a lecture delivered by Ferdinand von Mueller, then Government Botanist and Director of Melbourne Botanic Gardens, at the Industrial and Technological Museum, November 1871, this pamphlet was a lengthy exposition on ‘true’ botanic gardens and ‘how far their legitimate functions are generally recognised at the present day’. At the time of this lecture William Guilfoyle was living in the Tweed River valley in northern New South Wales on the family sugar plantation and sub-tropical nursery. Already an accomplished plant collector and landscape designer in Sydney, he had been recruited by Mueller in 1867 to provide plant specimens for Melbourne Botanic Gardens. And throughout the intervening years they had maintained a steady correspondence and botanical exchange. But events in 1873 were to be a watershed not only for the Melbourne Botanic Gardens but also in the lives of these two men. In January, Mueller was finally removed as Director (although he remained as Government Botanist until his death in 1896). There followed several months of government indecision as to a suitable replacement. Sometime in June interviews were conducted by government representatives in Sydney and William Guilfoyle was one of the candidates. He was successful and took up his appointment as temporary curator in July and by 6 Australian Garden History, 24 (1), July/August/September 2012 V in August had submitted his first report. Guilfoyle’s confirmation as director came in 1875, submitted an ambitious plan for redevelopment (see cover illustration). Linking 'Phytologic instruction' with 'the picturesque' In reading Guilfoyle’s marginalia today how fresh and alive it seems. Much more than thinking aloud or heckling from the sidelines, he engages directly — and critically — with Mueller’s belief that botanic gardens should be the province of botanical science and ‘phytologic instruction’. Garden design was therefore driven by scientific imperatives rather than aesthetics: classification of plants and geographic distribution determined the layout of Mueller’s Melbourne Gardens plan. In Guilfoyle’s view, these two need not be competing interests or ‘clash with the picturesque’. His remark was prophetic. William Guilfoyle has been characterised by his biographers R.T.M. Pescott as ‘the master of landscaping’ (1974) and Paul Fox as ‘the colonial aesthete’ (2004). Once appointed to Melbourne, he introduced a bold new scheme, upending Mueller’s footprint in the process. He eliminated a network of narrow pathways and avenues, dismantled the pinetum, removed indigenous and established trees by transplanting some throughout the grounds, removed the zoo and aviary, and corrected issues of drainage and water supply. In their place, Guilfoyle introduced broad sweeping pathways and walkways, created extensive lawns, established a fern gully, and further developed the lake as a central focal point. He augmented plant species to include additional tropical and sub-tropical plants and those noted for their colour and bold foliage. For William Guilfoyle the ‘picturesque’ was more than a garden style. It was the guiding principal in his landscape design. Guided by Charles Moore’s design of Sydney Botanic Gardens and drawing on vistas and landscapes seen during his travels in the South Pacific islands and the Tweed hinterland (as for instance, at Mount Warning), he aimed to recreate their naturalistic equivalents in the Melbourne Gardens. And expand and popularise the botanical experience in the process. 'Why not combine all?' William Guilfoyle’s comments are like a conversation with someone he respects and takes seriously. But whose shoes he may be about to fill ! In hazarding a date when these comments were written it is plausible to think it was sometime in 1873. Possibly as a rehearsal or preparation for the job interview in Sydney. Or, perhaps post interview, they provided a checklist for the bureaucratic requirements of the top public servant he was or about to become. It seems unlikely they were written once his appointment had been confirmed. He swiftly got to work and within a month had submitted his first report on the Gardens. Also, there is something in his tone, an exuberance or excitement, which anticipates a possibility of success. His commentary, supplemented with scoring of selected text and read more than once, documents his thoughts at a critical and turbulent time for his future career and friendship with Mueller. This pamphlet was re-discovered recently in a bound volume bearing the spine title ‘Technological Museum Lectures [by] F. von Mueller etc.’ It had been accessioned into the Library of the then Sydney Botanic Gardens on 14 November 1908’, under the directorship of Joseph Maiden, ten months before William Guilfoyle retired. Several other works from his book collection were accessioned at the same time: those discovered to date are listed below, some still with Guilfoyle’s customary binding (half-bound black leather and marbled paper boards) for the Melbourne Botanic Gardens. Ferdinand von Mueller was a prolific correspondent and author who frequently inscribed his own works ‘regardfully yours’. Three of the pamphlets in this collection have been inscribed to William Guilfoyle, but not the Industrial and Technological Museum lectures (which contained Mueller’s ‘The objects of a botanic garden in relation to industry’). Interestingly, they reveal both the cooling of the friendship and information not previously recognised. The close friendship between Melbourne Botanic Gardens director Ferdinand von Mueller and his young prot g William Guilfoyle is revealed in this warm inscription from c. I 870-7 1 . Library of the Royal Botanic Gardens and Domain Trust, Sydney c. , 2 ^ /y// / '//r f /// > ■? z/v//' ON' lUU Australian Garden History, 24 (1), July/ August/September 2012 7 Books with a Guilfoyle provenance held by the library of the Royal Botanic Gardens and Domain Trust, Sydney The following books, now in the library of the Royal Botanic Gardens and Domain Trust, Sydney, were once in the library of William Guilfoyle at Melbourne Botanic Gardens. The bulk of this group was accessioned by Director Joseph Maiden at Sydney in 1908 and appears to have been consigned en b/oc. Although the largest surviving portion of Guilfoyle’s professional library is, not surprisingly, still held by the Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne, this Sydney group provides a representative insight into Guilfoyle’s interests: natural history, botany, sub-tropical plants, landscape design, and a special interest in New Zealand plants. 1771: [Thomas Whately], Observations on Modern Gardening, illustrated by descriptions, 3rd ed.,T. Payne, London, 1771. 1840: Mrs Loudon, Instructions in Gardening for Ladies, John Murray, London, 1840. 1 845: John Lindley, School botany; or The rudiments of botanical science, Bradbury & Evans, London, 1 845. I860: Ghristopher Dressen The Rudiments of botany. Structural and Physiological: being an Introduction to the study of the vegetable kingdom, and comprising the advantages of a full glossary of technical terms, James S. Virtue, London, I860. 1 867: Joseph Dalton Hooken Handbook of the New Zealand Flora: a systematic description of the native plants of New Zealand and the Ghatham, Kermadec’s, Lord Auckland’s, Gampbell’s, and Macquarie Islands, Reeve & Go., London, 1867. I860s-80s: Ferdinand von Mueller; bound collection of pamphlets including Australian Vegetation (1 867), On the Application of Phytology to the Industrial Purposes of Life ( 1 870), Forest Gulture In Its Relation to Industrial Pursuits (1871), The Principal Timber Trees Readily Eligible for Victorian Industrial Gulture (1871), The Objects of a botanic Garden in Relation to Industries ( 1 872), and The Natural Gapabllltles of the Golony of Victoria (1875). 1870: Richard Taylor; /Vlooh and English Dictionary, [George T Ghapman], Auckland, n.d.[l870]. 1871: David Thomson, Handy book of the Flower-garden being practical directions for the propagation, culture, and arrangement of plants in fower-gardens all the year round, 2nd ed., William Blackwood and Sons, Edinburgh & London, 1871. 1 872: James Boyd Davies; Robert Brown & James Middleton (eds). The Practical Naturalist's Guide, containing instructions for collecting, preparing, and preserving zoological specimens. New and enlarged edition, Maclachlan & Stewart, Edinburgh, 1 872. I875:W.J. Browne, Elementary Science Manuals, botany for Schools and Science C/osses, William Mullan, Belfast, 1875. 1876: Robt. RWhitworth (comp.), ballllere's Queensland Gazetteer and Road Guide, containing the most recent and accurate Information as to every place In the colony, with map, F.F. Bailliere, Brisbane, 1 876. 1 878: George Glenny Gardening for the Million and Amateur’s and Gottager’s Guide, New and Revised Edition, One Hundred and Thirty-fifth Thousand, Houlston and Sons, London, 1 878. I878:W.R. Guilfoyle, First book. Australian botany: specially designed for the use of schools. Illustrated by the author, 5. Mullen, Melbourne, 1878. c. 1879: George Glenny, The Properties of Flowers and Plants, being the acknowledged standard of perfection, originated and devised by George Glenny, F.R.H.S., 5th ed., Houlston and Sons, London, n.d. [by 1 879]. 1 879: Robt. RWhitworth (comp.), ballllere’s Victorian Gazetteer and Road Guide, containing the most recent and accurate information as to every place in the colony, with map, F.F. Bailliere, Melbourne, 1879. 1 880: William Ferguson, Cey/on Ferns and the Allies, with familiar notes on each species, “Ceylon Observer” Press, n.p., 1880. I882:J. Bowie Wilson, Report on the Present State and Future Prospects of Lord Howe /s/ond, Thomas Richards, Government Printer; Sydney, 1 882. 1 885: Frederick McGoy, Prodromus of the Zoology of Victoria: figures and descriptions of the living specimens of all classes of the Victorian indigenous on/ma/s, Volume I, John Ferres, Government Printer; Melbourne, 1 885. 1 886: William Ramsay McNab, botany: outlines of classification of plants, Longmans, Green, London, 1 886. c. 1894: Professor [i.e John] Lindley, Descriptive botany: or. The art of describing plants correctly In scientific language, for self-instruction, and the use of schools, 6th ed., Bradbury, Evans, and Go., London, n.d. bound with FM. Bailey, botany Abridged, or How to readily distinguish some of our common plants; to which are added a few additions to the companion for the Queensland student of plant life, Edmund Gregory, Government Printer; Brisbane, 1 894. Of particular interest is the reference to ‘Mueller’s Park’ inscribed on the 1870 pamphlet ‘On the application of phytology to the industrial Purposes of life’. R.T.M. Pescott, William Guilfoyle’s biographer and director of the Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne from 1957 to 1970, provides anecdotal evidence that suggests Mueller had lived in the Tweed area after Michael Guilfoyle (William’s father) had purchased land in the late 1860s at Cudgen. This has never been confirmed as fact. Pescott, however, cites correspondence (1870) from Mueller to Michael Guilfoyle in which he expresses a desire to purehase land in the area but that he has no available funds. Impressed by Mueller’s interest, Michael Guilfoyle proposed to name a section in his honour. But there is no evidence, to date, which proves this happened — except the reference in the re-discovered inscription! 8 Australian Garden History, 24 (1), July/August/September 2012 In conversation But getting back to the conversation revealed in the margins: shall we eavesdrop? FvM: ‘the original and ancient appellation of ‘botanic garden’ is hardly any longer applicable in the strict sense of the word . . . many of the numerous local gardens passing under this name, particularly in these colonies, have no claims whatever to such a designation.’ WRG: ‘Correct’/‘Those of Geelong, Ballarat, Sandhurst, Castlemaine are all called Botanical Gardens but they do not possess any scientific classification’ FvM-. ‘If much inconvenience was not involved by the alteration of the term it would be recommended to recognize the true botanic garden of this age as scientific gardens; while all those institutions in which no real phytologic researches are carried out . . . might well be called pleasure gardens or perhaps recreation grounds or parks, according to the design for which they are created, or in consonance with the requirements for which they are maintained.’ WRG: ‘this cannot be said of the Melbourne Bot Gardens now’ FvM: ‘As an universal rule, it is primarily the aim of such an institution to bring together with its available means the greatest possible number of select plants from all the different parts of the globe; and this is done to utilize them for easy public inspection, to arrange them in their impressive living forms, for a systematic, geographic, medical, technical or economic information, and to render them extensively accessible for original observations and careful records. By those means, not only the knowledge of plants in all its branches is to be advanced through local independent researches, conducted in a real spirit of science, but also phytologic instruction is to be diffused to the widest extent; while simultaneously, by the introduction of novel utilitarian species, local industries are to be extended, or new resources to be originated; and further, it is the aim to excite’ WRG: ‘Good’ / ‘But all of these need not clash with the picturesque’ FvM: ‘All other objects are secondary, or the institution ceases to be a real garden of science’ WRG: ‘Why not combine all ?’ FvM: ‘as the extent of the operations thus designed must very largely depend on the natural facilities and monetary means which are at command for the purpose.’ WRG: ‘True’ r i:. scicntiSc U Uit ftecemted 1y (lie: f-ijULrlilctiotl nr tlio priijiX'ly tif a j;;! TIjb iihjcctfi <'f ft tu'lnntc E;rir| fnriiiiw, ij-T nt'irrl tln-y ijj □(! tlioy uijiy lrt« e.Hirujilinlly lui^iliiii aiiil bciiJ rcrjuirtHiicirlH, in: mniiily f-rlijotiJic and vcr>:il riik\ R [« priiijnrlly Lhi5 bring tngfthi-r wicli iti riiVAit.ill imnihur iilnnt.’i fiiim ' gkibiJi and tliid h t-r iitilr tinfi, Iff nrrnijgii iIl- ih iu jln/u ijstyni.Uii', ijungriipLir, mati-Mi, Si nd lit rciiJer flfM-rvnrc-in5 iiijd Ciirtfiil rccnri 7^/ luhnvli-jgn (if pl.'UiU ][] all ■ *^-'Thri-ui:;h IixmI inilL'[fLcjil 42 nL rv- iij irU (if llElt B ^r| pEl hi [lie ivid«t csU'Hi; iirlCiii-hn'O..]] i.if iiuviil Litiljtnriintl bo nr ncir reooarecs it u ftti ahn li> i.xdio tll(:iroby sUt'-I/ ninl !iin|ilo iiLiiLuitbii of ov cf iTiijinrtiiiit diibtftances tlarl . AH ii'JnT ubjeetd ^ . I ba ft_rral i!tirdL*[i of ftcierEco. Jj tk&tc fnuilftriioraiil rutci uuy lij exlsiat (if tha opefatiom dofH^iiLj i.ih tha tJAtunil faueilitL RTo at conmuinU fw tJie pnrpoM went of ttjiy of Yxritfd mara (Jilltcitlt ill A ii«w ooaTib;]| tro 4iro fta. v(in(y vet iJiryniob / Marginal annotations by William Guilfoyle on his copy of The objects of a botanic garden in relation to industries’ (included in Industrial and Technological Museum, Melbourne, Lecture delivered ... during the Second Session of 1 87 1 , Samuel Mullen, Melbourne, 1 872) Library of the Royal Botanic Gardens and Domain Trust, Sydney FvM: ‘I have heard it often remarked by thoughtful and circumspect visitors, when they passed through our Botanic Garden, that now, for the first time, they had learnt from whence naturally came some particular plants, which they had reared for years at their dwellings; or that they had remained until then unaware of the name, or the native locality, or any other knowledge concerning plants, with which they had by sight long been familiar.’ WRG: ‘Where were the labels ?’ Envoi William Guilfoyle remained as Director for 36 years. A master animator, Melbourne Botanic Gardens came alive to the possibility of other vistas, and other worlds and states of being under his sure and steady hand. And that is the conclusion of history, a century after his death. But first, we catch a sense of things to come, in the margins, with Ferdinand von Mueller. Janet Heywood is undertaking an on-going project to catalogue the rare book collection held in the library of the Royal Botanic Gardens and Domain Trust, Sydney, and is currently involved in its Bicentenary Library Project. Australian Garden History, 24 (1), July/ August/September 2012 9 With its recent rejuvenation, standard massed floral displays at Bendigo Botanic Gardens (White Hills), seen above in 1 990 and characterising much municipal horticulture of that era, have now been replaced with thematic plantings (facing page) interpreting local botany, horticulture, and history. Photos Richard Aitken 10 Conserving Bendigo's legacy of significant parks and gardens Conservation planning has allowed the City of Greater Bendigo to identify culturally significant values of its historic parks and gardens, guiding subsequent master planning and development. Bendigo's parks and gardens Bendigo in central Victoria is a vibrant and growing commercial and service centre in central Victoria — one of the gems of the goldfields. Its combination of significant housing and commercial buildings, impressive streetscapes and parks, and the lifestyle in the pleasant climate makes Bendigo amongst the most attractive regional cities in the country. Associated with gold mining wealth comes not only the noted nineteenth-century architecture, but also a legacy of well-established public parks and gardens. These open spaces have been created and maintained over the last 150 years and form a central core to identity of the Bendigo region. Although recently affected by the severe water restrictions, climatic conditions, and (most recently) a large colony of grey-headed flying foxes, the main parks and gardens in Bendigo and their surrounds are an integral part of the city’s fabric. Three parks and gardens with outstanding cultural heritage significance form a green ‘string of pearls’ along the Bendigo creek, and the fourth is the main open space and park area for the significant township of Eaglehawk. In each case, the parks and gardens are linked to each other and the surrounding urban areas with a network of shared paths, meaning that these places are able to be used and valued by all the community. The City of Greater Bendigo manages Bendigo’s major public parks and gardens on behalf of the State of Victoria. As a local government authority, the responsibility of planning, preserving, interpreting, and maintaining these sites is core business. The City Council employs a range of skilled staff and consultants to undertake the on-going planning and management of these important cultural heritage sites, including ground staff with expertise in horticulture and arboriculture, to undertake operational maintenance, and open space planners and landscape architects to manage and guide the strategic direction for the city and its assets. The main historic parks of Bendigo are situated along the Bendigo Creek, with Rosalind Park (named after Shakespeare’s character from As You Like It) being the central space in the city. Lake Australian Garden History, 24 (1), July/August/September 2012 Weeroona is 2 km to the north and a further 2 kms north is the Botanic Gardens (known as Bendigo Botanic Gardens and formerly as White Hills Botanic Gardens): a cycle path along the creek now connects all three of these sites. The fourth, but by no means the least of the significant parks in the Bendigo area, is the Canterbury Gardens and Lake Neangar precinct in Eaglehawk, an historic mining township now part of the Bendigo urban area, but fiercely maintaining its unique identity. A strategic basis for conservation management planning Cultural heritage assets are regarded as key elements in the both the story and the economy of Bendigo. The legacy of architecture and gardens left by the gold rush has long been marketed as a key tourism asset and adds greatly to the sense of identity for Bendigonians. All Victorian councils are required to provide a Council Plan to guide the policy and strategic direction of the municipality for the four-year political term. The current Greater Bendigo Council Plan places a high degree of importance on the effective planning and management of heritage and open space assets. In 2005, as a high-level strategic policy document to guide the planning and management of the park system, the council adopted the Greater Bendigo Open Space Strategy. This identifies the needs of the significant park lands to have Master Plans and Management Plans drawn up to both inform the community of the long term goals and aspirations for each given site, but also to plan and budget for coming developments and requirements. As part of this process and in response to the clear demands Cartography Tristan Andrews from multiple sectors of our community, the preparation of conservation management plans for our significant parks has become a critical step in effective planning. The council has therefore recently commissioned and adopted Conservation Management Plans (CMPs) for the most significant sites, including The Fernery (a portion of Rosalind Park), Bendigo; Bendigo Botanic Gardens, White Hills; Lake Weeroona, Bendigo; Canterbury Gardens & Lake Neangar, Eaglehawk; and Lansell Gardens & Queen Victoria Gardens (part of Rosalind Park). The preparation of CMPs for these key sites is a significant step in a strategic undertaking to ensure that general planning and development of the park system does not compromise the cultural heritage aspects of these important sites. Australian Garden History, 24 (1), July/ August/September 2012 11 The conservation management planning process These Conservation Management Plans have been initiated by the council and prepared by heritage horticultural consultants Lee Andrews and Associates, each through a competitive tendering process. The plans have proved to be a great asset to the city and the community in identifying the key elements of cultural significance in the parks and gardens and allowing an informed community debate about subsequent planning and development proposals to occur. The CMPs provide the evidence-based research to allow informed design and development decisions to be made. The recognition of a thorough and robust process in dealing with cultural heritage assets has been valuable both from a planning point of view but also for the political decision- making process. The elected members of the Council have been able to make informed decisions about planning and development proposals based upon the information in the CMPs and know that they are following current ‘best practice’ for cultural heritage management. In turn, the community can be confident that the characteristics that make their city so special are being carefully and appropriately managed. For each site, the preparation of the CMP is the first step in a more detailed management strategy and for each site a subsequent master planning process is either underway or proposed. The CMP sets the parameters for the design and development of the new and contemporary elements that are required in a modern city. The Master Plans and subsequent development then allows the most significant cultural heritage assets to be showcased and interpreted, while the intrusive elements can be removed or down played with new design. Reasons for success As a relative newcomer to the community, at the beginning, I was able to challenge some of the long-held views in the community and encourage a new approach to planning for our historic parks. The combination of timing, political will, and pressures for development have meant that the conservation management planning process in Bendigo has been quite successful. The support of the senior management in the City, the recognition of landscapes as an important part of our City’s cultural heritage, and the pressure bought to bear by various community groups made the planning for our historic spaces a political winner. The subsequent support by the elected council members has meant that the values of cultural heritage planning are now imbedded at the commencement of further development work — rather than being given token acknowledgement at the end that so often happens. A period of effective planning has now clearly articulated the cultural heritage values of our important parks and provided a guide for future open space development of these assets. Tim Buykx is a consultant Landscape Architect with CPG Australia in Bendigo and was previously the Coordinator Landscape and Open Space Planning at the City of Greater Bendigo. Site-specific plans and outcomes Bendigo Botanic Gardens at White Hills, gazetted in 1 857, was the first of Bendigo’s reserves to be officially devoted to open space. The site is now being rejuvenated and extended, guided by a CMP and ambitious thirty-year Master Plan which recommends a significant increase in the size of the Gardens with restoration of the original layout The master planning process included various development options, draft designs, and proposals that have now been commented on by the community. The CMP was fundamental in the process and has allowed significant works to be planned to ensure a sensitive and historically accurate reconstruction can occur: in 2009-10 the council undertook reconstruction of the path network. Rosalind Park, at the centre of Bendigo and site of the original government camp, plays a key role in the cultural and recreational life of the city. The Park straddles Bendigo Creek and today hosts a legacy of significant buildings and features dating from the nineteenth century, as well as schools and other public facilities. Two CMPs have guided conservation works in key areas of the site. Lake Weeroona, two kilometres north of town, was developed by the City in response to other towns of similar stature also having developed urban lakes. In this case the transformation of a low piece of wasted land to a magnificent sheet of water and an important recreation ground was seen as a ‘coming of age’ for Bendigo. In the process of preparing the CMP some startling discoveries have been made (see following article article by Lee Andrews). Canterbury Park: In the ‘rivalry stakes’ the local war was between Bendigo and Eaglehawk Borough. In Eaglehawk, competition to rival Rosalind Park and other gardens saw the Borough develop a significant park and lake area. Council has now prepared a landscape master plan to meet the needs of the contemporary society for event space, recreation assets, and other community and environmental benefits. The master planning has been heavily influenced by the CMP prepared for the site. 12 Australian Garden History, 24 (1), July/August/September 2012 PLAN SHEWING f MP/iOyC^^f^TiS ^Jte/^oseo /■ , - NOL/fN S ' fi£S£/}y£ ^,r /■ / nr 3 //fj t A jjr/^€£- if - <1 Lee Andrews 'Get Guilfoyle': a re-discovered landscape by one of Australia's great landscape designers Conservation management plans of significant parks and gardens, such as Bendigo's Lake Weeroona, are enhancing our collective knowledge of Australian garden history, including the role of designer William Guilfoyle. The thrill of the chase Researching the history of gardens and landscapes can be a complicated and frustrating process. But occasionally serendipity or simply blind luck intervenes, and a scrawled note, a rumour, or throw-away comment leads to a wonderful and exciting discovery. Recently one such happy instance led to the identification of a previously unknown