H ISTORY JOURNAL OFTHE AUSTRALIAN GARDEN HISTORY SOCIETY Cover: One of Richard Clough’s greatest landscape designs was the planning of Lake Burley Griffin in Canberra, here evocatively imagined in a 1965 brochure published by the National Capital Development Commission entitled 'Creating a setting for Lake Burley Griffin’ (Jules de Goede, illustrator: brochure digitally altered to remove lettering). Private collection Above: Looking across the lake at Wayville sur Mer; one of the Albany gardens visited by delegates to the Australian Garden History Society annual national conference (see report on page 22). Photo: Gina Plate The Ellis Stones Memorial Fund ofThe University of Melbourne's Faculty of Architecture, Building and Planning generously assists publication of Australian Carden History. The Australian Garden History Society is a history and heritage partner of the Australian Museum of Gardening Text © individual contributors Images © as individually credited Design and typography ©Australian Garden History Society AUSTRALIAN GARDEN HISTORY SOCIETY Patron Sue Ebury - Countess ofWilton Executive Officer Phoebe LaGerche-Wijsman Enquiries Toll Free I 800 678 446 Phone 03 9650 5043 Fax 03 9650 8470 Email info@gardenhistorysociety.org.au Website www.gard en h i sto rysoci ety.o rg.au Postal Address AGHS, Gate Lodge 100 Birdwood Avenue Melbourne Victoria 3004 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, 3123 ISSN 1033-3673 Subscriptions (GST inclusive) Membership 1 year 3 years Individual $72 $190 Household $98 $260 Corporate $230 $607 Non-profit $98 $260 organisations Advertising Rates I /8 page $264 (2+ issues $242 each) I /4 page $440 (2+ issues $396 each) I /2 page $660 (2+ issues $550 each) Full page $ I 100 (2+ issues $990 each) Inserts $880 for Australia-wide mailing Pro-rata for state-wide mailing Editorial Advisory Committee CONVENOR Roslyn Burge MEMBERS Julie Collins Ruth Morgan Colleen Morris Patsy Vizents Felicity Watson Australian Garden History welcomes contributions of any length up to 1200 words. Prospective contributors are strongly advised to send a short outline to the editors prior to submission of text or images. The views expressed in this journal are those of the contributors and are not necessarily shared by the Australian Garden History Society. NATIONAL MANAGEMENT COMMITTEE John Taylor (Chairman) Ray Choate (Vice Chairman) Laurel Cheetham (Secretary) Kathy Wright (Treasurer) Stuart Read (Public Officer) Queensland Margie Barram 5 Cofton Street, Highgate Hill QLD 4101 Phone: (07) 3844 3501 mj b@marq u i s-ky I e .co m .au Elected Members Roslyn Burge Ray Choate Jessica Hood Elaine Lawson Ruth Morgan Stuart Read John Taylor Kathy Wright State Representatives ACT Nancy Clarke NSW Laurel Cheetham QLD Margie Barram SA Richard Heathcote TAS Michael Evans VIC Wendy Dwyer WA Carmel O’Halloran BRANCH CONTACTS ACT/Monaro/Riverina Sue Byrne PO Box 5008 Lyneham ACT 2602 Phone: (02) 6247 3642 suebyrne@effect.net.au South Australia Ray Choate Barr Smith Library University of Adelaide, Adelaide SA 5005 Phone: (08) 8303 4064 ray.choate@adelaide.edu.au Southern Highlands Jennifer Carroll 27 Gladstone Road, Bowral NSW 2577 carrol I .j en n ifer747@gmai I .co m Sydney Stuart Read Phone: (02) 9326 9468 Stuart 1962@bigpond.com Tasmania Elizabeth Kerry PO Box 89, Richmond TAS 7025 Phone: (03) 6260 4216 liz.kerry@keypoint.com.au Victoria LisaTuck PO Box 479, Somers VIC 3927 Phone: 0418 590 891 lisatuckl @bigpond.com Northern NSW Bill Oates c/o Heritage Centre, University of New England Armidale NSW 2350 woates@une.edu.au Western Australia John Viska 148 Chelmsford Rd North Perth WA 6006 Phone: (08) 9328 1519 cviska@slope.com 2 Australian Garden History, 26 (3), January/February/March 2015 Contents Embracing primary sources We had intended this issue of the journal to focus on primary sources for Australian garden history, although the recent death of Professor Richard Clough has now ensured that we cast our net slightly wider. Or has it? Richard Clough’s role in Australian garden history, like his place in Australian landscape architecture and education, is assured. As our respondents point out in our tribute in this issue, he was accomplished in diverse fields yet brought qualities of scholarship, empathy, and humility to all he undertook. His role as a designer, teacher, collector, scholar, and mentor was outstanding—to combine all these, humbling. We lament his passing. Richard had a great love of primary sources, which he viewed as the stuff of history. He saw as much value in the humble nursery catalogue or ephemeral brochure as in the most sumptuous quarto or folio. He collected such materials with sagacity and taste—his prescience has now enriched several of Australia’s major institutional collections. Such collections, in national and state libraries and institutions such as Sydney Living Museums and the various National Trusts, deserve our utmost support for these are the basis of our collective memory of Australian society and culture. But Richard’s role in collecting primary source material also draws attention to his own role as a source through oral history. In this respect he has favoured us with several detailed reminiscences, held in the National Library of Australia and elsewhere. Like all primary sources, discrimination is required when using oral histories, but his have been compiled with great thought and care. We have over the past few volumes attempted to include a variety of oral testimonies—the likes of Richard Clough, Elisabeth Murdoch, and Glen Wilson—and these now form a valuable source in their own right. Using such material brings one very close to the person, and in appropriate hands is a powerful means of supplementing more conventional sources. So this issue now—by a quirk of fate—honours Richard Clough’s love of original material by drawing together articles that have primary sources as their basis. What do we mean by a ‘primary source’ ? Do we mean a suite of materials wider than just original documents in an archive? Should we include contemporary documents that provide evidence of the attitudes, values, tastes, and ideas of the time in which they were written, photographed, painted, sketched, or uttered? We believe we should. This idea comes from the French philosopher Michel Foucault. We realise some eyes may glaze at the mere mention of Foucault, but if so the afflicted can take inspiration from his thinking without mentioning the ‘F word’. We believe Australian garden history should be open to primary sources that embrace oral testimony, marginalia, the paratext, and similar sources contemporary to the period under review. Primary sources can be used equally for ‘recovery history’ (to quote John Dixon Hunt) as well as reception history. Many of our contributors make this leap. As Craig Burton notes, the notion of thinking broadly about what might constitute primary sources and how diverse kinds of primary sources contribute to a well-rounded or nuanced understanding of a subject, was a key to Richard Clough’s approach. So too, with settler diaries and letters, unpublished manuscripts and their associated correspondence, plant databases, and with design archives. And amongst all the delight of chasing, discovering, and using primary sources there is always the thrill of the undiscovered gem. Christina Dyson & Richard Aitken The Beale diaries: a precious record of early colonial garden making TIM GATEHOUSE 4 Transplanted Australians: eucalypts in the Land of the Long White Cloud ANNETTE BAINBRIDGE 7 Patterns in plant popularity 1850-2010: description of a novel database ANNA WILSON &JOSLIN L. MOORE 11 Edna Walling, Jean Galbraith, and The Harvest of a Quiet Eye' MEREDITH FLETCHER 14 Remembering Richard Clough 18 Albany conference report GINA PLATE 22 Museum musings: Blond vegetables RICHARD HEATHCOTE 26 For the bookshelf 27 Recent releases 28 Dialogue 29 AGHS news 30 Profile: Julie Collins 32 Diary dates 33 Conserving heritage: a new age of activism JESSICA HOOD & FELICITY WATSON 35 Australian Garden History, 26 (3), January/February/March 2015 3 L Tim Gatehouse The Beale diaries: a precious record of early colonial garden making 27 February I 840: Plan of the flower gaden and orchard in front of the house—all the Beale children had their own sections of the garden to cultivate. All images are from the Beale diaries, State Library ofVictoria (MS 10751) 19 February I 840: Plan indicating the position of the railed fence to protect the garden— the posts were cut by Beale's sons who he paid one penny per day. Early diaries provide valuable primary sources for garden historians, but few are as early, informative, or charmingly illustrated as that of Anthony Beale, resident in Melbourne from the late 1830s. In November 1839 Anthony Beale and his family arrived as settlers in Melbourne. Beale had been paymaster to the East India Company on the island of St Helena, where he was born in 1790, but in 1836 his employment ended when control of the island passed to the crown. After going to England to raise the necessary capital to emigrate, the family sailed for Launceston, where they stayed briefly while Anthony Beale crossed over to Melbourne to establish a home for them. He purchased three acres of land in New Town, as Fitzroy was then known, and erected on it a pre¬ fabricated wooden house brought from England, after which the rest of the family joined him. The approximate boundaries of the land were the lines of the present day Condell, George, 4 Australian Garden History, 26 (3), January/February/March 2015 St David, and Napier Streets. St Helena Cottage was built on the north-east portion, the highest point of the block. The land was uncleared. The few houses in New Town were described as standing ‘in the shadow of giant trees ... like the ornamental timber in a park’. Anthony Beale was a dedicated diarist, and several of his manuscript diaries are preserved in the State Library of Victoria. He was also an accomplished artist. He illustrated the diaries with plans, diagrams, and cartoon-like drawings, possibly for the amusement of his younger children. The Beales were in the invidious position of having come from a comfortable social and financial position on St Helena, to a new community where they knew no one, had very little remaining capital, and little prospect of earning a reliable income. Beale was not The garden was laid out in front of the house. The main feature, as depicted in the sketch plans, was the circular ‘roundabout’. At first grassed over, this was later dug up for a flower bed. Curved paths led to it from the front gate. Small rectangular beds separated by narrow paths were made for flowers and vegetables. Wooden railings enclosed the circular bed and main paths. Enjoyment of the garden was enhanced by the construction of a portico at