early landscape from the celebrated nineteenth-century landscape designer and director of the Melbourne Botanic Gardens, William Guilfoyle. Soon after Guilfoyle commenced the systematic and dramatic landscape transformation of the Melbourne Botanic Gardens in 1873, word quickly spread of his great skill as a landscape designer, and he became increasingly in demand around the colony. Over recent decades a search for verifiable ‘Guilfoyle landscapes’ has been conducted, resulting in a growing list of his both confirmed and suspected landscape designs. So, when in 2006 I discovered, in Bendigo’s 1878 council minutes, a cryptic note in the margin exclaiming ‘Get Guilfoyle’, I was understandably intrigued. Despite a close involvement researching Bendigo’s parks and gardens, I had never come across any association between Guilfoyle and that city (although I subsequently found the reference Paul Fox had made in his 2004 book Clearings). And so I began tracing the truth behind the tantalising command made so long ago. Detail: Outstanding garden history discoveries continue to be made in our archives and collections, and the c 1 878 plan from which this detail comes — probably not in William Guilfoyle’s hand, but the design attributed to him — ranks as one of the most significant new documents in the pantheon of Guilfoylean scholarship of the last two decades. Artist unknown, ‘Nolan St. Reserve' (detail), n.d., pendl, ink, and watercolour on paper: Collection Bendigo Art Gallery Australian Garden History, 24 (1), July/ August/September 2012 13 Guilfoyle's landscapes: the list to date During his long incunnbency at the Melbourne Botanic Gardens (1873- 1909) William Guilfoyle’s services were highly sought both by public institutions and private individuals, to advise, and in many cases, design or re-design, their parks and gardens.The list of Guilfoyle landscapes continues to grow. It has been confirmed that in addition to his duties at Melbourne Botanic Gardens, Guilfoyle implemented Joseph Sayce’s landscape plan forVictoria’s Government House and its surrounding Domain, and designed a number of metropolitan and provincial public and institutional gardens.These include Trinity Gollege Grounds, Parkville (1876), Warrnambool Botanic Gardens (1877), Koroit Botanic Gardens (1880), Horsham Botanic Gardens (1880), Stawell Hospital Gardens (cl 880), Horsham Hospital Gardens ( 1 880-8 1 ), Hamilton Botanic Gardens (1881), Prince’s Park, Maryborough (1883), Gamperdown Botanic Gardens and Public Park (1888-90), Melbourne Teachers’Training Gollege, Garlton ( 1 892), and the Japanese Garden in Melbourne’s Treasury Gardens (c. 1 904). He also visited and advised on Sale Botanic Gardens (1881) and drew up a plan, only partially implemented, to remodel Golac Botanic Gardens (1910). Guilfoyle also designed a number of private country gardens during the late 1 890s and early 1 900s.Those for which there is evidence of his involvement are Derriweit Heights, Mount Macedon (pre- 1 896), Dalvui,Terang ( 1 898), Mooleric, Birregurra ( 1 903- 1 0),Turkeith, Birregurra ( 1 905- 1 906), and Mawallok, Beaufort ( 1 909), and probably Banool, Yarra Glen, and his country property Mount Yule, Healesville. Indeed, so prolific a landscape designer did Guilfoyle become that he was censured by the Minister for Lands during the late I 870s for being away from his duties at the Melbourne Botanic Gardens too often, forcing Guilfoyle to use colleague Robert Percy Whitworth to complete (under his direction) plans for Koroit and Horsham Botanic Gardens in I 880, and the Stawell and Horsham Hospital Gardens (c. 1 880-8 1 ). Guilfoyle was further publicly criticised in the Leader in I 882 for neglecting the Melbourne Botanic Gardens in favour of designing for wealthy country patrons. One of those implicated is the homestead garden of Rosemount, Southern Gross, near Koroit, which he designed in 1 880. Many of these earlier private gardens are yet to be discovered. I had recently been engaged by the City of Greater Bendigo, in central Victoria, to research the history of its early parks and gardens in order to prepare conservation management plans to guide the future protection and development of each one. Thus I was in a privileged position to delve into the City’s comprehensive archives. And they didn’t disappoint. Within their pages I discovered a wealth of information about the long forgotten story of Guilfoyle and Bendigo. The beautifully handwritten council minutes clearly indicated that from as early as 1874, Bendigo (or Sandhurst as it was then known) council not only knew of the talented landscape designer but attempted to secure his services for designing the town’s central reserves. In another stroke of luck, a plan of Lake Weeroona (c.1878) was recently rediscovered after being lost and forgotten for 16 years. Dr Michele Matthews, Archives Officer with the Bendigo Regional Archives Centre, remembered discovering and cataloguing in 1993 an early plan of Lake Weeroona bearing Guilfoyle’s name. After a protracted search, and with the assistance of local garden designer, horticulturist, and writer Kevin Walsh, the plan was discovered in a drawer at the Bendigo Art Gallery. Although probably not in Guilfoyle’s hand, it is the only contemporary plan linking the designer to Lake Weeroona yet uncovered. Attracting William Guilfoyle Bendigo, like other nineteenth century townships throughout Victoria, had been originally laid out with generous provision for public parks, gardens, and reserves. In a town where gold mining had both delivered prosperity and ravaged the landscape, the importance of such green spaces was particularly strong. By 1861, Bendigo’s botanic garden, in the nearby hamlet of White Hills, had been laid out, and by the early 1870s the council was keen to beautify two additional reserves in the town centre. One, the former site of a government camp, had already undergone some improvement — this would later become Rosalind Park. The other, a dusty, mining-ravaged section of the Bendigo Greek, was to be transformed into ‘an ornamental reserve and lake’ under a plan proposed by Mayor Dugald Macdougall, who saw the site as Bendigo’s answer to rival Ballarat’s Lake Wendouree. Development of this site, initially named Nolan Street Reserve, was to be aided by a substantial government grant available to help fund such projects. In 1874 Bendigo council wrote to William Guilfoyle requesting his services for both reserves. Guilfoyle was, however, unavailable and council, eschewing his suggestion of another landscape designer, preferred to wait. 14 Australian Garden History, 24 (1), July/August/September 2012 Four years later, delayed but undeterred by the rather inconvenient routing of the Bendigo— Swan Hill rail line through the Nolan Street Reserve (1875—76), the council revisited plans to construct the lake and reserve. ‘Get Guilfoyle’ was the command recorded in the minutes of its meeting of 23 May 1878. This time, Guilfoyle was available. Guilfoyle in Bendigo Two months later, on 29 June 1878, William Guilfoyle arrived in Bendigo and proceeded to lay out ‘on the ground’ his design for what would soon become known as Lake Weeroona. ‘This gentleman arrived in Sandhurst on Saturday evening’, noted the Bendigo Advertiser (2 July 1878), ‘and yesterday set about the work of pegging off the ground’ : It is intended to fornn a large lake, which will have one or two islands, but care will be taken to give every facility the space at command permits for boating. Surrounding the lake there are to be walks and plots of ground planted with shrubs and grass. If Mr Guilfoyle's plan is carried out it will form a wonderful transformation to be made in what now is a most unsightly part of the city, and at the same time answer the purpose of providing a pleasant and very enjoyable place of retreat for the public. Mr Guilfoyle is much impressed with the site, and thinks it can be turned into an excellent reserve. While in Bendigo, Guilfoyle also visited the Botanic Gardens at White Hills, and the centrally located Rosalind Park, which had been further developed by Samuel Gadd over the previous four years, Guilfoyle having been unavailable for the task. Both sites had been under the curatorship of Gadd since 1873—74. According to newspaper reports, Guilfoyle was very impressed with the flourishing condition of both gardens. Thus began a relationship between the two men that, the record shows, involved the sharing of plants and local plant knowledge for many years. On 6 July 1878, the Parks Committee reported that Guilfoyle had devoted two days to examine the Nolan Street Reserve and lay it out: The design has been completed, marked off on the ground by pegs, and placed to scale, with levels taken as plan now produced. ... The Gommittee feel deeply indebted to Mr Guilfoyle for the great interest he has manifested in this project of the Gouncil, the zeal and industry he displayed in finishing the complete laying out of the grounds while in Sandhurst ... as well as his offer to again make periodical visits to superintend the carrying out of the design he has left with the Gouncil. [Bendigo Advertiser, 6 July I 878, supplement] Over the next two months, Guilfoyle corresponded with the council and its curator Samuel Gadd, sending plants (and a swan) and again visiting on 5 September. By early 1879 islands were formed and attention turned to planting. In late June Guilfoyle again visited to inspect ‘Weeroona Park’ (now named after an Aboriginal word for ‘rest’) and advise on implementing his planting scheme. On his return to Melbourne, Guilfoyle dispatched 120 plants from the Melbourne Botanic Gardens for the reserve. These supplemented the 1250 plants Gadd already had in stock, ‘including the various species named by Mr Guilfoyle’. Council authorised Gadd to also purchase ‘a dozen of the Extract from Parks Committee to Council, 23 May 1 878: VPRS 169 36! Pi Sandhurst Council Inwards Correspondence — Unit 1 4: Bendigo Regional Archives Centre. Australian Garden History, 24 (1), July/ August/September 2012 15 pepper tree and 36—40 specimen plants and some pampass [sic] grass’, and to ‘carry out planting the list of Guilfoyle’s plants as far as practical’. Fortunately, a last-minute proposal by some councillors to substitute ninety per cent of Guilfoyle’s undoubtedly richly diverse planting list with various types of olives and mulberries — to demonstrate the viability of establishing two new industries, oil and silk production — was dropped. Instead, the council allowed Gadd to use his discretion as to the number of ‘specimens of the various economic and other plants’ that should be planted at the reserve. A number of olives were indeed planted, with or without Guilfoyle’s agreement, as many old specimens remain today. An estimated 5000 visitors attended the official opening of Lake Weeroona on 22 October 1879, extraordinary turn-out for a Wednesday afternoon. By this time, boat houses (for rowing boats and a steamer), a jetty, caretaker’s cottage, and decorative gates in ‘iron and wood’ (designed by local architect Wilhelm Vahland) had been constructed, and planting was at least partially completed. In 1879 alone, the council had spent £6114 on excavating, shaping, and planting the surroundings of Lake Weeroona — a task that absorbed almost a fifth of its total budget for that year. The immediate success of Lake Weeroona inspired neighbouring localities to create their own water feature. In 1883, Lake Neangar was opened in nearby Eaglehawk. In that same year, Guilfoyle visited Maryborough’s Prince’s Park to advise on layout and planting around its new lagoon, later named Lake Victoria, also suggesting that at least two islands be added to beautify it. Postcard view of Lake Guilfoylc's landscape design style Weeroona, c. 1 909. ,, , . i-rri State Library ofVictoria Although his reports and planting list tor Lake (H42700/I25) Wccroona have been lost, Guilfoyle’s landscape style and plant preferences are well understood through his prolific writings, surviving plans, and extant gardens. In each of his landscapes, Guilfoyle drew on a characteristic suite of design elements including sweeping lawns (‘over which the visitors could roam at pleasure’), fine vistas, broad serpentine perimeter paths, and picturesque water bodies studded with islands. Guilfoyle’s plant preferences were similarly well defined. In all his gardens Guilfoyle skillfully mixed both Australian and exotic species. Plants offering strong architectural form and vivid leaf colour were great favourites, and he was particularly fond of the aesthetic contribution provided by subtropical rainforest vegetation. In his suggestions for tree planting at Sale and Hamilton Botanic Gardens in 1881, for example, Guilfoyle recommended pines (Ponderosa, Monterey and Aleppo), and species of cypress, elm, oak, ash, pittosporum, fig, poplar, pepper tree and New Zealand laurel along boundaries and avenues. Trees including his favoured Moreton Bay Fig (Ficus macrophylla), Port Jackson Fig (Ficus rubiginosa), and Canary Island Date Palm (Phoenix canariensis) were suggested as solitary specimens and for clumped plantings. Early photographs of Lake Weeroona show the unmistakable hand of Guilfoyle, with silhouettes of pines and cypresses clearly visible, and willows. New Zealand Flax, Giant Reed (Arundo donax), and Pampas Grass (Cortaderia selloana) gracing the lake edge and the three islands. Deciduous trees and eucalypts are also identifiable. Today, much of Guilfoyle’s landscape style remains recognisable at Lake Weeroona. Mature signature trees such as Bunya Pine, Moreton Bay Fig and Canary Island Pine, picturesque islands, and remnants of his serpentine perimeter path are testament to Guilfoyle’s vision for the site. Arborist John Beetham and I undertook a tree survey of the Lake Weeroona reserve in 2007 and identified many trees (see table) that date from Guilfoyle’s involvement with Lake Weeroona and clearly reflect his planting Guilfoyle palette. Interestingly, the survey also found two highly unusual eucalypt species at Lake Weeroona. These were identified and assessed by John Hawker of Heritage Victoria as Creswick Apple Box or Scent Bark (Eucalyptus aromaphloia subsp. aromaphloia) — an extremely unusual species, unknown in cultivation — and four specimens of Broad-leaved Red Ironbark (Eucalyptus fibrosa subsp. fibrosa) — a species native to New South Wales, and the only specimen known in Victoria. 