the front door. About ten feet square and with vines planted to shade it, the portico was used for dining and entertaining in the warmer months. Also shown is the garden seat, modelled on ‘Mr. Walker’s rustic work at Plantation House’, the residence of the governor of St Helena, with which Beale would have been familiar while courting his wife, who was the governor’s niece. exaggerating when he described them as ‘a poor family struggling to survive against every difficulty to earn a basic subsistence’. The family’s only cash flow came from their water cart, brought over from Launceston, which sold Yarra River water door to door. Even the initial task of fencing the property had to be paid for by giving the fencer a small portion of the land, there being no money to pay him. The establishment of a garden as a source of food thus became a matter of prime importance. One of the diary sketches depicts the Beale’s small estate. A farm yard was established behind the house, separated from the garden by a sturdy paling fence. A stable constructed of logs, large enough to hold four horses and a month’s supply of hay, is shown behind and to the right of the house. At the left hand end of the stable is a lean to, holding the fowl, goat, and geese pens. The fenced area behind the stable later held a few cows. A pond was dug for the convenience of the ducks, and an earth closet—delicately referred to as ‘the necessary’—for that of the family. Much work was needed to make the virgin soil fit for cultivation. The diary constantly refers to spading up the ground and fertilising it by spreading burnt shells, ashes, and manure from the stable and cow shed. The progress of the plants was noted and comparisons drawn between growth rates in Melbourne and St Helena. Temperatures and weather patterns were recorded daily. All this labour produced a variety of vegetables, including potatoes, cucumbers, turnips, cauliflowers, beans, peas, carrots, and cabbages. Some were planted behind the house, and others in the small garden beds in front, where a small orchard of apple, plum, peach, and apricot trees was also established. The beds of flowers, and also strawberries, raspberries, gooseberries, elderberries, and currants were planted in the front garden—here they could be admired from the portico as well as by visitors approaching the house. Few flowers were actually named, other than nasturtiums near the portico and sweet briar, which was sown along 17 November 1840: Appearance of St Helena Cottage, New Town (later Fitzroy), which Beale intended to be replicated at Greensborough, north east of Melbourne. 26 November 1839: On this day the stable at St Helena Cottage for the horse that drew the water cart was completed. Australian Garden History, 26 (3), January/February/March 2015 5 7 & 24 April I 840: The trellised portico overlooking the garden at St Helena Cottage was used for dining in warm weather. It was very similar to that at Longwood, Napoleon’s house on St Helena Island, with which Beale would have been familiar. The Beales' guest, Mr Jamieson, was so tall that his legs protruded out the door, to the amusement of Margaret Beale, who is serving dinner (‘poor Margaret did heartily roar’). the boundary fences. Not being necessary for the family’s sustenance, they may not have figured as prominently in Beale’s consciousness as the edible plants. Beale had hoped to make his fortune by subdividing his property into small cottage allotments, while retaining in the north-east corner his house, formal garden, and the vista to the south. After several proposals, the plan adopted was that in which the house, stable, and principal garden features are depicted. The roads on this plan follow the present line of Wood Street, running north from Condell Street, a small section of Moor Street, and Napier Place. The depression that followed the land boom swept away Beale’s dreams of a fortune. By the end of 1840 the Beales had moved to a small farm near Greensborough, north east of Melbourne, where they eventually enjoyed modest success. The small blocks surrounding St Helena Cottage were gradually sold, mainly for the benefit of Beale’s creditors. The larger block on which the house and garden were sited was also sold, and later subdivided after demolition of the house. What was once the Beale family’s hard-won home and garden is now a typical inner suburban townscape of small terrace houses. It survives only in the pages of Anthony Beale’s diary. Tim Gatehouse, a retired Melbourne solicitor with an interest in historical research, is currently transcribing the Beale diaries with a view to publication (including an accompanying history of the Beale family). 6 Australian Garden History, 26 (3), January/February/March 2015 Transplanted Australians: eucalypts in the Land of the Long White Cloud Australian eucalypts were important early introductions into colonial New Zealand landscapes, with many diarists noting their physical and emotional impact. When I was young my family hid a secret about my grandfather. It was always there in the background but remained unspoken. Perhaps they thought if it was never mentioned it would go away. However there was no getting away from it, the truth had to be admitted however embarrassing—my grandfather was an Australian. It showed in his surreptitious attempts to listen to Australia versus New Zealand cricket matches on the radio and the stifled cheer (hurriedly turned into a cough if anyone was around) that would erupt whenever Australia scored a boundary, an event that happened depressingly often. It also showed in his ability to cope with the desiccating effects of Canterbury’s fohn-style nor’west wind and still create a lush vegetable garden that helped feed his entire family. When I started researching the early gardens of colonial women in New Zealand’s South Island province of Canterbury, I found this brought memories of my grandfather flooding back. Australians trees, as it turns out, are an important part of New Zealand’s history and like my grandfather they have been hiding in plain view. The historic diaries, letters, and memoirs of New Zealand settlers are filled with references to gums, wattles, and acacias. New Zealand historian, John Andrews, has even suggested that ‘the importance of Australia in the development of New Zealand gardens and landscape cannot be overemphasised’. For many settlers their favourite, and most utilised, trees and plants were not from the mother country of England at all but from their antipodean sister colony. Using words from the women and men of the time, this article shows why one Australian tree— the eucalypt—dominated the early Canterbury landscape and became such a favourite with the first generation of New Zealand colonists. It pays to be aware, however, that most primary sources Eucalypt trees used to shelter the Bridge Inn, Belfast, in the Canterbury region of New Zealand, c. 1870s (artist unknown, copy in the James McNeish collection: Images of hotels'). Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, New Zealand (1/2-008602-F) Australian Garden History, 26 (3), January/February/March 2015 7 Without shelter— cabbage trees and tussocks in the original Canterbury landscape near MountTorlesse; photograph by Edgar Williams, c. 1920s-30s. Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, New Zealand (1/4-120989-F) were not written by professional gardeners or botanists, so the naming and classifying of the various forms of Eucalyptus species in these writings is very erratic (or non-existent, with many settlers referring to them simply as ‘gums’). The same names could also be given to different species depending upon the region of Australia in which the seeds were purchased. Why Australian eucalypts? These seem an odd choice for British settlers particularly when popular mythology has them solely concerned with creating a replica of England in the colonial landscape. When you look at the primary sources from the mid to late nineteenth century, however, a more nuanced and international story starts to emerge. Drive today down the main roads of the Canterbury Plains and you will see a fully pastoralised landscape. Farms with wire-fenced fields and vast irrigation works are visible everywhere. Also visible, however, are the remains of shelterbelt plantations planted by the original settlers to protect farms and homes from the prevailing nor’west wind. The surviving trees are vast, with grey-green leaves that blend into the blue sky and dramatically peeled trunks in every conceivable shade of grey, brown, or cream. These are the gum trees, prized by landowners for performing an essential environmental service that made the farming—and garden making—of Canterbury possible. They were some of the earliest exotics planted in the fledgling colony. At Mt Peel Station alone, in one year, 1863, owner J.B. Acland planted out ‘blue gum, red, white, peppermint, swamp, narrow leaf, stringy bark’ as well as ‘three dozen Australian cedars’. Geographically, the Canterbury Plains are edged with mountains that provide natural funnels for the hot, dry, nor’west wind as it blows across the South Island. The New Zealand Geographic described it as a ‘combination of destructive force, swirling dust, and dry heat’ that has been known to gust at up to i6okph. An early settler, Sarah Amelia Courage, referred to the nor’west as the ‘most trying wind of all and only colonial born people or Australians can bear [it] with any comfort’. She was right. When Canterbury farmers needed to offset the effects of this wind they turned to the Australian eucalypt. Immediately prior to European settlement in 1850 the flat Canterbury landscape was mainly tussock grasses dotted with small clumps of cabbage trees. There was little or no shelter. Fast-growing trees were needed if settlers were to create a working farm or garden on the plains. Traditional English trees were too slow-growing and vulnerable to the scorching effects of the wind. Eucalypts could both withstand the harsh, dry conditions and grow into an effective shelter quickly. They could also consume vast amounts of water, and as Canterbury was low-lying, swampy, and prone to floods from its many rivers, they were the perfect choice for farmers and gardeners dealing with these new, extreme environmental conditions. They were also readily accessible, as most settlers had either trading or personal connections with the two important plant-raising centres of Sydney and Hobart. Gum trees were in evidence as early as i860. In this year Effie Channon from Te Waimate Station visited Waimataitai (near what is now the city of Timaru). As noted in her memoir, she ‘walked around the garden, and admired the growth of the gum trees, then much thought of, as they were the only ones, excepting native trees in Canterbury’. In 1865 Mary Anne Broome (Lady Barker), author of the classic colonial memoir Station Life in New Zealand (1870), gave a description of a homestead where ‘there is a thick plantation of blue and red gums, to shelter the gardens from the strong nor’west winds’. She also commented on the effectiveness of the shelterbelts when she stayed at Waireka Station. ‘The house has been built for some years’, she noted, ‘consequently the plantations about it and the garden have grown up well and the ... gum-trees and poplars shelter it perfectly, besides giving it a snug, home look’. The eucalypt trees not only sheltered the homesteads but, importantly for Canterbury 8 Australian Garden History, 26 (3), January/February/March 2015 agriculture and horticulture, they provided effective screening for seedling nurseries of more vulnerable trees and plants. At Orari station in 1858 the overseer recorded ‘I put in a lot of gum seed and Woolcombe’s wattle seed’. By the time the station owner W.K. Macdonald visited Australia in the 1860s and sent home other seeds to be planted, they were able to be grown in the nursery ‘where the gums are’. It wasn’t just plant nurseries that could be screened off by the fast-growing gums. Unsightly or utilitarian areas could also be hidden, as at Kaiwara Run where eucalypts were used to screen off the ‘fowl houses and the men’s quarters’. In other cases they were used to hide outhouses. Presumably their scented leaves with their pungent, medicinal smell also came in handy in this instance ? In the growing townscapes of Canterbury, particularly the main city of Christchurch, the eucalyptus provided yet another service. According to Lady Barker, Christchurch had ‘large trees bordering most of the streets which give a very necessary shade in summer ... poplars, willows, and blue gums grow the quickest’. Jane Deans of Christchurch planted gum trees at her stately home, Riccarton House, and not just for functional reasons. One part of her garden was laid out in the shape of a tree and that tree symbolised her interpretation of the history of Canterbury. The trunk outline was made by planting ‘bluegums to stand for the runholders and Australians to give backbone to the branches’. The branches consisted of purely ornamental trees, and stood for the English settlers and farmers. In this most Anglican of New Zealand cities Jane herself was a feisty Scots Presbyterian. She managed to turn her eucalypt trees into a political statement! Sarah Amelia Courage had never seen a eucalypt before her arrival at the port of Lyttelton in 1864. She described her first impressions: ‘Some very fine specimens ... were growing near the house; one I was told was fifty feet high, most of them being about ten feet in girth. They cannot be called handsome trees except for size, the colours of the leaf being a dull bluish green.’ Despite her initially lukewarm appreciation of their aesthetic qualities she grew fond of the eucalypt trees and they eventually brought out her poetic side. Photograph by Thelma Kent of farmer and wagon driving past a South Canterbury field boundary in the Geraldine district screened by eucalypt trees, c. 1939. Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, New Zealand (1/4-003183-F) Australian Garden History, 26 (3), January/February/March 2015 9 ‘Ever and anon, a sough of the rising wind would shiver through the gum trees round our dwelling’, she wrote. ‘The village church with its ... large gum trees on two sides of the little graveyard, the old- looking thatched cottages, the straw stacks dotted against the blue sky—all formed a picturesque scene.’ For Sarah, the gum trees had become an integral part of the colonial countryside. Towards the end of Sarah’s memoir the eucalypt had become something even more precious—a symbol of belonging in this new land. On coming back from a journey ‘a young moon welcomed our return with a soft radiance, and the big gum trees that flourished on one side of the house were moved by a slight breeze, a sort of murmur of welcome. All was delightfully still and restful, making one feel that it was ‘home’.’ Remnant eucalypt plantings from the Thomas family’s late nineteenth- century homestead, Akaroa, Canterbury; watercolour painting by Cranleigh Barton, c. 1950. Alexander Turnbull Library Wellington, New Zealand (A-227-304) A similar reaction was engendered in Edward Jerningham Wakefield who saw the transplanted Australian tree as a symbol of imperial civilisation and all that the settlers had brought to Canterbury: ‘The last patches of native forest have disappeared ... but the spreading growth of blue gums, English trees and live hedges imparts a cheerful conviction of successful colonization.’ The eucalypt had become a representation of the future prosperity of the young colony of New Zealand, and an icon in the South Island landscape. References Acland, J.B., A/It Peel Station Diaries, held by the Acland Family (MSS). Andrews, John, No Other Home Than This: a history of European New Zealanders, Craig Potton Publishing, Nelson, 2009. [Broome, Mary Anne] Lady Barker, Station Life in New Zealand, Macmillan, London, 1870. Courage, Sarah Amelia, Lights and Shadows of Colonial Life, Whitcoulls Ltd, Christchurch, 1976. Deans, Jane, Letters to My Grandchildren, The Canterbury Publishing Company Ltd, Christchurch, 1923. Gillespie, O.A., Oxford, the First 100 Years, Oxford Historical Committee, Christchurch, 1953. Menefy, Diana, & Judd, Warren, ‘Eucalypts: trees of the future?’, New Zealand Geographic, No. 58, July-Aug 2002, pp. 46-61. Relph, David, A mighty wind: in the teeth of the Canterbury nor’wester’, New Zealand Geographic, No. 70, Nov-Dec 2004, pp.62-75. Studholme, E.C., Te Waimate: early station life in New Zealand, A.H &A.W Reed, Wellington, 1954. Annette Bainbridge is completing a Masters degree in history at the University ofWaikato on the topic of women in colonial Canterbury and their gardens. 10 Australian Garden History, 26 (3), January/February/March 2015 Anna Wilson & Joslin L. Moore Patterns in plant popularity 1850-2010: description of a novel database A new database, recording quantitative and qualitative information about garden plant popularity in Victoria from 1850 to 2010, is revealing fresh information about our garden preferences. What did people like to plant in the gardens of Australia’s past? Have people always loved roses? When did acacias become popular? What about kangaroo paws ? Have medium-sized plants always been most highly valued ? Or, was there a time for tiny flowering plants? Have flowers and their colours always been the dominating characteristic of the most popular plants? Or, have there been times when leafiness or leaf colour was just as important? Understanding just how popular various plants have been throughout Victoria’s history offers great insight into past gardening trends and into questions of heritage, plant naturalisation, and the horticultural industry. Motivated by a desire to understand whether there is any relationship between the popularity of garden plants and plants that go on to naturalise in environments outside of the garden, we have created a database with the aim of quantifying past plant popularity. Creating such a database has required making many decisions regarding sources, which information to gather from them, and how we wanted to store it. Evidence of past plant availability and popularity lies hidden in a diverse array of publications and media forms; from nursery catalogues, newspapers, gardening magazines, radio shows, television programs, and internet resources. The number of such publications and formats has increased markedly over time, from the earliest days of Victoria’s settlement when only a couple of newspapers and the odd nursery catalogue or advertisement holds information still available to us today, to now, when the internet provides an endless source of information for the gardening enthusiast. We aimed to identify sources that reflected garden tastes of the broader community (rather than specialist gardeners) and so targeted gardening articles with a broad and general circulation. We sampled newspaper articles from a vast array of Victorian newspapers (over the century from Selection of magazines surveyed for the plant popularity database. Courtesy National Library of Australia and private collection Australian Garden History, 26 (3), January/February/March 2015 11 Table I The five most popular genera in each decade Decade Most popular 2nd 3rd 4th 5th 1850s Rosa Fuchsia Dahlia Geranium Dianthus 1860s Geranium Rosa Verbena Petunia Fuchsia 1870s Rosa Geranium Fuchsia Begonia Camellia 1880s Rosa Dahlia Geranium Dracaena Fuchsia 1890s Rosa Chrysanthemum Dianthus Viola Geranium 1900s Rosa Dahlia Chrysanthemum Dianthus Narcissus 1910s Rosa Dahlia Dianthus Chrysanthemum Antirrhinum 1920s Rosa Dahlia Dianthus Antirrhinum Chrysanthemum 1930s Dahlia Antirrhinum Primula Viola Rosa 1940s Dahlia Rosa Chrysanthemum Phlox Papaver 1950s Dahlia Rosa Phlox Azalea Dianthus 1960s Rosa Phlox Geranium Iris Viola 1970s Azalea Camellia Rosa Viola Chrysanthemum 1980s Rosa Camellia Azalea Viola Grevillea 1990s Rosa Viola Camellia Azalea Papaver 2000s Rosa Salvia Camellia Viola Calendula the 1850s to the 1950s), focusing on some of the most populated areas including Melbourne, Geelong, Ballarat, Portland, and Bendigo, as well as choosing representatives from the diverse geological and climatic conditions of the state. Until the first few decades after the turn of the twentieth century, the newspaper was the most important form of mass media, dominating the sphere of information. By the 1930s magazines had become a vital source of information for gardeners in Victoria and thus for establishing plant popularity since that time. We chose to focus our magazine choice on a variety of publications. The Australian Women’s Weekly , for example, is a popular and long-running magazine. It was published weekly from 1933 until 1983 and every edition ran a series of regular discussions and columns about gardening, seasonal and practical tips, backyard design, and general discussion about favoured plants. Once it became monthly we continued to sample it until today. Given this publications large readership and the way it provided gardening information alongside fiction, fashion and gossip, we have deemed this source important for it would have had influence not just on the keen gardeners. Other magazines with long print runs that we included, all with smaller and more specific audiences, included Your Garden, established in 1947. For more recent decades of the 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s, three gardening magazines dominated readership and also reflected what was happening on some of Figure I Graphs showing the way mentions of four chosen genera have changed over time and relative to the total number of