16 Australian Garden History, 24 (1), July/August/September 2012 Aerial photograph of Lake Weeroona from a hot air balloon, 2007. Photo courtesy Vivien Newton INVENTORY OF TREES AT FAKE WEEROONA REFEECTINGTHE EEGACY OFWIEEIAM GUIEFOYEE Araucaria bidwillii Bunya Pine (x 2) Brachychiton roseus subsp. roseus Hybrid Flanne Tree Ceratonia siliqua Carob Tree (x 2) Corymbia citriodora Lemon-scented Gum (x 2) Corymbia macu/ata Spotted Gum Cupressus torulosa Bhutan Gypress Eucalyptus cladocalyx Sugar Gum (x 3) Eucalyptus melliodora Yellow Box (x 2) Eucalyptus sideroxylon Ironbark (x 5) Ficus macrophylla Moreton Bay Fig Ficus rubiginosa Port Jackson Fig* Olea europaea subsp. europaea Gommon European Olive (many specimens) Pinus canadensis Ganary Island Pine (x 3) Pinus halepensis Aleppo Pine (x 3)* Pinus radiata Monterey Pine (x 6) Platanus X acerifolia London Plane Tree (x 2) Quercus robur English Oak Salix babylonica and Salix alba subsp. vitellina Willow (many specimens) Schinus areira Pepper Tree (x 5) Ulmus X hollandica Dutch Elm (many specimens) Ulmus X hollandica ‘Purpurascens’ Dutch Elm* * An asterisk denotes three trees considered worthy of nomination for inclusion on the National Trust of Australia (Victoria) Register of Significant Trees. Gadd or Guilfoyle may have been responsible for these plantings. William Guilfoyle is recognised today as one of the finest landscape designers of the nineteenth century in Victoria, and arguably Australia. Lake Weeroona was one of his earliest landscapes, developed while also undertaking his significant redesign of the Melbourne Botanic Gardens. Lake Weeroona stands today as an important and early, but almost totally forgotten, Guilfoyle landscape. The distinctive landscape Guilfoyle envisaged and then created is in no small part responsible for Lake Weeroona’s outstanding reputation and popularity as a place of great beauty and serenity. This mature landscape continues to illustrate Guilfoyle’s distinctive and celebrated style. While recent drought and age have caused a loss in richness of plant varieties, and pathways have been somewhat altered since Guilfoyle’s plan was implemented, his key signature elements — a body of water and islands, serpentine paths through broad swards of lawn, distinctive tree plantings combining Australian and exotic species, and fine vistas — still remain, a testament to his vision so very many years ago. And it all began with a simple command: ‘Get Guilfoyle’! Lee Andrews is a horticulturist and heritage consultant who has prepared conservation management plans for regional botanic gardens and other significant public parks and gardens throughout Victoria. Gomprehensive research undertaken for her Lake Weeroona Gonservation Management Plan (2008) has formed the basis of this article. Australian Garden History, 24 (1), July/ August/September 2012 17 ■ajuji; The great hedge at Buda The front garden at Buda showing the site being prepared for replanting of the iconic cypress hedge. Photo Richard Aitken Aided by Australian Garden History Society funding, Buda at Castlemaine — for over 120 years a private garden, but since 1981 open to the public — has been able to replant its iconic cypress hedge. Buda Historic Home and Garden is a house museum surrounded by a three-acre garden, on a south facing steep slope on the outskirts of Castlemaine in central Victoria. Its great hedge consisted of twelve Cupressus macrocarpa planted in the years between 1863 and 1869. According to Miss Hilda Leviny, the last owner of Buda, it was Victorine Cross, the grandfather of long-time gardener at Buda, Walter Cross (1891 — 1951) who planted the hedge. Together with the western boundary planting of Pinm canariensis and Cupressus lusitanica the hedge formed a windbreak for the house against the southerlies prevalent in central Victoria. The small hedge plantings are clearly visible in an 1869 photograph and it appears as a well-kempt hedge throughout the rest of the nineteenth century and well into the twentieth. Iconic photographs, of the hedge being trimmed with hand shears by Walter Cross and of family members of various ages posed beside it, show that the hedge was a favourite and well-cared for backdrop to the colourful perennial border facing the house. The Leviny grandchildren all spoke fondly of their childhood games in the hedge, on one occasion losing one of a family of Australian terriers in there. From the time Buda became a museum property in 1981 the amphitheatre on the northern side of the hedge has been used for functions such as plays and weddings. Opposite page: Sequential views commencing in 1 865 depicting a century’s growth of Buda’s iconic cypress hedge. Photos courtesy Buda Historic Home and Garden, Castlemaine 18 Australian Garden History, 24 (1), July/August/September 2012 On several occasions the Thompson Foundry Band has serenaded garden visitors from its sheltered depths. There is no recorded information as to when or why the clipped and controlled hedge grew out into a three-storeyed leviathan. Speculation that the hedge was left uncut for the duration of the Second World War is credible as gardener Walter Cross was in his seventies and labour was difficult to obtain. By the time a Committee of Management took control of the property in 1981 the hedge was a great wave of green, not only filling its allotted space, but also overhanging surrounding paths and garden beds. Efforts where made at this time to remove vast amounts of debris within the tangled branches and to shore up overhanging branches. The annual trimming by staff, sessional labour, and volunteers was taken over by trained arborists when changes to occupational health and safety laws were made. Further efforts where made in 2007 to again clean debris and remove bracing wire that was strangling branches, leaving dead spots of foliage across the face of the hedge. Efforts to reshape the hedge were unsuccessful and access to the hedge became increasingly difficult. The hedge was unaffected by the ten years of drought which ended so dramatically in 2010. It continued to grow, to the detriment of the surrounding shrubs and trees, many of which did not survive. Continuing efforts to keep the hedge in check were hampered by lack of funding. The annual cost of three to four thousand dollars for maintenance often forced the Committee to decide between the needs of the hedge and the other forty-five mature trees on the property, which also required professional management. Consideration was given during the last years of the drought to the removal of the hedge. The fire hazard posed not only to the hedge itself, but the adjacent border of fine conifers and the fabric of the house was exacerbated by bushland only two blocks away. The radiant heat from a hedge fire would cause enormous damage maybe even the end of Buda and the beginning of ‘Buda Estate’ with eight fine McMansions enjoying the vista from its prime position in the town. The Leviny family’s intention that the hedge would give protection from the southerly winds, while still allowing views to the garden and town had been completely lost. The fine bay windows added to the house during the 1890s no longer commanded views of either. Consultation with various heritage authorities prior to the hedge’s collapse produced a generally Australian Garden History, 24 (1), July/ August/September 2012 19 The poor state of Buda’s hedge is evident in this photograph taken in 20 1 I , shortly before removal. Photo courtesy Buda Historic Home and Garden, Castlemaine negative, often hysterical response. More helpful was the network of the CEOs of various botanic gardens in Australia via Botanic Gardens Australia and New Zealand Inc. (BGANZ) who shared their experiences and their ideas with the Committee of Management. Saturating rains through 2010 brought a dramatic breaking of the drought and regularly caused flood damage to homes, roads, and bridges within the locality. The long-dry interior of the hedge became saturated, and in late November that year tornado-like winds tore through Castlemaine catching the hedge’s branches and snapping them off. A scene of devastation greeted staff and volunteers when they arrived to check the damage. The hedge lay in ruins. It had collapsed into the amphitheatre. The Committee needed to consider several solutions to the problem, which were put forward by concerned horticulturists. One was to clean out all the debris and dead branches and sky-scape the hedge much like a pleached configuration on stilts. But this was not the original intention of the Leviny family and such a structure would be very likely to collapse in the next high wind. Another suggestion was to remove all the dead branches out and wait for it to regrow — with Cupressus macrocarpa, however, it is most unlikely that such regrowth would occur. After due consideration it was finally decided the best solution would be to remove and replant the hedge. Gaining a permit from Heritage Victoria to undertake this was an arduous and drawn- out process with the quartz dry-stone retaining wall being the sticking point. These stones had frequently collapsed on each other due to children climbing over them and once an echidna had pulled apart a large section. Regularly it had been rebuilt, repaired, or sourced for individual rocks needed elsewhere, so that its integrity as a heritage structure was doubtful. Finally permission was given to remove and store the stones rather than saving the retainer. This represented a saving of $15,000, and allowed an excavator to move in and lift out each tree individually. Eighteen truckloads (46 tonnes) of material were removed for chipping at the local transfer station. This was a massive undertaking given the difficulty of the site. The Mount Alexander Shire covered the transfer station costs and the Australian Garden History Society donated the funds for the removal cost, much to the delight and relief of the Committee. It was observed during the excavation works that the trees at both ends of the hedge had much more extensive root systems than those in its centre. The latter being much more crowded and not able to be blown about, were found to have a shallow root plate (a diameter of only 1.5 m), giving support to the adage that tree movement leads to strong root growth. Once the hedge was removed the flood of south light into the house was quite remarkable and the views of the town and the springtime garden were amazing. There was very little negative reaction to its removal. Eeviny descendents were sad but understanding and keen to see the new hedge planted. There have been one or two shocked visitors but many more commented ‘Congratulations — at last that fire hazard has gone’. Currently the site is having soil remediation and the plan is to replant with Cupressus macrocarpa in late autumn or early winter so that the new trees can establish themselves before our usual hot and dry summer arrives. Replanting of the trees and shrubs surrounding the old hedge that were lost during the drought will be done at this time, as will reconstruction of the retaining wall. Finally, the issue for current and future Committees of Management is the capacity not only to maintain aging trees but also the retention of the garden’s integrity as an entity. Despite herculean efforts to raise Buda’s income in order to sustain such expensive undertakings these tasks seem almost beyond all possibility. Rational decisions regarding the future of the garden need to be made and there can be no place for hysterical reaction to such decisions. Dianne Thomson is Grounds Curator at Buda Historic Home and Garden, Castlemaine, Victoria. www.budacastlemaine.org 20 Australian Garden History, 24 (1), July/August/September 2012 I ,1 /.- T 1 . i* Mandy Stroebel A voice in the wilderness: Gwenda Sheridan, cultural landscape crusader Since settling in Tasmania twenty-five years ago, Gwenda Sheridan has been actively involved in lobbying for the protection and preservation of its magnificent cultural landscapes. It has been a long battle, one that would leave a less determined person weary and demoralised. T’ll be wearing something knitted,’ said Gwenda, by way of describing herself for our first meeting at Zum in Salamanca Place. ‘Probably a beanie with a pom-pom.’ And she is. When we meet, Gwenda explains that her generation prefers knitted garments to the high-tech fabrics found in outdoor-clothing shops. The observation is classic Sheridan. Gwenda instinctively notices the details that give a place (or a generation) its character. Throughout our long discourse on subjects ranging from heritage legislation, to land use and planning and the recent Brighton By-Pass debacle, a single phrase recurs like a bell chiming in the belfry of a country church: ‘character of place’. For years, Gwenda’s focus has been the recognition of cultural landscapes. At times, hers has been almost a lone voice in the wilderness. Gwenda Sheridan pictured during the 20l0AGHSAnnual National Gonference, held in Launceston and northern Tasmania, at which she delivered the keynote address on conifers in Tasmanian cultural landscapes (see AGH, 22 (4), 201 I ). Photo Richard Aitken ‘Cultural landscape’ refers to natural land that has been modified by human activity. Tasmania is rich in cultural landscape history, which has slowly emerged as landscape layers, reflecting composite and complex patterns of interrelationships between people, places, and events that have Australian Garden History, 24 (1), July/ August/September 2012 21 The historic setting of Salmon Ponds contains one ofTasmania’s rich collections of cultivated trees, the history of which has been extensively documented by Gwenda Sheridan as part of her research and analysis of Tasmania’s designed landscapes. Photo Richard Aitken remained in the landscape. This is a synthesis of Gwenda’s definition of ‘cultural landscapes’ in The Companion to Tasmanian History. It is difficult to get Gwenda to talk about herself Only towards the end of our few hours together do I manage to coerce her into providing a brief history of herself, her early influences, and her other interests. Her love of the natural landscape was nurtured in her early years, growing up with the Sydney bush around Gordon on Sydney’s North Shore. ‘In those days, I crossed a long suspension foot-bridge to East Gordon. It spanned such a lovely gully. I remember the bird calls, the maiden hair ferns under the bridge, and the tall, old trees.’ Her family also spent many holidays at Blackheath in the Blue Mountains, where her maternal grandparents owned a cottage. Gwenda also remembers her grandparents’ marvellous collection of romantic tourist literature gathered during their extensive travels in 1937. Always an avid reader, she loved trawling through this material, with its picturesque images of wonderful landscapes in countries far and wide. Her grandmother and mother helped fuel her interest in gardens at an early age. ‘With grandmother, it was a love of flowers; with mother, it was developing an interest in seeds, sowing, soil, and all that sort of stuff I learned about compost and earthworms, getting my hands thoroughly dirty, about the same time as I learned to read.’ When Gwenda was just seven her mother consented to her accompanying an elderly gentleman on his walks ‘up the street’ and into the Sydney bushland. Having fallen off a ladder and badly injuring his back, he walked very slowly with the aid of two sticks. Years later, Gwenda discovered that this much loved gentleman, Thomas Price, was a doctor who had been instrumental in eradicating mosquitoes from Toowoomba, and had also played a formative part in town planning in Queensland. During their sojourns. Dr Price taught her a great deal about indigenous flowers, the wildlife, and the ‘place’. He quietly requested her mother to buy her Thistle Harris’s book Wildf lowers of Australia, which she has (with his inscription) to this day. Gwenda attended Gordon Public School, where she was Dux, and then Hornsby Girls’ High School. After obtaining a Commonwealth scholarship, she studied for a B.A. with majors in geography and history at Sydney University. Music, which has always played a key role in her life, became a part of her degree as well. Gwenda began playing the piano when she was seven and now plays the flute in a small group. ‘Music is my sanity. I can escape into its beauty, harmony, and aesthetics. From my love of music developed my love and understanding of landscape. The principles of harmony with sound and with nature, to me, are one and the same.’ 22 Australian Garden History, 24 (1), July/August/September 2012 After graduating with Honours in geography, Gwenda began teaching as a junior academic at the University of New England. ‘Armidale was such a wonderful place in the country,’ she muses. ‘I had an office that looked out over fields and I used to watch the seasonal changes; I loved that.’ But her time in Armidale was short-lived. The sudden and unexpected death of her father — ‘my rock’ — brought a return to Sydney to look after her mother. Back at the alma mater with a similar teaching position, she began a Masters Honours research degree under English-trained Dennis Jeans, who at the time was a national leader in historical geography and cultural landscapes. ‘My field was Kosciusko National Park and the land-use conflict within this area was enormous. I was researching at the cusp of when Australia commenced converting its highly valued natural areas to national parks.’ Her career seemed untroubled. Marriage followed and then two daughters. After first visiting Tasmania in 1970 and considering it the most beautiful place she’d ever seen, Gwenda returned sixteen years later with her two young daughters to live. It was a life-changing decision: leaving family, friends, a home, and a much- loved garden to settle in a place where she had almost no connections. Eiving in the countryside, she was often confronted by the forestry industry. ‘I’d never seen a log truck before,’ she tells me. ‘It was an awful shock.’ She still remembers accompanying a photographer and colleague to see a ‘clear fell’ coupe at Memory Creek in the north-east highlands of Tasmania. ‘What a memory,’ she says, shaking her head, ‘such utter devastation.’ Gwenda bought an old nineteenth-century farmhouse and began renovating it. ‘I thought of it (and the garden I began to create) as my ‘Walden Pond’. It had its own stream, its resident platypus, eels, snakes, quoll, owl, and much else besides.’ American author Henry Thoreau is one of Gwenda’s gurus. ‘I love his wisdom.’ ‘Walden Pond’ is a reference to his description of living on the shores of Eake Walden, Massachusetts, in Walden; or, Life in the Woods (1845). Another guru is architect/ planner/philosopher Christopher Alexander. Gwenda strongly identified with his influential book A Pattern Language: Towns, Buildings, Construction (1977) and thought his twenty- first century book Nature of Order inspirational. Alexander is described as ‘now retired though ceaselessly active’, a phrase I can’t help thinking will be attributed to Gwenda in her later years. When she arrived in Tasmania, Gwenda had already decided to embark on a different career path, determined to focus on the things that mattered to her, the things she was passionate about: heritage, place, planning, landscape, and geography. After a brief stint as a planner at Eaunceston City Council — ‘I didn’t make a very good development application planner,’ she says — she worked for some years in the state library service. All the time, she was thinking, reading, and writing. Since moving to Hobart in 1995, Gwenda has been self-employed as a cultural landscape consultant. In the intervening years, she has gathered a formidable knowledge of State planning in many area — statutory, environmental, recreation, and historical landscape planning. Her many studies, published works, reports, and submissions are testimony to her major contributions in these areas. She is currently writing a history of the Eaunceston Horticultural Society. In addition to her paid work, Gwenda has been a tireless campaigner for the protection of pre- and post-settlement landscapes, from historic urban precincts to forested wilderness. Her detailed expert submissions to local planning agencies and state and federal parliamentary committees reveal her depth and breadth of knowledge in subjects from the expansion of the Many Australian cemeteries contain remarkable and often under-appreciated plant collections with Tasmania’s historic cemeteries boasting an especially impressive collection of mature exotic trees. Photo Stuart Read Australian Garden History, 24 (1), July/ August/September 2012 23 Details of UK research and planning can be obtained online at www.naturalengland. org.uk followed by typing into the search facility either Landscape Character Assessment and/or Historic Landscape Characterisation. Midlands Highway to the forestry industry and beyond. These submissions highlight her principal concern: the absence of integrated State planning and heritage laws and the continuing lack of recognition of cultural landscapes. Gwenda would like to see a landscape character assessment similar to that adopted in the United Kingdom, introduced in Tasmania. In the UK, the characterisation process involves identifying, classifying, and describing landscape character. It is used as a tool to manage (rather than obstruct) change; to ensure that change does not undermine that which is distinct and valued in a landscape. The assessment takes into account every aspect of landscape from the physical and the built form, to the perceptual and aesthetic. ‘It is the particular interaction of different components of our environment (natural and cultural) and Tools of trade for the conifer enthusiast. Photo Stuart Read our perception of this that is most important.’ Such a tool provides a structured approach to identifying the character and distinctiveness of present-day landscapes, with their multi-layered history of human action and perception. ‘It’s a holistic, aggregated approach; it doesn’t focus on specific sites or built heritage. Instead it seeks to understand the fabric of a place — an urban precinct, a town or a region; to see landscapes as intricate, complex, evolving tapestries; to see the patterns that have emerged in their development.’ Gwenda believes the application of a landscape character assessment in Tasmania is a vital tool in planning for its sustainable development. This interview took place before Gwenda was able to comment on the newly released draft document Assessing Historic Heritage Significance produced by the Department of Primary Industry Parks, Water and Environment. The application of this to Tasmania's Historic Cultural Heritage Act 1 995 will be the subject of many more conversations, particularly as it completely ignores living heritage. In their thirteen years in office, successive Uabor governments in Tasmania have been unwilling to embrace a modern twenty-first century approach to heritage matters. ‘With Jim Bacon,’ Gwenda notes, ‘there was a movement towards the recognition of cultural landscapes and significant trees, but since 2004, it’s been a non-event’. This despite Richard Mackay’s excellent report in 2005 aimed at bringing Tasmania’s 1995 Historic Cultural Heritage Act into the twenty-first century. In 2007, the government responded to the Mackay report with a paper ‘Managing our Heritage’, the inadequacies of which upset many archaeologists and historians. Cultural landscapes were dispensed with in a single line suggesting that they were just too difficult and overwhelming to understand. ‘The whole of Tasmania can be interpreted as layers of cultural landscapes,’ Gwenda argues. Tasmania has the most concentrated heritage in Australia, the most easily accessible heritage, and the most diverse heritage. A lot of it is still extant and readily visible. ‘You can still see the earliest patterns in the evolution of cultural landscapes in Tasmania.’ Gwenda is frustrated by the government’s inability to engage with the significance of Tasmania’s heritage. ‘Heritage needs to be interlinked with planning but it’s not happening,’ she says. ‘It’s so sad,’ she continues. ‘The heritage landscape values of this island for tourism have been noted for at least 160 years. So many people see the beauty of what is here and they fall in love with it. Heritage is intimately interlinked with tourism and the beauty of place, but current governments seem unwilling or unable to grasp the significance of what this means.’ Gwenda believes that Tasmania could be developed strategically along cultural lines. Villages, towns, cities and regions could be developed and rejuvenated according to their distinctive characters and historical attributes to attract tourists. Periodically, Gwenda delves into her seemingly bottomless Mary Poppins— like bag and produces reports, submissions, discussion papers, extracts of legislation, and a myriad of other documents related to planning and heritage issues in Tasmania. Now, she focuses her attention on a copy of the Land Use Planning and Approvals Amendment (State and Regional Strategies) Act 2009. ‘These are the most substantial changes to the laws relating to land use planning and approvals since the 1940s,’ she observes. The amendments impose a single planning framework at state, regional, and local level. Gwenda sees the changes as, on the whole, excluding significant community involvement in planning decisions. This has implications, particularly for regional projects where the rigorous checks and balances applicable to projects of State significance will not apply. When I left Gwenda in the gloaming of early evening, I felt a mixture of despair and admiration. Despair that after so many years of concerted, articulate lobbying for recognition of our unique cultural landscapes, we appear to be no closer to developing a comprehensive approach to their integration into planning decisions; and admiration that Gwenda still has the energy and passion to continue to be one of their greatest advocates. I can only hope that in the years ahead, many new voices will be added to hers and that one day, my great grand-children will see the rich tapestry of the landscapes we now take for granted. Mandy Stroebel is a Hobart-based writer A shorter version of this article was first published in Blue Gum, newsletter of the AGHS Tasmanian Branch, Spring 2011. 