taxa referred to in the articles sampled for each decade. Rosa Acacia Pinus Agapanthus 12 Australian Garden History, 26 (3), January/February/March 2015 Table 2 The 6th to I Oth most popular genera in each decade Decade 6th 7th 8th 9th 10th 1850s Petunia Gloxinia Ranunculus Phlox Calceolaria 1860s Dahlia Acacia Camellia Azalea Viola 1870s Aglaomorpha Viola Dianthus Petunia Antirrhinum 1880s Aglaomorpha Eucalyptus Azalea Acacia Begonia 1890s Dahlia Phlox Papaver Narcissus Matthiola 1900s Camellia Viola Phlox Alternanthera Bouvardia 1910s Phlox Delphinium Aster Lathyrus Viola 1920s Gladiolus Papaver Aster Viola Petunia 1930s Delphinium Aster Phlox Gladiolus Chrysanthemum 1940s Matthiola Cineraria Delphinium Zinnia Viola 1950s Chrysanthemum Begonia Camellia Delphinium Rhododendron 1960s Azalea Petunia Matthiola Dahlia Lathyrus 1970s Dianthus Geranium Calendula Phlox Rhododendron 1980s Calendula Primula Rhododendron Dianthus Begonia 1990s Dianthus Lavandula Iris Calendula Geranium 2000s Petunia Lavandula Hibiscus Grevillea Vriesea the most popular television shows: Better Homes and Gardens, Burke’s Backyard, and Gardening Australia. From these sources we entered a plant’s name (common name, genus, or species) if it was mentioned in an article, as well as information about whether it was accompanied by a photograph, whether it was on a cover, whether it included multiple varieties, and for what traits or qualities it was valued. In addition, we recorded if it was recommended or not and the reason for the recommendation. We have now generated a database with more than 27,000 individual mentions from nearly 3000 individual articles. This database has revealed some significant patterns about plant popularity. One of the early and interesting things we discovered was just how dominant a relatively small group of plants have been across the entire time period, from 1850 to 2010. The top ten most-mentioned plant genera (Tables 1 & 2) are similar across almost every decade. Small flowering shrubs dominated the most popular plant section in general, which seemed plausible as these were the most regularly planted and interchangeable elements of the garden, with trees and larger plants being planted far less regularly and having much longer lives. Another way of presenting the data, and useful to move beyond just the small ‘most popular’ group of plants, is to look at individual genera and track shifts in popularity across the decades. Examples of what this information yields for four plant genera are shown below (Figure 1). These examples of insights gleaned from this database are just a tiny snippet of what might be revealed by approaching history in this quantitative manner. Reflecting on the results also offer a useful space to reflect on the way sources are used and also the reasons for the results shown. Understanding and protecting Australia’s gardening heritage relies upon somehow imagining, reconstructing, and continuing the gardening and decisions made by people often in quite a distant past. Our database offers a way of seeing broad trends across long time periods, insight that is often difficult to gather from more detailed and narrative based data. References Brookes, Margaret, & Barley, Richard, Plants Listed in Nursery Catalogues in Victoria 1855-1889, 2nd ed., Garden Plant Conservation Association of Australia Inc., South Yarra, Vic., 2009. Cunningham, Stuart, &Turner, Graeme (eds), The Media & Communications in Australia, Allen & Unwin, Crows Nest, NSW, 2010. Griffen-Foley, Bridget, A Companion to the Australian Media, Australian Scholarly Publishing, North Melbourne, 2014. Anna Wilson is a post-doctoral fellow at the Australian National University & ARCUE, Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne, working on The Culture of Weeds project. Joslin L. Moore is a lecturer in ecology at Monash University and her research encompasses plant community ecology, decision analysis, and biological invasions. Australian Garden History, 26 (3), January/February/March 2015 13 Edna Walling, Jean Galbraith, and 'The Harvest of a Quiet Eye' ‘Old Man’s Beard, Clematis,Travellers Joy -Whatever you call it the name recalls a fleece of cream stars in spring and in summer a robe of thistledown as the curled and feathered seeds cascade over shrub and tree.’ Text and photo: Edna Walling Collection, State Library ofVictoria, H99.120/263 Garden designer Edna Walling and garden writer and botanist Jean Galbraith enjoyed a long correspondence, including materials for an unpublished manuscript 'The Harvest of a Quiet Eye'. Several years ago, while I was working my way through manuscript boxes in the Jean Galbraith Papers at the State Library ofVictoria, I was intrigued to find some envelopes crammed with black and white photographs of native flora, many with paragraph-length captions stuck on the back. Elsewhere in Galbraith’s papers was correspondence relating to the photographs as well as captions for the images; some jotted on odd scraps of paper, others neatly typed. These photographs and captions were the remnants of ‘The Harvest of a Quiet Eye’, a collaboration between two women who shared a passion for Australian plants and their conservation: garden designer Edna Walling and botanist Jean Galbraith. In April 1958 when Jean Galbraith walked around to collect the mail from her country post office in Tyers, Gippsland, she found a letter and photograph from a new friend, Edna Walling, who had recently visited to photograph her garden. ‘Dear Miss Galbraith’, the letter began: M ay I have the wording on your seat? And if it is in German I shall need a translation . The only place I am likely to use the picture would be in a new edition of ( Gardens in Australia y and that possibility is so remote that you should definitely use it ... as an illustration for some of your writings . This was a letter between two well-known garden writers. Galbraith’s writing was noted for its lyricism, story, autobiography, and celebration of beauty; Walling’s was opinionated and enlightening. 14 Australian Garden History, 26 (3), January/February/March 2015 Walling’s three gardening books published in the 1940s were testament to her popularity as a writer, but—as her letter to Galbraith showed—this popularity had waned by the late 1950s. Edna Walling and Jean Galbraith also shared a passion for native flora and its place in Australian gardens, as well as a commitment to conservation. A glance through Walling’s writings (for example her 1948 book A Gardener's Log , a collection of her Home Beautiful articles) reveals the extent of her enthusiasm for gardening with native plants and also her emotional response to the beauty of Australian flora. In The Australian Roadside, published in 1952, her photographs and text celebrated the beauty of native vegetation on roadsides, while the book was also a plea to value and protect this fast disappearing vegetation. Galbraith’s love for Australian flora stretched back to a childhood spent exploring the bush near her home and collecting seeds and seedlings to grow in her garden. When she was nineteen, she had been commissioned to write a series for the Garden Lover, Australian Native Flowers’, that drew on her experiences of growing native plants and developed into nature writing evoking the beauty of the Australian bush. In 1949, she was commissioned to write Wildflowers of Victoria, an accessible field guide published a year later (and twice reprinted) that made a significant contribution to the conservation of Victoria’s flora. It was Walling who initiated their collaboration, hoping to combine her love of photography with Galbraith’s love of words. She had improved her technique for printing photographs, she told Jean in 1963, and was now ‘optimistically’ thinking of sending a small selection to Thames and Hudson in London under the title ‘The Australian Bush’, and asked if Jean would write the captions for her photographs. She was delighted when Jean agreed. ‘Even the thought that you may agree to collaborate in the compiling of this book is a great [unclear?] that makes me happier than I have been for a long time’. After listening to the Australian Broadcasting Commission’s devotional service on Melbourne radio, she changed the title to incorporate a quote from Wordsworth’s ‘A Poet’s Epitaph’, now calling it ‘Australia: the Harvest of a Quiet Eye’. Parcels of photographs for the new project began arriving at the Tyers Post Office: pandanus on the Queensland coast, venerable red gums, alpine rock gardens, wildflowers in the Grampians, minnie daisies growing along a railway line. Long lists were compiled and Jean started jotting down captions: ‘In the north-west the pale Chamomile Sunray (Helipterum anthemoides) runs up to the trees like the foam patterned shallows of a wave’ ... ‘Old Man’s Beard, Clematis, Travellers Joy - Whatever you call it the name recalls a fleece of cream stars in spring and in summer a robe of thistledown as the curled and feathered seeds cascade over shrub and tree’. In longer captions she wrote about colour, texture, and form, and included botanical information. ‘The Harvest’ was a project that gave Walling great joy. ‘I adored your caption for the yellow box’, she wrote to Galbraith in an undated letter. ‘How you bring out the main beauty of a photograph. Oh! I’m lucky - & grateful, my prayer is “make me worthy Lord” and as I write I’m listening to some divine Mozart’. The introduction to ‘The Harvest’ that she sent to Galbraith for editing was a manifesto expressing her strong support for black and white photography: I have never been afflicted with a mania for coloured film: capturing the light in a picture seems so much more worthwhile , and yet of course when there is colour and no light - that is no light that is particularly striking - ‘Ah welV , I say , ‘leave that one to the colour photographers\ and drive on: until arrested by some impelling shot which promises to be more beautiful in black and white than it could ever be in colour . And so I must confess that it is not the brilliant coloured scenes of Australia that have strongly appealed to me but rather the black and white and grey beauty of it all . With her customary energy, Walling sent off photographs and captions to a succession of publishers: Cassell, Landsdowne Press, Melbourne University Press, Heinemann, Jacaranda Press, Sun Books, Nelsons, Reed. But there was no interest in the project. Her black and white photographs were also out-of-step with the glossy colour photographs appearing in publications in the 1960s, as Sara Hardy noted in her 2005 biography The Un-usual Life of Edna Walling. Undeterred, Walling considered different ways of presenting the photographs and text. ‘What about it being a series of unbound Australian Garden History, 26 (3), January/February/March 2015 15 ‘Or. the quiet, fihores of Port Phillip or Slothing the rooks of Wilson’s Promontory and many another coast, the Sea Box (.Alyvtia Tjimifolist). makes, curtains and bushs# of shining dark green all the year. Its small fragrant white flowers are tubular at the base* spreading into slightly twisted white, petals where the yellow stamens are just visible in the tube. After the flowers, orange- scarlet berries, carry its brightness into winter.’ Text: Jean Galbraith Papers (MS 12637), State Library of Victoria, Box 3465/1 Photo: Edna Walling Collection, State Library ofVictoria, H98.120/492 ‘Austral Storks BfR.QPblai^nlum austral^ is so decorative that even its shadow is beautiful in the sand, while its pale pink flowers with their double splash of carmine are in bloom nearly all the year amongst the, “stork’s bill” fruits.’ Text and photo: Jean Galbraith Papers (MS 12637), State Library ofVictoria, Box 4099 ‘In north-western Victoria where the sand shows white and dry amongst scattered plants, the Snow-myrtle (O&Lytrlxalpeetrls) blooms ■dbhcately In spring each bush is a bouquet of pink or white starry flowers, alive with butterflies and bees,. When there are no flowers, the bushes are as clear-cut as etchings, every short slender leaf standing straight out from the arched stems,’ Text and photo: Jean Galbraith Papers (MS 12637), State Library of Victoria, Box 4100 Who gr ey shoulder of the Grampian Mountains is called the “Elephant’s B kl n”. Against it, the flowers of the White Everlastirig Qff &JI n h ryH iim Ixjjzumf) stand delicately’ Text and photo: Jean Galbraith Papers (MS 12637), State Library ofVictoria, Box 4099 16 Australian Garden History, 26 (3), January/February/March 2015 collections of pictures and captions in heavy card envelopes issued quarterly perhaps’, Edna asked Jean, ‘then we could go on forever!’. She considered Jean’s suggestion of using Biblical quotes and thought about sending the manuscript to a publisher ‘interested in the, shall I say spiritual dimensions of the book’. Were the flowers more appealing to the general public than trees, she wondered? On the publishing front, this was a lean time for Walling. She even suggested Galbraith approach publishers, thinking Jean Galbraith had a better chance of being successful than Edna Walling. ‘I don’t want you to think I’ve got a chip on my shoulder when I say that in Melbourne my chances of getting anything accepted are very slender’, she told Jean in October 1963. The 1960s were far from a lean time for Galbraith when it came to publishing, and Walling was aware of Jean’s demanding writing schedule. ‘I ... certainly do not want this project to be a strain on you’, she stated firmly. ‘I feel such a joyousness about it that I could not bear that you should be overburdened at all’. In spite of all the rejections from publishers, Walling continued working in her dark room, printing photographs and sending them to Galbraith. ‘I am so completely happy to be the illustrator of your valuable prose’, she wrote. And she remained positive. ‘Even if we don’t succeed in getting it printed we can make it OUR BOOK and get someone to bind it.’ Walling appreciated Galbraith’s letters in this lean period: ‘Jean dear, how your letters warm the heart. And the lovely captions’. In their correspondence, she discussed her plans to move to Queensland and transfer her property East Point near Lome to the Bird Observers’ Club, so that it could be preserved as a bird sanctuary. She also discussed an idea to turn her house in Mooroolbark into a rest and convalescent home. ‘[S]o many have found it restful ... I think it the best way to prevent it being subdivided and covered with brick veneer houses! ... I appreciate your opinion, your wise reactions’. Their friendship continued after her move to Queensland in 1968. Not long before her death in 1973, Walling was still writing to Galbraith about photographs for ‘The Harvest’, and continuing to send prints. She urged Jean to enjoy her collection of photographs: ‘I’d so much rather think that the prints may be used, even if only to show your friends than left with a publisher whom [sic] would hardly be expected to value them ... Anyway it’s yours you don’t have to use them, you just enjoy them’, she wrote in October 1972. Within ten years of Edna Walling’s death, her writing came to prominence again and much of it was republished. There was praise, too, for her black and white photography. Jean Galbraith contributed to some of the Walling publishing projects. When Victor Crittenden of Mulini Press asked if she had a gardening manuscript languishing in a bottom drawer, Jean told him of Walling’s ‘On the Trail of Australian Wildflowers’, a manuscript Edna had been unable to place with a publisher, and was still stored at Jean’s home. Jean launched the book at the iconic Melbourne bookshop, Margareta Webber’s. She also wrote the foreword to a new edition of Walling’s The Australian Roadside, reissued in 1985: ‘If her influence saves roadsides like the ones she recorded, Edna Walling still lives in the books she wrote and especially in this book which reveals for us the beauty of many roadsides in picture and word.’ But the ‘Harvest of a Quiet Eye’, a collaboration by two women who could evoke the beauty of Australian plants in painterly photographs and words, remained in envelopes, folders, scribbled lists, and yellowing typescript. The project that gave them so much pleasure has not yet been made available for others to enjoy. References All letters quoted are from the Jean Galbraith Papers (MS 12637), Australian Manuscripts Collection, State Library of Victoria, PA 97/38 and Box 3465/1. Notes for ‘The Harvest’ are in Box 3465/1, Box 3471/4, and Boxes 4099—4100. The Edna Walling photographs are housed in the Jean Galbraith Papers, Boxes 4099—4100, and in the Edna Walling Collection, La Trobe Pictures Collection, State Library of Victoria. The introduction to ‘The Harvest of a Quiet Eye’ is in the Edna Walling Papers (MS 13048), Australian Manuscripts Collection, State Library of Victoria, Box 3762/9. For Victor Crittenden’s experience, see his article ‘How I became an Edna Walling publisher’, Australian Garden History, 12(1), 2000, pp.16—18. Acknowledgements My thanks to SLV manuscript librarian Lois McEvey for alerting me to material in the Jean Galbraith collection that had not been accessioned or listed— the photographs were stored in this collection. Meredith Fletcher’s is recent biography, Jean Galbraith: Writer in a Valley, is published by Monash University Publishing in association with the State Library of Victoria. Australian Garden History, 26 (3), January/February/March 2015 17 Remembering Richard Clough Five Australian Garden History Society members reflect on the influence of Richard Clough, whose life and work contributed inestimably to Australian garden history. Richard Clough in his library within the elegant surrounds of his apartment at Bibaringa, Double Bay, NSW, February 2000. Photo: Richard Aitken Professor Richard Clough AM 1921-2014 On 4 December 2014 the Australian Garden History Society lost an esteemed member and friend. Professor Richard Clough, architect, landscape architect, Professor of Landscape Architecture and Head of School at the University of New South Wales, and mentor to many, died after a short illness. It was, as he acknowledged, a long and fortunate life. A modest gentleman, his many professional achievements are listed in the entry written by Craig Burton for The Oxford Companion to Australian Gardens and in various tributes that have appeared since his death. Richard was one of the giants of Australian garden history. The major garden history collections he assembled and donated to public institutions at the Canberra College of Advanced Education (now University of Canberra) and the Historic Houses Trust of NSW (now Sydney Uiving Museums) are widely recognised but few know just how much he influenced the authors of the best of our garden history books produced over the last decade or so. Once a researcher had proven his or herself to Richard’s satisfaction, he was exceptionally generous with his time and knowledge. He was a pivotal figure in the history of Australian landscape architecture. He imparted his great knowledge of rare gardening books. He lifted our awareness of the history of early Australian nurseries and plant introductions through his early retirement project of cataloguing the Baptist papers at the Mitchell Library in Sydney. He collected nursery catalogues and raised an awareness of their importance for a well-rounded appreciation of gardening history, donating his own substantial collection to the State Library of New South Wales. His was an active mind to the end. He welcomed new challenges and at 90, purchased a laptop computer so he could better access the websites he wanted to search. And, after donating his garden history book collection, he enthusiastically took up an interest in Japanese kuchi-e prints, amassing both the knowledge of the prints and a comprehensive collection, now in the National Library, at rapid speed. How pleased he was when they were made available online and more widely accessible. Always interested in intellectual pursuits, in his last weeks, he was still discussing nineteenth-century plant introductions into Australia and his thoughts on further research to be done. Mentoring to the end. Colleen Morris Chair, Australian Garden History Society, 2003—09 18 Australian Garden History, 26 (3), January/February/March 2015 Richard Clough and Australian landscape architecture I first met Richard Clough when we both started academic employment within the then School of Landscape Architecture at the University of New South Wales in 1981. He took over the position of Professor and Head of School (and later Dean of the Faculty of the Built Environment) and I was employed as a lecturer. Dick had recently retired from the National Capital Development Commission where he had already enjoyed a major career. We had a mutual empathy as we started on the same day and discovered we were both trained professionally in architecture and landscape architecture, had interests in history and fine arts, and an appreciation of Asian cultures. He was a generous man, sharing his knowledge and extensive experience of working in bureaucracies, always striving for the recognition of the bigger picture provided by landscape architecture in appropriate scale and context for any development. Our mutual interests were extended through many informal tea or coffee breaks when a variety of subjects were discussed and often comments were prefaced by ‘you know’ and in many cases I did not know and was directed to places or publications where I could gain the knowledge. We continued to have these conversations well after we both had left full time academic positions, often