24 Australian Garden History, 24 (1), July/August/September 2012 For the bookshelf Ken Taylor and Jane Lennon (eds) Managing Cultural Landscapes, Routledge, London and New York, 20 1 2 (ISBN 97804 1 56722252): paperback, 396pp, RRP $57 Managing Cultural Landscapes is the seventh edited volume in the series Key Issues in Cultural Heritage (series editors William Logan and Laurajane Smith). It comprises eighteen chapters spread across four topic areas: the emergence of cultural landscape contexts; managing Asia- Pacific cultural landscapes; new applications; and future challenges. While there is a focus on outstanding heritage landscapes inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List, there is considerable discussion of ‘ordinary’ rural and urban landscapes. The book was launched in Canberra on 27 April 2012 by Howard Morphy (Professor of Anthropology, Australian National University) following a one-day professional update session on Cultural landscapes: current issues and approaches in international practice. The session and book launch coincide with the twentieth anniversary of the adoption of the Wirld Heritage categories of cultural landscape, a landmark event in heritage practice. In the language of World Heritage, gardens and parklands are usually recognised as ‘designed landscapes’ (landscapes that are designed and intentionally created), rather than ‘organically evolved landscapes’ (resulting from social, economic, administrative, and/or religious activities over time), or ‘associative landscapes’ (lands with powerful religious, artistic or cultural associations). Managing Cultural Landscapes makes it clear that gardens and parklands, whether of individual, local, or global importance, have values that simultaneously encompass each of these categories. That said, gardens per se are not a specific focus of this book. Rather they permeate the chapters, sometimes more directly (e.g.. Chapter 5 on the spiritual and philosophical underpinnings of constructed shanshui gardens in China), but mostly less explicitly. The idea of garden is considered in the context of meanings of landscape and ‘nature’, which can blur distinctions between large constructed garden landscapes (e.g.. West Lake, China) and agricultural landscapes (e.g., rice terraces, Philippines and Bali). Much of the appeal of this edited volume derives from the geographic spread of the chapters and the diverse cultural backgrounds of the authors. The Asia- Pacific region is a particular focus with chapters on Indonesia, China, Japan, Philippines, Thailand, Cambodia, India, and Melanesia. The cultural specificity of the subject matter provides insights into the ways in which the cosmologies of past and present cultures (e.g., Chinese Confucianism and Daoism; sacred geographies of Indian landscape; kinships of interconnectedness between a Canadian Aboriginal community and Great Bear Lake) are encoded in landscape. Lor example, the way in which the layout of the structures and plantings of a palace in Yogyakarta, Java, manifests Hindu Javanese cosmology, within which two sacred banyan trees symbolise justice and protection by the king as well as the male and female aspects of earth. I highly recommend the book to those with interest and experience in managing heritage places and their landscape settings, whether gardens, parklands, or otherwise. The book provides a culturally diverse and global context for thinking about heritage as process rather than product and the implications this view has for managing places. Managing Cultural Landscapes from a garden history perspective is stimulating because it implicitly questions the concept of a garden and challenges us to question what we want to keep and why and for whom we want to keep it. Steve Brown is a cultural heritage researcher with the NSW government. He is an expert member of the ICOMOS-IFLA International Scientific Committee on Cultural Landscapes. Australian Garden History, 24 (1), July/ August/September 2012 25 Australian tree ferns hitting the roof in nineteenth-century Brussels Love and Devotion: from Persia and beyond (Macmillan Art Publishing: $69.95) showcases Persian, Mughal, and Ottoman manuscripts from the Bodleian Libraries and related works from the State Library ofVictoria — plant and garden imagery abounds. Detail of The youth and the singing-girl’ (Lahore, 1595) Bodleian Library, University of Oxford (MS. Elliott 254, fol. 35v) Recent releases Denis Diagre-Vanderpelen, The Botanic Garden of Brussels (1826-1912): reflection of a changing nation. National Botanic Garden of Belgium, Meise,20l I (ISBN 9789072619877): hardback, 3 I2pp, RRP €50 (www.br.fgov.be/) There are relatively few English-language histories of European gardens and the National Botanic Garden of Brussels and author Denis Diagre-Vanderpelen are to be congratulated for this comprehensive illustrated work. Embracing a time span, garden type, and changing national identity that has many parallels to Australia, Diagre’s narrative and analysis propels us through issues of commerce and public good, colonial relations (in Belgium’s case, with the Congo), changing political and social mores, urbanisation, and much more. Lesley Harding and Kendra Morgan, Sunday's Garden: growing He/de, The Miegunyah Press in association with the Heide Museum of Modern Art and the State Library ofVictoria, Carlton, Vic., 20 1 2 (ISBN 9780522858761): hardback, 304pp, RRP $45 Eor half a century John and Sunday Reed nurtured the creation of the garden and an environment at Heide in which art and nature were brought together, and lasting friendships and fond memories of warm hospitality, hard work, and wonderful food were forged. Sunday’s Garden places Sunday Reed and the garden at the centre of this exploration of the growth of Heide as a place of inspiration and creativity, in a richly illustrated and beautifully laid out volume that we’ve grown accustomed to in recent Miegunyah Press publications. The accompanying exhibition, which runs until 14 October 2012, allows further investigation of the people, the friendships, the literature, the ideas, the labour and love which coalesced in the shaping of Sunday’s garden. www.heide.com.au Richard Neville, Air JW Lewin: painter & naturalist, NewSouth Publishing, Sydney, 2012 (ISBN 9781742233277): paperback, 272pp, RRP $39.99 Published to accompany the exhibition ‘Eewin: wild art’ (SENSW until 27 May; NEA from 28 July), this is an accomplished appraisal of the pioneering Australia natural history artist John William Eewin (1770—1819) active in Australia from 1800. As Mitchell Eibrarian and an experienced author and curator, Richard Neville is ideally placed to trace Eewin’s career in its gritty colonial context, in the process allowing rich glimpses of the artist’s botanical and topographical output, a significant aspect of his oeuvre. Barbara Santich, Bold Palates: Australia's gastronomic heritage, Wakefield Press, Kent Town, SA, 20 1 2 (ISBN 978 1 74305094 1 ): hardback, 336pp, RRP $49.95 AGHS members with long memories may recall Barbara Santich talking on the history of tomatoes at the Mount Gambier conference, and here the foodie theme is broadened to its widest extent in this very welcome historical overview of Australian gastronomy. Plenty of meat and veg here, leavened with intriguing excursions into bush tucker, picnics, and the barbecue. Paul Thompson, Austra/ian Planting Design, 2nd ed., CSIRO Publishing, Collingwood,Vic., 2012 (ISBN 9780643 1 070 1 4): paperback, 272pp, RRP $39.95 Ten years after the first edition (Eothian, 2002), this new paperback edition of Australian Planting Design guides its readers through all the stages of designing a new garden using Australian plants, in which the author sets down the aesthetic and practical considerations which have informed his own thinking and practice developed over more than three decades as a landscape architect working predominantly with Australian plants and Australian landforms for inspiration. 26 Australian Garden History, 24 (1), July/August/September 2012 Dialogue Gwen Ford (1941-2012) In March this year, Gwen Ford, wife of celebrated Australian landscape designer Gordon Ford (1918—1999), passed away. Gwen collaborated with Gordon in the writing and editing of his book Gordon Ford: The Natural Australian Garden (published in 1999). A splendid obituary by Arnold Zable appeared in The Age on 30 April 2012, in which he warmly describes Gwen as a ‘passionate gardener, teacher, writer, and an inspiring friend to many,’ ‘the “beating heart” of Eltham’. As well as enthusiastically supporting the Australian Open Garden Scheme, opening their garden Fulling annually since 1987, both Gordon and Gwen (and later just Gwen) continued the legacy of generous mentorship to new generations of landseape designers and historians that had charaeterised the post-WWII era of landscape design in Melbourne in which Gordon began his practice as a landseape designer. For many years, students of designed landscape history from RMIT and The University of Melbourne were welcomed to experienee Fulling as a complete space, in terms of its design and philosophy — meandering, drawing, thinking — and as a way of living. The richness of these experiences was augmented through Gwen’s warm hospitality (cups of tea, tea from a little wooden caddy) and her candid and insightful conversation about the garden and about life. Websites for botanic garden histories Professor Roger Cousens of the University of Melbourne has over the past decade compiled websites for several regional Victorian botanic gardens, containing historical summaries and reproductions of early photographs and plans. Addresses vary, but links to websites for Creswick (Park Uake), Kyneton, White Hills (Bendigo), and Horsham Botanic Gardens can be found on the AGHS website (see Useful Uinks). A search engine should easily locate websites for Koroit, Malmsbury, and Queen’s Park (Clunes) Botanic Gardens. Order of Australia awards Many will have recognised names — both celebrated and not so well known — in the recent Queen’s Birthday Honours Fist, with some of special interest to our readers ineluding Simon Molesworth AO (distinguished service to conservation and the environment, to heritage preservation at national and international levels, to the professions and natural resource sectors. and to community health organisations), James Broadbent AM (service to the preservation of Australia’s built heritage through roles with the New South Wales Branch of the National Trust of Australia, and as an academie and researcher), Alex George AM (service to eonservation and the environment as a botanist, historian and author, particularly in the area of Australian flora, and through roles with national and international professional organisations), and Charlotte Webb OAM (service to the community, particularly through the Southern Highlands Botanic Gardens). Our congratulations go to all those whose community service is so worthy of recognition. Innovation and celebration in the back yard Congratulations to members Gas Middlemis and Peter Cuffley whose book Hung Out to Dry: Gilbert Toyne’s classic Australian clothes hoist (2009) has been turned into a play. Performed to three packed-out showings as part of the National Trust’s Heritage Festival, the performances took place on a delightful late autumnal day in Toyne’s own back yard in Geelong West, complete with its intact drying court and patented clothes hoist (1923 model). This was a celebration of local garden heritage at its best. Robert Fyfe Zacharin (1925-2012) We note the recent passing of Robert Zacharin, whose pioneering book Emigrant Eucalypts: gum trees as exotics (MUP 1978) highlighted this little-appreciated botanical diaspora. Armed with camera and notebook, Zacharin’s medical profession took him to many parts of the world allowing first-hand observations of his unusual subject, which Jim Willis noted as ‘a fine contribution to eucalyptology’. Guilfoyle in the Yarra Valley Bouquets to writer and editor Helen Collier for her research on two potential William Guilfoyle’s landscapes in Victoria’s Yarra Valley, one his own Healesville property Mount Yule, and the other Banool, at Yarra Glen. Helen’s research was recently published in the Yarra Valley and Ranges Gountry Life magazine and is available for viewing online or in print form. justwords.com.au Australian Garden History, 24 (1), July/ August/September 2012 27 ACiHS News AGHS e-news launched The first posting of the new national AGHS e-news was sent in Mareh 2012. Containing a brief summary of news and events, this is an ideal way to stay in touch. If you have not received your e-news, please contact our executive officer with your email address. 32nd Annual General Meeting The 32nd Annual General Meeting of the Australian Garden History Society will be held on Saturday 10 November 2012 at 8.30am at The Mercure, 613 Main Road, Ballarat, Victoria. Items to be included on the agenda should be posted or emailed to the AGHS office. Branches are asked to nominate their representative to the National Management Committee and to inform the Secretary, Lynne Walker (c/ — AGHS office) by 21 September 2012. There will be two vacancies for elected positions on the National Management Committee this year. Stuart Read and Janet Schapper have served one term of three years and must stand down but may choose to re-nominate for a further three-year term. Nominations to the National Management Committee open on 22 August 2012 and close on i October 2012. To obtain a nomination form, contact the AGHS office, (03) 9650 5043 or toll free 1800 678 446 or email info@gardenhistorysociety.org.au Elections offer an opportunity for members to participate in the management of the Society. Each year the National Management Committee holds three face-to-face, full-day meetings in Eebruary, June, and prior to the annual conference. These meeting are interspersed with three one-hour telephone link-up meetings in April, August and December. Elected members serve for a three-year term and are eligible for re-election for a maximum of one additional term. An allowance to alleviate travel costs for the meetings in Sydney and Melbourne is available if required. Executive Officer appointment The Society is pleased to announce that Phoebe EaGerche-Wijsman has been appointed as Executive Officer following the recent resignation of Jackie Courmadias. Phoebe is a qualified landscape architect, which included horticulture studies at Burnley, and ran her own floristry business for twenty years. She has worked for the not-for-profit membership-based organisations, the Australian Institute of Eandscape Architects and the Australian Institute of Quantity Surveyors (as its Victorian Chapter Secretariat where she coordinated and managed their small offices). More recently she has been a researcher for ABC Gardening Australia. We look forward to introducing and welcoming Phoebe at forthcoming AGHS events. Neglected designer honured James Jones, a neglected figure of Australia’s garden history, is featured in the third leg of ‘The Garden of Ideas: an Australian Garden History Society National Touring Exhibition’. The New South Wales showing, at the Royal Botanic Gardens Sydney, will feature exhibits from the previous South Australian and Victorian showings, refreshed with treasures from the Sydney Botanic Gardens collection, including books and diaries of Jones, who worked in the gardens of Paris in the 1 8 bos before his lengthy career in NSW as lieutenant to Charles Moore and J.H. Maiden. ‘The Garden of Ideas’ is open during office hours at the Red Box Gallery (enter from Mrs Macquaries Road) from 13 July to 30 November 2012. A comprehensive of programme of lectures, seminars, and other events will accompany the exhibition (see Diary Dates for more details). Lake Burley Griffin war memorials In late Eebruary 2012 the AGHS’s advocacy rejecting the proposed WWI and WWII memorials on the shores of Eake Burley Griffin in Canberra was rewarded with the withdrawal of the proposal to build beside the lake, thus preserving this significant cultural landscape from its most recent threat. Journal packing Thanks to the following members who assisted our hard-working Executive Officer, Jackie Courmadias, and Janet Armstrong with the packing of Volume 23 of the journal: Beryl Black, Helen Botham, Mary Chapman, ^^bndy Dwyer, Di Ellerton, Mai and Eran Eaul, Jane Johnson, Pamela Jellie, John and Beverley Joyce, Rosemary Kiellerup, Marian Eetcher, Eaura Eewis, Anna Eong, Ann Miller, Ann Rayment, Susan Reidy, Sandra and John Torpey, Kathy Wright, Georgina Whitehead, Marie Walpole, Virginia Wingett, and Pera Wells. 28 Australian Garden History, 24 (1), July/August/September 2012 Jackie Courmadias Reading through Visions and Voices: The Australian Garden History Society 1980-2005 this morning looking for the inspiration for words that can do justice to the twenty years that Jackie Courmadias has been the front face of the Australian Garden History Society, I found just what I had been searching for. With fire crackling in the grate and wonderful ABC FM music filtering in through the frost hardened windows, I was so pleased to read the words that had been swirling in my subconscious since the day Jackie told the National Management Committee she was resigning. The Executive Officer is the glue that binds everything together. In Jackie Courmadias the Society has a treasure. Jackie’s calm, gentle, kind demeanour, her generous smile, sense of humour and warm irony, her attention to detail, diplomacy, unruffled nature and presence has been the lynch pin of the Society. Jackie joined the Society twenty-one years ago and recalls a little flyer falling out of one of the journals in that first year of membership with a ‘position vacant’. Whatever was in that initial position brief, was a far cry from what Jackie has carried out over recent years as the Society has taken on a web presence, a more strident advocacy role, and expanded its horizons on all fronts. I recall first meeting Jackie at my first National Management meeting in Melbourne, for we both joined the Society at the same time and my first meeting coincided with Jackie taking on her role with the Society. And a year later, sitting at the back of the bus with visiting English speaker Ethne Clarke, Richard Aitken, and others, winding our way through the midlands of Tasmania during the Hobart Conference — both Jackie and I away for a fleeting moment from the responsibility of young families — I remember sharing our love of literature, music, gardens, and life, forming the basis of an enduring frendship. The following year, in spring 1994, we took our first tour, looking at the gardens of Edna Walling in Victoria. So green were we, with enthusiasm greatly outweighing experience, off we set from Photo Trisha Burkitt the Royal Botanic Gardens in Melbourne, where the National Management Committee Chairman, Margaret Darling had come to wave us off. Starting the tour with a look at the Margaret Stones exhibition in the Herbarium, we climbed on the bus, and were just about to blithely sail off when out from behind a tree came one of our tour members. We became meticulous counters of heads after that! And did return all 50 delegates! The following autumn we took those on the waiting list on the same tour, followed by many more happy tours where we have had the joy of getting to know so many of our members. Jackie always so meticulous in her attention to detail, coupled with her warm, caring nature, making everyone feel special. The Society may be losing Jackie as their Executive Officer, but we won’t be losing her as a member or friend. I know I speak for all members when I say how warmly we will look forward to seeing Jackie at future AGHS events over the years ahead. We have been privileged indeed. Trisha Burkitt Australian Garden History, 24 (1), July/ August/September 2012 29 Howard Tanner Monaro landscape: clouds heavy with moisture and volcanic basalt lakes full to overflowing. Photo:Trisha Burkitt Curry Flat, Nimmitabel, set amongst established trees in a sheltered fold of the wide Monaro plains, with the Snowy Mountains in the distance. Photo Howard Tanner Monaro gardens: AGHS Autumn Tour, 23-27 April 2012 The Monaro landscape imprints itself indelibly on one’s mind: expansive grassy plains, often treeless; the folds of the land accented with upright poplars and weeping willows, golden in autumn; and the wide horizon edged by mountains to the west, snow-capped in winter. For Patrick White — once a jackaroo in these parts — it became symbolic of a bleak youthful rural experience, set amongst frost- hardened paddocks against grey/blue skies, which found expression in his novel The Twyborn Affair. Granite and basalt underlie the terrain: the basalt areas are typically without trees, while the granite country has rounded rocky outcrops and scattered eucalypts. After good rain, shallow oval lakes dot the countryside, but drought is a regular occurrence. The land was taken up for grazing in the 1830s, with Cooma as the regional centre. The early settlers took their flocks and herds up into the alpine meadows in summer, allowing their own pastures to regenerate. Severn Park’s Charles Massy — author, grazier, and historian — spoke to us of the need to move beyond European notions of farming in Australia, to anticipate dry conditions, and to use native grasses and methods such as cell grazing to achieve sustainable agriculture. In 1980 Rockybah, Nimmitabel, was a completely barren landscape about a small cottage. Not a place for a faint-hearted gardener, but Annie Charles met the challenge, culling countless rocks to make walls and a ha-ha, and to achieve pockets of better ground. She has created a fine garden of hardy plants. 30 Australian Garden History, 24 (1), July/August/September 2012 While shelter from prevailing winds is vital, newer gardens have managed a carefully oriented outlook into the broader landscape. At Erindale, Nimmitabel, the garden provides a panorama of the heroic Australian landscape of the Tom Groggin Valley. The oldest homestead (1830s) visited was Trisha (Dixon) Burkitt’s Bobundara, Cooma, the whole place an inspiration for her book Under the Spell of the Ages. Set in a valley alongside a fast-flowing stream, glades of ancient English and Wych elms and dark pines frame vistas to simple sculptures. Perennial borders edge the house, and at its rear is a traditional box-edged flower-filled parterre. Next in age was the basalt homestead (1850s) at Myalla, Cooma. Mature trees line its drive and enfold the garden, which is wonderfully understated, with generous lawns leading the eye towards a lake, and open country beyond. Old grape vines, russet-red in autumn, overhang dark walls of random stone. The prosperity of the Edwardian era is well conveyed through the 1900s— 20s issues of The Pastoral Review, of rural properties grandly improved and imparting dynastic aspirations. The Cooma architect CD Cochran (active c. 1900— 30) designed a number of substantial homesteads in the district — Springwell, Curry Elat, Hazeldean, Woodstock, among them. Typically single-storeyed, wide verandahs encompass three sides, originally overlooking elaborate hedge-bordered gardens. All the gardens visited have been adapted to suit modern times and less paid help. At Shirley, Nimmitabel, the owners propose a large acreage of contemporary parkland designed by Myles Baldwin — it will be fascinating to watch this evolve. To begin and conclude the tour, we visited two gardens closer to Canberra: Eambrigg, Tharwa, with its beautiful vista over a formal garden to the (currently) wide Murrumbidgee; and Micalago Station, Michelago, with its charming ensemble of pavilions and courtyards, artfully embellished after World War Two by Professor Eeslie Wilkinson and Elizabeth Ryrie, the present owner’s mother. We noted some distinctive plants along the way. The Burnet or Scotch rose (Rosa spinosissima ‘AndrewsiP), capable of forming a wonderful low hedge, has petite pink flowers, and compact foliage turning purplish-red in autumn; the Snowberry (Symphoricarpos albus), a bush related the honeysuckle family with white fruits; the Spindle Berry (Euonymus europaeus), a shrub with vivid Continued page 34 y .1 ^ ■: cr S' Ai Mil; trarden Discoveries V\/hether you are an avid horticulturist or simply love ‘smelling the roses’ Garden Tour of North India with Ritu Sharma DELHI • RAJASTHAN • AGRA • SHIMLA 1 5 February - 07 March 20 1 3 From the great Mughal Gardens of Delhi to the forests of the Himalayas, discover the historical, cultural, scenic and botanical highlights of North India. Landscapes of China with Fiona Ogilvie YUNNAN • SZECHUAN • GUANGXI 24 March - 1 4 April 20 1 3 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 Australian Garden History, 24 (1), July/ August/September 2012 31 Profile: Laurel Cheetham Laurel Cheetham chairs the Southern Highlands Branch of the AGHS and, since January 201 1 , has been Branch representative on the National Management Committee. She is the AGHS representative on Wingecarribee Council's Heritage Advisory Group and a member of other local and regional committees concerned with planning matters. I can trace my interest in landscape to my childhood, and numerous family holidays around eastern Australia. I was always keen to see how landscapes changed, only later on understanding the influences on what I was seeing. Studies in geography, geomorphology, and geology at school and at Sydney University provided insight into landform and social history aspects of this understanding. An appreciation of landscaping came with post-graduate studies in landscape architecture and town planning, also completed at Sydney University in 1969. My interest in heritage started when I worked with Helen Proudfoot and other historians at the NSW State Planning Authority in the early 1970s, and increased greatly when supervising the preparation of the Macarthur Heritage Study in the 1980s. I have sinee been involved in numerous landscape and heritage studies ineluding in the Wollongong, Kiama, Camden, and Wollondilly Council areas. As a town planner with the NSW State Planning Department I worked on several large projeets requiring an appreciation for landscape and on many smaller ones where innovative approaehes were called for to protect vistas and view corridors. As part of investigations into the future urban potential of areas like South Creek Valley and Macarthur South on Sydney’s rural urban fringe, I commissioned studies to identify significant landscapes and ways that their significance could be enhanced in a context of change. I worked with relevant councils to plan for the protection of views of vegetated ridgelines such as Razorback near Picton and the Kurrajong Hills in the Blue Mountains, and visual corridors between important historic sites (such as Rouse Hill and Bella Vista) and historic settings and plantings on properties sueh as Harrington Park and Camden Park. The most exciting period of my career began in 1993 with the decision of the IOC to hold the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney. My first task was to finalise a regional plan for Homebush Bay, then begin working on new legislation to enable all Olympic Games projects to be properly and transparently assessed within a limited timeframe. I then managed a team in the assessment of projects as diverse as a new railway line and road network, an equestrian centre, the Olympic stadium, and Olympic villages. Planning has taught me to take a practical and realistic approach to conservation and development, to identify all issues, and then prioritise them. The planner is sometimes seen as the ‘bad guy’, because of decisions they must make which require eompromise on the part of those involved. Planning has taught me to take a practical and realistic approach to conservation and development, to identify all issues and then prioritise them My involvement with the AGHS really started when I retired from the NSW Department of Planning in 2008. I joined the Committee of the Southern Highlands Branch at the end of that year and became its Projeet Officer. I had lots of ideas. However, time and resources are limited in a volunteer organisation, and I’ve had to put some of my more ambitious ideas on hold. Our Branch has almost completed the reeording of Claude Crowe’s Berrima Bridge Nursery and investigation of its significance on the landseape of the Southern Highlands, and has eommenced reeording the Summerlees garden. We are also propagating plants, including some rare camellias found in the Crowe nursery, and, over the next year hope to prepare a booklet on Southern Highlands gardens for individual and group visits. Working with the members of this Committee has broadened my knowledge in so many ways and further increased my interest in landscape and garden history. 32 Australian Garden History, 24 (1), July/August/September 2012 pi ary dates JULY 2012 Tuesday 10 Winter lecture VICTORIA Dr Gwen Pascoe on ‘Guilfoyle’s Inheritance and Legacy: changes to public botany in Victoria 1850-1910’. 6pm, Mueller Hall, The Herbarium, Birdwood Avenue, South Yarra. Gost: $15 members, $20 non-members, $10 students. Enquiries to Anne Vale, heriscapes@aussiebb.com.au Thursday 19 'The Regent's Park Circle: Charles Moore & Michael Guilfoyle' SYDNEY & NORTHERN NSW Exhibition curator and author Richard Aitken will give an illustrated introduction to The Garden of Ideas exhibition and a detailed case study (based on previously unpublished research) on the early careers of Gharles Moore & Michael Guilfoyle. Gost: $30 RBG Friends/ AGHS members, $40 guests. 5.30pm for 6-7.30pm, Australian Museum Theatrette (entry via William Street). Bookings essential, (02) 923 I 8 1 82 or email friends@rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au Thursday 19 The Remembrance Driveway ACT/RIVERINA/MONARO Chris and Margaret Betteridge from Musecape Pty Ltd (Heritage Consultants) will give this lecture on the Remembrance Driveway — A Living Memorial from Sydney and Canberra. 6pm, National Museum of Australia. Friday 20 ^ The Garden of Ideas guided exhibition viewings SYDNEY & NORTHERN NSW Join curator Richard Aitken to learn aboutThe Garden of Ideas exhibition and book. Tours of 45 minutes starting at 10.30am, I 1 .30am, 2pm, 3pm, Red Box Gallery, National Herbarium Building, Royal Botanic Garden, Sydney (entry off Mrs Macquarie’s Road, near the Woolloomooloo Gates). Cost: Free entry for AGHS/HHT member participants attending Saturday 21 July study day. Numbers are limited and bookings essential, (02) 9997 5995 or email Jeanne@Villani.com Saturday 21 'Grit & glamour: new stories for garden history' SYDNEY & NORTHERN NSW An AGHS/Historic Houses Trust members’ study day on early-mid 20th century horticulture and garden-making. Speakers include Silas Clifford-Smith, Megan Martin, Chris Webb and Charlotte Webb, Stuart Read, Michael Lech, and Richard Aitken. 1 0-1 2.30pm, 1 .30-4pm,The Mint, Macquarie Street, Sydney - auditorium, Caroline Simpson Library and Research Centre, HHT Members’ Lounge. Cost: $79 members, $89 non-members, includes seminary lunch, and free attendance at The Garden of Ideas walk on previous day (July 20 event). Numbers are limited and bookings essential: HHT Members office (02) 8239 2266/members@hht. net.au or AGHS (02) 9997 5995/ Jeanne@Villani.com Sunday 22 Rosser garden, Gold Coast Excursion to the Rosser Garden on the Gold Coast. See Branch webpage for full details. QUEENSLAND Sunday 29 Avenues of Honour talk and AGM TASMANIA Adrian Howard will speak about the surprising number of these avenues in Tasmania and the immense work undertaken to document and record them. Venue: the historic Victoria Inn, Tunbridge. See Branch webpage for details. AUGUST 2012 Wednesday 8 The Garden of Ideas Study Day: 'Becoming a garden detective' SYDNEY Learn skills and resources useful to any budding garden historian in an interactive event combining a guided visit to the Palace Garden, talks by knowledgeable garden researchers, and guided visits to the library of the Royal Australian Historical Society. A joint AGHS/RAHS members’ event. Cost: $45 RAHS & AGHS members, $55 non-members, includes handout notes, references, morning tea. 1 0am- 1 pm. History House, I 33 Macquarie Street, Sydney. Numbers are limited and bookings essential: (02) 9264 278 1 or email info@weasydney.nsw.gov.au or use the WEA website www.weasydney.nsw.edu.au to book. More details on the Branch webpage. Sunday 12 'New tricks for an old garden' and AGM SOUTHERN HIGHLANDS Guest speaker^ Michael McCoy, will give a talk followed by lunch and a visit to Golden Vale historic garden. Cost: $35 members/ guests. Enquiries to Lynette Esdaile on (02) 4887 7122. Australian Garden History, 24 (1), July/ August/September 2012 33 Thursday 16 'Nursery tales for a garden city' and ACM ACT/RIVERINA/MONARO Dr Lenore Coltheart, well-known Canberra-based historian and active in recent moves to conserve the ACT’s landscape heritage will present this year’s annual lecture. 5.30pm, National Museum of Australia Thursday 16 Winter lecture and ACM VICTORIA Janet O’Hehir on the planting palette of William Guilfoyle. 6pm, Mueller Hall, Herbarium, Birdwood Avenue, South Yarra. Cost: $ 1 5 members, $20 non-members, $ 1 0 students. Enquiries to Anne Vale heriscapes@aussiebb.com.au Thursday 16 'Who does my garden grow?' SYDNEY & NORTHERN NSW Historian and author James Broadbent on the people behind the plants we commonly grow or find in many gardens, stories that bring plants alive, allow armchair travel, explain botany, tease out history, and unlock foreign languages. See Branch webpage for more details. Thursday 23 The Garden of Ideas TASMANIA An evening talk in Hobart with author Richard Aitken based on his most recent book The Garden of Ideas. Details to be advised. Sunday 26 Heritage roses and ACM QUEENSEAND The Branch ACM will be followed by a presentation on heritage roses by Jenny O’Brien-Lutton. Venue: Herbarium, Brisbane Botanic Gardens, Mount Coot-tha. See Branch webpage for more details. SEPTEMBER 2012 Friday 14 | 'Charles Moore and Joseph Maiden: outreach and impact' SYDNEY & NORTHERN NSW Colleen Morris on the contribution and influence of Moore and Maiden, long-term Sydney Botanic Gardens directors, on NSW parks, streetscapes, and public building reserves. See Branch webpage for more details. Wednesday 19-Thursday 20 Guilfoyle inspired tour VICTORIA Two-day Western District tour including private and public gardens in the Birregurra, Colac, Camperdown, and Warrnambool districts, staying overnight in Camperdown. Cost: approximately $320 includes coach travel, dinner accommodation, morning and afternoon teas, lunches, and garden entries. Full itinerary and booking details July Branch newsletter Enquiries to Pamela Jellie on pdjellie@hotmail.com OCTOBER 2012 Friday 26 Braidwood, Lake Bathurst, Goulburn self-drive tour SOUTHERN HIGHEANDS Visit historic Palerang and Bongalabi, and modern Terry Hie. Cost: $25 members/guests. 10. 15am start. Morning tea will be provided by the committee. Enquiries to Lynette Esdaile on (02) 4887 712. NOVEMBER 2012 Friday 9-Sunday 11 AGHS 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 20 1 2. From page 31 red berries opening to reveal orange seeds; and 40-metre tall Canadian poplars. The exposed hilltop at Willawa, JMoonbah, brought together lichen-covered granite boulders and snowgums, with silver-grey shrubs and borders, and sweeps of miniature mauve chrysanthemums. The tour was infused with Trisha Burkitt’s love of JMonaro, its people and places, and the capable management of Jackie Courmadias. Howard Tanner is a Sydney architect, and a founding member of the AGHS. 34 Australian Garden History, 24 (1), July/August/September 2012 'Capturing Flora: 300 years of Australian botanical art' at the Art Gallery of Ballarat Gordon Morrison I have always had a great interest in botanical art and an enormous admiration for the artists who have chosen this demanding path. The first work I acquired for this Gallery back in 2004 was a New Caledonian Passiflora painted by the great Margaret Stones. However the scope of Ballarat’s exhibition ‘Capturing Flora’ could have been quite different to what we eventually focussed upon. We might have gone for a more general survey of images representing plants across the world over a much wider time frame. We could have started with Gerard and Besler and shown a sampling of some of the great images that can be sourced from collections in Australia today. Two factors pushed us towards a more focussed show. The first was the collecting policy of the Art Gallery of Ballarat, which since the 1960s has focussed on work by Australian artists or art that depicts Australian subject matter. Since 1949 our collection has included William Dampier’s book Voyage to New Holland that includes the very first prints of plants collected on this continent — in 1699. We also possess a very fine drawing by Margaret Stones of Acacia alata, donated to the gallery in 1955. However, images of the Australian flora were not prominent in the collection and this had been noted twenty years ago in a review of our collecting policy as an area needing attention. In the process of preparing for this exhibition, this ‘hole’ in the collection has been well and truly filled. In 2008 I found Helen Hewson’s 1999 monograph Australia: 300 years of botanical illustration in a second-hand book shop. While reading this work the penny dropped. Not only could Hewson’s book be used as a guide for acquiring images, since it had never been associated with an exhibition it was clearly a wonderful opportunity to utilise it as a blueprint for a major show. Hewson’s work concludes at the end of the twentieth century. We now have another twelve exciting years of contemporary botanical art practice to explore and celebrate. In common with Hewson’s book the show will be a journey in time and across space. In terms of pure chronology it covers images made from 1704 to 2012. In terms of geography we will feature genera from all states and territories not to mention a few ring-ins from some of our closest neighbours in Old Gondwana. Just fifty years ago the cultivation of native plants (beyond perhaps a few showy specimens) was regarded as a little eccentric, or even something that hinted Gordon Morrison (Director) and Anne Rowland (Registrar) with botanical prints, Art Gallery of Ballarat. Australian Garden History, 23 (4), July/ August/September 2012 35 Passiflora ouront/'o, the Norfolk Island passion-flower was introduced to England in 1792 and first raised by Lee and Kennedy at their Vineyard Nursery, Hammersmith. This illustration was published in Henry Andrews, The Botanist's Repository, Vol. 5, 1804, pi. 295 (plate dated I May 1803). of left wing tendencies on the part of the gardener. When in the seventies the movement for growing indigenous plants gathered momentum it was still regarded by many as the preserve of people with beards who lived in mud brick houses on our urban fringes. Preparing for this exhibition has made me realise that for a sustained period of time in the first half of the nineteenth century, the new-found Australian plants enjoyed a considerable vogue in Europe. They may have been confined to greenhouses and conservatories in northern parts, but were readily adopted by gardeners enjoying Mediterranean climes. A strength of the exhibition will be the wealth of images from horticultural magazines and catalogues of botanic garden collections in the Britain, France, Belgium, and Germany. Dating from i8oo to the last quarter of the nineteenth century, these are also interesting from the perspective of printing techniques. The older works are mostly hand coloured etchings but the later images are splendid examples of early colour lithography. Many are spectacular in spite of their modest size. Another aim of the exhibition will be to celebrate the work of some great artists who have never been properly appreciated. While most people have heard of Ellis Rowan, Rosa Fiveash is not exactly a household name. Almost no-one has heard of the tragic Friedrich Schoenfeld. This Swiss-born artist illustrated many of Ferdinand Mueller’s works in the i86os. Of this now obscure artist Hewson wrote: ‘Even in the international context, Schoenfeld’s work is superior to that of contemporaries, Fitch included ... Schoenfeld was a master.’ Yet poverty and lack of recognition drove him to commit suicide in 1867 — a huge loss to Australian botanical art. The exhibition will feature more that 400 works. It needs to be large because the scope is ambitious and comprehensive, covering ground that has not been treated in depth in previous exhibitions. There will also be a lavishly illustrated catalogue with essays from a range of scholars on topics such as the horticultural use of the Australian flora in the nineteenth century, amateur and professional ‘lady artists’, and a review of the first Australian published floras, from the perspective of the printing technologies used in their illustration. There will be much to enjoy and celebrate. Gordon Morrison is Director of the Art Gallery of Ballarat and the principal curator of ‘Capturing Flora: 300 years of Australian botanical art’. The exhibition runs from 25 September to 2 December 2012 and is to be accompanied by a major new book on the subject. 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 ■ Tollfree: 1800 678 446 ■ www.gardenhistorysociety.org.au Collection: Art Gallery of Ballarat (purchased with funds from the Hilton White Bequest, 20 1 2)