at his residence in Randwick and later Double Bay. He was aware that I had an interest in Australian landscape design history as well as the global history of landscape design and when he had left his first extensive collection of landscape history publications to the Canberra College of Advanced Education—where landscape history was not taught—he realised this oversight and began compiling a second personal library collection, often purchasing an additional copy of something that he thought I would enjoy or needed to read. We worked together on projects in Canberra for the National Capital Authority and more particularly the evolution and significance of the parks surrounding Lake Burley Griffin, including Kings Park. I gained a great appreciation of the development of Canberra and Dick’s role in guiding the implementation of landscape planning and design decisions in the post-war years. This process was accelerated when Helen Armstrong invited me to become part of the Cultural Landscape Research Unit at UNSW in the mid-1980s and the compilation of a video on Richard Clough entitled ‘A natural preference for informality’. This title summed up Dick’s approach to planning and design and the major influence’s on his professional life stemming from his childhood background in rural NSW, his landscape studies in England with Peter Youngman, Dame Sylvia Crowe, and Lord Holford, and the opportunities presented by the challenge of implementing Canberra as a garden city in a rural landscape setting. Above all, he had a wonderful sense of humour. You know! Craig Burton Landscape Architect A natural preference for informality I first met Richard Clough when he became the Head of the School of Landscape Architecture at the University of New South Wales in 1981. It was a small school of five to six staff and about 100 students within the large Faculty of Architecture. Richard quietly took the helm of this little ship and without so much as a ripple he set the School on his trajectory. His considered and responsible authority resulted in removing the tension between design and planning as he re-organised the course into streams, giving equal weight to planning and design through calm consultative staff meetings. We respected Richard and he respected us, so under his stewardship the School steadily grew in both areas. He was of the old school in terms of a design course. He saw it more like an atelier than a research and teaching hub. As in many architecture schools of the day, he was not so concerned with competitive grants for positivist research but rather the research and scholarship associated with history and design, often as a collector and connoisseur. But he was supportive of the various interests the staff engaged in. At this time I was researching Australian roadside trees and town avenues. Richard was clearly reading my various articles because although he did not comment, he would often give me a hand-written quote from something he was reading that was pertinent to my research, invariably with an ironic twist. His particular interest was the history of designed landscapes, about which he was a fund of knowledge, both from practice and his wide reading plus his love of travelling. But he was never didactic, instead imparting his wisdom through insightful comments. He was a self-effacing man, perhaps shy, so when I admitted to him that Craig Burton and I had a grant to make a documentary about his time Australian Garden History, 26 (3), January/February/March 2015 19 Richard Clough at an informal gathering on Scotland Island, in Sydney's north, November 1996. Photo courtesy Helen Armstrong in Canberra, he was very upset with us; but still accepted the situation with grace. Nevertheless it was difficult to get his personal reflections and reminiscences. He would wait for situations where we were without pen, paper, or tape-recorder and then tell us some observational gems. It was a game that he enjoyed; but when the camera rolled, he was eloquent and considered. Only through making the documentary, did we learn of his natural preference for informality and of his true contribution to landscape architecture and his significance in so many ways. Helen Armstrong Emeritus Professor, Queensland University of Technology Sharing accumulated wisdom My friendship with Richard Clough had inauspicious beginnings. When editing Australian Garden History with Georgina Whitehead during 1990—92, we published Richard’s article ‘Mr Bidwill’s Erythrina’, a fascinating piece concerning two of his favourite subjects—early colonial horticulturists and plant breeding. I published his Erythrina illustration upside down. It was unpardonable. Richard was generous in his forgiveness and later brushed it off, whereas those inverted orange petals were seared into my editorial lobes. That was in early 1992 and he had a year earlier written to the journal concerning my own article on Sydney’s Prince Alfred Park, offering useful additional information, based on meticulous research. This was his mode of operation—research, analysis, shared wisdom— and this bond we enjoyed for almost a quarter of a century, through correspondence, visits, meals, and the occasional garden or bookshop visit. Reflecting on his approach to Australian garden history (and doubtless applicable his other passions), he wrote to me in 2011: ‘the more you know about a subject the more you get out of looking further’. And so it was, as we shared discoveries about the fugitive plant collector William Baxter, the early garden use of Australian plants, the Australian nursery trade, and much more besides. Our friendship took a great leap forward in 1995, when I approached Richard about a project I was undertaking, editing of The Oxford Companion to Australian Gardens. From its first inklings in 1993 to its eventual publication in 2002, Richard was a great supporter. At first rather hesitant, he agreed to write two entries. Two soon became four, and four became, ultimately, thirty-three with detailed comments made on scores more. It was an astonishingly generous gift of his expertise, and ranged chronologically from early colonial times to modernist designers of his own generation, (all of whom he knew as friends or acquaintances). From Baptist and Bidwill to Variegation and Verschuer, the entries came in a torrent during 1995—2001 as his enthusiasm for the project quickened. Visits to his substantial private library enriched my knowledge and on each occasion, he would say mid-visit: ‘Did I tell you about?’ and I would scribble frantically as well-considered observations and opinions were offered on a once-only basis. These were treasured moments. As co-editor of Australian Garden History I have reason to thank him too for he was a generous contributor to this journal. In reflecting on his experiences for our issue 23 (1), 2011, Richard wrote evocatively of his rural upbringing, his studies, on-the-job training with Sylvia Crowe in England, and his subsequent career in Australia in landscape architecture and education. Again, he was at first a little reluctant to put pen to paper, but after submission he advised us that, after all, ‘I quite enjoyed writing it’. The accompanying list of his published writings also pleased him too I suspect, for its breadth conveyed something of his character and life interests, if only one took the time to notice. This too was a hallmark of his approach: discreet, considered, occasionally oblique, but always pertinent. There weren’t too many wasted words, but those he has left form a vital and distinctive record. Richard Aitken Co-editor, Australian Garden History 20 Australian Garden History, 26 (3), January/February/March 2015 Richard's book collection and the library of the Historic Houses Trust In 2004 Richard Clough presented his outstanding collection of garden books to the Historic Houses Trust’s Caroline Simpson Library & Research Collection through the Commonwealth Cultural Gifts Program. The collection comprised more than 2000 items ranging across the history of publishing about Australian gardens, gardening, gardeners, and plants. The gift was transformational, giving a depth and breadth to our existing garden history collection and providing a foundation for accelerated development. Richard made the decision to give his collection to the HHT library in 2003, when the Trust was knee-deep in a major conservation and development project to relocate its head office, and the library, from our old cramped premises in the historic house Lyndhurst in Glebe, to the former industrial buildings at The Mint in Macquarie Street, Sydney. It was a prestigious address and a prize-winning architectural adaptive re-use of the Mint site, in which the library was designed to sit at the heart of the precinct. The new location was an important factor in Richard’s decision. Not because he— that most modest of men—was particularly interested in the prestige, but rather because he saw that the location showed that we were serious about books and libraries, serious about scholarship and public engagement. He maintained his own engagement with the library until his death and its staff feels his loss personally. He was a regular visitor, often calling in on his way to attend a lecture at the Art Gallery of New South Wales. Sometimes coming in to check a reference from his own collection for a talk that he himself might be giving—on Professor Waterhouse at Eryldene perhaps. Or we might simply exchange news and views on books and exhibitions. Most recently, in September 2014, we talked about the Raymond McGrath exhibition then on show at the Tin Sheds Gallery in the Wilkinson Building at the University of Sydney and Richard shared with us his memories of the time in the 1950s that he had gone to dinner at the McGraths’ house in Dublin. A few months earlier I had the pleasure of showing him a recent acquisition, four very rare early twentieth-century catalogues from the Yokohama Nursery Company. I can only regret the unshared acquisitions of the future and take consolation that in 2005 I was able to act as Richard’s typist for a memoir of his years working for the National Capital Development Commission in Canberra. Both the manuscript and typescript versions of these ‘Notes on the landscaping of Canberra 1959 to 1981’, written between July 2004 and July 2005, are now held by the National Library of Australia, open for public access in 2017. His legacy is an outstanding one. Megan Martin Head, Collections and Access, Sydney Living Museums Richard Clough with one of his select collection of oriental treasures, Sydney, November 2002. Photo: Richard Aitken Further reading Richard Clough/Reminiscences of garden and landscape design influences', Australian Garden History, 23 (I), July/August/September 2011, pp. 19-23. http://sydneylivingmuseums.com.au/stories/ richard-clough-1921 -2014 http://www.be.unsw.edu.au/content/vale-richard- clough http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-10-17/ lake-burley-griffin-richard-clough-landscape- architect/5819886 http://www.nla.gov.au/japanese/cloughs-kuchie- frontispiece-prints-collection Australian Garden History, 26 (3), January/February/March 2015 21 L" VFvClT 3P 1 * m uK? dt Albany conference report Above: AG HS conference delegates inspecting the garden of Old Farm, Strawberry Hill, at Albany. Photo: Gina Plate Opposite: Master Plan prepared by Mulloway Studio for the National Trust of Australia (WA) to guide future conservation of the Strawberry Hill site. The 2014 Australian Garden History Society annual national conference held in Albany was a resounding success, mixing stimulating lectures, diverse gardens and landscapes, and convivial company. Over 200 delegates made the long trek to Albany, Western Australia, to attend this year’s Australian Garden History Society annual national conference. We were well rewarded. The conference talks were accessible, erudite, and varied, all speakers engaging. As usual, visits to gardens and related places of interest around the region were well chosen and relevant. As an added bonus, the town and hinterland were enlivened by preparations for the approaching celebrations to commemorate the centenary of the departure from Albany of the first convoy of ANZAC troopships for World War One in October 1914. I always find very interesting the background information to the place where the annual conference is held. The speakers chosen for this year’s conference gave fascinating talks, beginning, fittingly with a Menang man Larry Blight. He told us the Dreaming story; how his tribe and the Noongar nation, were made custodians of the beautiful, and life-sustaining country created by the rainbow serpent and given protocols for protecting it and thus being able to survive in this often, inhospitable place. He talked about the fish traps his people used in Albany’s Oyster Harbour, with fish supplementing their diet, ninety per cent of which was plant-based, and how the Noongar people’s ‘reading’ of ‘signs’ in the vegetation guided their lives and cultural activities—when white gums were flowering, these people knew the salmon would be arriving on the coast and in the inland rivers so this was the time of the year when the Noongar got together. In Albany, this was the time for marriage, feasting, and storytelling. The behaviour of other plants indicated whether it would be a hot/dry/wet summer, and of course plants were used for medicine. In his wide-ranging talk entitled ‘Granite outcrops and garden history of Western Australia’s south 22 Australian Garden History, 26 (3), January/February/March 2015 coast’, Steven Hopper, Winthrop Professor of Biodiversity at the University of Western Australia and former Director and CEO of Kings Park and Botanic Gardens in Perth, emphasised how much we can learn from the way the Noongar managed the landscape. He told us about the lizard traps found on those granite outcrops and posited another fascinating snippet about local Aboriginal culture: current research suggests that the local Noongar people actively cultivated culturally important plants such as youlk, Platysace tubers, and djeeri or M acrozctmia around these ‘islands in the bush’. This would have been some of the earliest gardening on earth. Steven Hopper’s talk followed on neatly from Tom Crossen’s day one introduction to the geology and the weathering processes that lead to the formation of the soils of South West Australia. Lucidly and engagingly, Tom had swiftly traced the 3700 million years of the geological activity that formed the soils, soil types and the three main land forms in the SW region: the Porongup Range, the Barren Ranges, and the Stirling Ranges. We caught many glimpses of these ranges during our coach tours over the next few days. Tom noted that in spite of the low fertility, coarse texture, low acidity, and clay mineralisation, these soils support the broad range of well-adapted native plant species that nurtured and nourished the Aboriginal population for 140,000 years and that, of the 1500 indigenous species growing in the Stirling Ranges, 80 of them are endemic. Steven Hopper ... emphasised how much we can learn from the way the Noongar managed the landscape Darwinia —one such genus—formed the subject of Greg Keighery’s dissertation, and Banksia another, by Kevin Collins. A discrete group of attractive Darwinias or ‘bells’ is confined to the Stirling Ranges and typifies the highly localised, often naturally rare flora of the Albany region. Banksias provided the focus of local Banksia arboretum owner Kevin Collins’ engaging talk— we visited his fascinating Banksia Farm on a surprisingly cold and wet day of the conference. On the subject of botanical illustration, Ellen Hickman, a locally based botanist and botanical artist, gave us an overview of 300 years of botanical art inspired by WA flora, from William Dampier’s survey around Shark Bay in 1699 to the present day. Ellen discussed the perennial dilemmas faced by these artists: are they seen Hjnne (Hiblifi0oqe!5 future scope orlenlalJon no-de slan dF interpraiiva ufldstapttxpaiifl'nefl linkages 19 other s'les native planting rflhsbililaEt Eriik + lake ttii tfrlvfl former dining roam intintitkit + IfiteraclNfl dfcplayt kfijf inlerp-re-live node lamer callage prabittiv* landscape Australian Garden History, 26 (3), January/February/March 2015 23 Informal gathering of conference organisers at Pates’ Patch, Denmark: Kathy Wright (AGHS treasurer), Sue Monger (conference organising committee member), John Viska (conference organising committee chair). Photo: Richard Aitken Kevin Collins (self-described ‘Banksia Nut’) showing delegates over the Banksia Farm he and his wife Kathy have established at Mount Barker. Photo: Gina Plate as botanists or artists, and is their demise likely given advances in photography? As the subject range and painting styles seen in the illustrations for this talk was large and varied, the hope is that both media continue to be employed by botanical artists. Our site visits during the conference began at Old Farm, Strawberry Hill, Albany. The first European farm in Western Australia, now a National Trust property, it was established in 1827 as the government farm to supply food for the settlement. It was subsequently occupied, from 1833, for 54 years by Sir Richard Spencer and family. It was thinking about the seeds and plants known to have been in the family’s personal effects on arrival—a Maltese orange, pear trees, a weeping willow cutting from Napoleon’s grave, gorse, and crop and meadow plant seeds—that led landscape architect Caroline Grant to muse on the fact that though today, in Australia, we have ready access to affordable fresh and dried fruit and vegetables, that wasn’t always the case, and how food production after settlement has greatly affected the cultural landscape of Albany. Food production and the place of co-operatives as the economic heart of the Albany rural community were the specific aspect of local history detailed by Susan Groom. Her talk followed Malcolm Traill’s more general tracing of Albany’s history from the culture and society of the original inhabitants, the Menang people, to the European explorers, then to the establishment of a British military and convict garrison in 1826. He discussed how important Albany was as a seaport in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and how Albany became a transport and communication hub for the farming communities of the productive hinterland. This being the centenary year for the departure of the first and second ANZAC convoys, he emphasised Albany’s military links; the story was made vivid by evocative images and a visit to the Princess Royal Fortress on Mount Adelaide built in 1893, the first federal defence of Australia prior to Federation. It was here, in one of the Fortress museum’s buildings, and following a ceremonial cannon firing, that we had convivial ‘Drinks at Dusk’, an enjoyable event where delegates were all together in one place with time for conversation among new and old Australian Garden History Society friends. The excellent conference dinner, held (as were the conference talks) in the smart new Albany Entertainment Centre, was another great 24 Australian Garden History, 26 (3), January/February/March 2015 A.thi'imvr.y - limns m?y 07 » wtiis Kuril is It icuin'x opportunity to talk. Much of the discussion centred on how impressed we were with the variety of places and gardens visited and still to be seen, each related to and informing aspects of conference papers delivered. The wide range of plants, especially given the low rainfall, often poor soil, and hostile environmental conditions, and the incorporation of art works seen in the gardens already visited were also discussed, with great admiration expressed for the gardens’ creators. Gardens and places visited included the already mentioned Old Farm Strawberry Hill and the Banksia Farm, as well as Greystones—a smallish but delightfully intricate hillside garden cleverly fashioned around existing granite boulders. This contrasted interestingly with Wayville sur Mer created by Sheryl Shaylor (one of the conference speakers) and her husband on a 2.3-acre level site adjacent to and incorporating wetlands. Both gardens were largely filled with exotics that could cope with site conditions, and the Shaylor garden featured roses, a constructed lake, the incorporation of adjacent wetlands as a ‘borrowed’ landscape, and sculptural elements throughout. On Day Two, in Gavin and Ann Gray’s garden, numerous small pathways drew the visitors along to explore and discover the rare and unusual plant collection, the lakes and streams, and beautiful remnant eucalypts. This manicured garden (though not overly) was contrasted with Pates’ Patch where natives and exotics jostled happily with each other, lizards darted, and blue wrens and finches delighted us all. A visit to the unique St Werburgh’s Chapel, built for the pioneering Egerton-Warburton family in the 1870s and still used today, and the Mount Barker Police Barracks, now the Plantagenet Historical Society museum complex, were features of the Mount Barker region visited on the third and final day of the conference proper and further illustrate the varied range of places offered us. For those who stayed on for the optional day or joined the pre-or post-conference tours, there was even more richness ot the sights and experiences offered and experienced. For this extremely well- organised, well-thought-out, and hugely successful conference John Viska and his dedicated team are to be thanked heartily and congratulated. Having trained and worked as a school andTAFE teacher then as a horticulturist and landscape designer, Gina Plate is now a heritage consultant, garden maintenance contractor, and AGHS Sydney and Northern New South Wales branch committee member. Stencils from the fruit growing industry of Western Australia’s South West. Fruit growing was a major horticultural land use and the subject of several conference papers.These stencils were a feature of the museum at the Mount Barker Museum visited as part of the conference. Photo: Richard Aitken Australian Garden History, 26 (3), January/February/March 2015 25 Museum musings Blond vegetables Richard Heathcote ‘In the method known as forcing, vegetables are produced out of their normal season of outdoor production under forcing structures that admit light and induce favourable environmental conditions for plant growth.’ L.H. Bailey, The Standard Cyclopedia of Horticulture (Macmillan, 1901) The South Australian Branch Christmas parties often produce pleasant surprises and 2014 festivities at AGHS Conference Convenor Elizabeth Ganguly’s lovely Hills garden was no exception. A gift in the form of a pottery vegetable forcer was presented by Richard Nolan to the Australian Museum of Gardening. This nineteenth-century terracotta asparagus blancher, slightly chipped and cracked with a missing wire handle (remnant of rusty wire in two of holes where handle went through) is of South Australian provenance. It was excavated in 1995 by Richard Nolan in an area known as kitchen garden at Wittunga Homestead, Blackwood, and had probably been in ground since the days the Ashby family occupied house (1880 to i960). The site ceased to be a private homestead and was opened to the public in 1975 as the Wittunga Botanic Garden, part of the Botanic Gardens of South Australia network. This impressive but humble garden implement had developed a wonderful patina that gives it a strong aesthetic appeal but unlike most time-worn garden tools its provenance is known. The forcing and blanching of vegetables reached a high state in the nineteenth century as the wealthy and fashionable in society extended their snobbery even to the degree of tenderness of the vegetables served at their tables. Vegetables such as celery, asparagus, and seakale could be grown with the use of forcing pots which, as well as protecting them against frosts and pests, also caused the plants to be blanched. Plants are bound by tropism to seek light to create chlorophyll and when this does not take place their characteristic green is not produced and the plant remains white or pale cream. This renders the leaves or stems of the vegetable deliciously tender. Asparagus forcer Australian Unglazed terracota clay 28cm (h) x 25cm (dia). Rhubarb has always benefited from being raised or forced in the dark and in industrial horticulture this is done in vast sheds. But for the kitchen gardens of great country houses or the home gardener’s vegetable patch another garden implement offered more flexibility. The conical or cylindrical shaped lidded pots in unglazed terracotta could be cheaply purchased and were easily moved to wherever they were required in the productive garden. The asparagus forcer is the latest acquisition to join the collection of the Australian Museum of Gardening, which already includes a lidded ceramic rhubarb forcing jar and French cloches (bell shaped blown glass covers). Research continues however into who manufactured the forcer and investigations are currently focussed on whether this simply-decorated hand-made terracotta implement was made by Bennett’s Magill Pottery. This is a privately owned family company in Magill, South Australia, established in 1887 by Charles William Bennett and currently run by fifth generation, John Bennett. Adam Anderson, Rippon Lea Estate’s innovative head gardener between 1882 and 1903, used large cylindrical lidded concrete vessels to take the place of clay pots for raising seakale (Crambe maritima). This is a fibrous vegetable when grown in the open and best blanched and used in spring before its leaves expanded. It was prepared like asparagus, crisp and tender. 26 Australian Garden History, 26 (3), January/February/March 2015 For the bookshelf a vast survey illustrates not only historical development but the migration of garden ‘fashion’: how designs are borrowed from past and present and reinterpreted afresh across the globe. The architects’ garden/landscapes are particularly interesting, form and function weathering time and climate exceptionally well and (for me) rendering many English gardens overplanted, fussy and very high maintenance, but visitor numbers at, say, Sissinghurst and East Ruston indicate international public preference. One needs historical understanding to ‘read’ the Italian Renaissance and Mannerist and the earlier English gardens. Where English diarist John Evelyn grasped the classical allusions immediately, most of us do not, and they repay close study. But there is something for everyone here—just don’t forget to reinforce the bookshelf! A few quibbles: tiny type may be challenging, so equip yourself with a magnifying glass; tight design constraints preclude the inclusion of plans; captions are adequate but that glass will be needed for some plant identification; and ‘Further Reading’ looks like an afterthought (my recommendation: the best intelligent introduction to Zen gardens in English is by Yoko Kawaguchi, whom I met in Obai-in). Useful lists and glossary plus a competent index. Sue Ebury Patron, Australian Garden History Society Out of the Past: views of the Adelaide Botanic Garden (RRP $50) is a beautifully produced compendium of 300 Edwardian postcard views accompanying an exhibition at the Santos Museum of Economic Botany (on show until 26 April). Toby Musgrave (ed.), The Gardener's Garden, Phaidon, London, 2014 (ISBN 9780714867472) hardback, 480pp, RRP $95 Phaidon Press, renowned for its art books, has served up a global survey of 285 gardens with origins ranging from the distant past to the present day. Most coffee tables would groan under this book’s weight—too heavy to read in bed, it put me in mind of that tired joke: ‘just add legs and one has both book and table’. ‘Names’ and iconic gardens abound and selection must have been difficult, with the main market allocating the majority to the northern hemisphere (143). The United Kingdom boasts 55 and the USA 53, but every type and climate is represented and the cornucopia kicks off with Australia, well served with 12 gardens and 55 illustrations. Victoria dominates: nothing from Tasmania, South Australia, or Western Australia. The Royal Botanic Gardens at Cranbourne shows us up there with the best, as does Fiona Brockhoff at Sorrento, working with difficult conditions and a design looking as fresh, original, and representative of our continent after weathering twenty years as Derek Jarman’s is to coastal Dungeness and Bagh-e-Shahzedeh to Iran. I sought gardens I love: Beth Chatto; Rousham; that master plantsman of the island bed Alan Bloom; Geoffrey Jellicoe’s mysterious ‘Shute’; Soami’s Ryoan-ji. Since I was in Kashmir in the 1980s Nishat Bagh has been ‘made over’, regrettably with dahlias, but sunrise would still be magical, and the Indian subcontinent is keen on gawdy bedding plants. China’s Suzhou gardens are as lush and lovely as ever, the pollution invisible, and enchanting and challenging Japan ranges across the earliest Zen to two of my favourite 20th/21 st century designers: Shigemori Mirei and Masuno Shunmyo. That the Zen aesthetic has captivated Western designers is plain: the two ‘grid pattern’ gardens at Tokuku-ji in Kyoto are referenced throughout the world, by Geoffrey Jellico for one, but also at home by Tadao Ando in his surprising Awaji Yumebutai and all look back to Renaissance Tuscany. The advantage of such Australian Garden History, 26 (3), January/February/March 2015 2 7 Recent releases Tim Colebatch, Dick Hamer: the liberal Liberal, Scribe Publications, Brunswick,Vic., 2014 (ISBN 9781925106138): hardback, 520pp, RRP $59.99 A first biography of progressive and reforming Liberal leader Dick Hamer (1916—2004)—later Sir Rupert Hamer—by political and economic journalist Tim Colebatch. As Premier (1971—81), and among other achievements by he and his team, Hamer made a significant and lasting impact on the protection of Victoria’s cultural and natural heritage, including through Victoria’s Historic Buildings Act 1974 and the founding of the Environmental Protection Agency. John Gray, Roses, Tennis & Democracy: the story of the Old Parliament House Cardens, Canberra, National Capital Authority, [Canberra], 2014 (ISBN 978064691 1496): paperback, I 12pp, RRP $17.50 (also available as a free download) Published to mark the 10th anniversary of the reconstruction of the Old Parliament House Gardens, retired landscape architect (and AGHS member) John Gray provides a well-illustrated and attractively designed narrative of this often overlooked site, its creators, and its users. Whilst much has been made of the contribution of the Griffins to the national capital, this is garden making of a more domestic scale, aimed at providing leisure and recreation for the nation’s politicians. Roses, Tennis & Democracy also serves as useful promotion for the recently established Friends of Old Parliament House Rose Gardens. Caroline Ikin, The Victorian Carden, Shire Publications, Oxford, 2012 (ISBN 9780747811527): paperback, I I2pp, RRP £7.99; Caroline Ikin, The Victorian Gardener, Shire Publications, Oxford, 2014 (ISBN 9780747813279): paperback, 64pp, RRP £6.99 The Shire Garden History series continues to flourish and its latest offerings provide the same solid formula that has guided these fine handbooks for many decades: respected authors, clear scope, uncomplicated prose, and— increasingly—finely chosen and well-reproduced illustrations and attractive design. This complementary pairing breaks little new ground yet Caroline Ikin covers her subjects elegantly and efficiently, leaving out little of note. Prior reading of Laura Mayer’s Humphry Repton (2014) and especially Mavis Batey’s wonderful Regency Gardens (1995) Shire volumes would provide additional background, whilst Brent Elliott’s Victorian Gardens (Batsford, 1996) remains the yardstick on this period. Ikin’s two books present an overwhelmingly British take on Victorian gardens and how wonderful it would be to see a comparable Australian series. Annemarie Kiely, Paul Bangay, Earl Carter, & Simon Griffiths Stuart Rattle’s Musk Farm, Lantern/Penguin Group (Australia), Melbourne, 2014 (ISBN 9781921384080): hardback, I92pp, RRP $39.99 An elegant tribute to the much-loved designer Stuart Rattle, an AGHS member and active supporter of the Wombat Hill Botanic Gardens, with words by Annemarie Kiely, photography by Earl Carter and Simon Griffiths, and foreword by Paul Bangay. In rich detail the book explores Rattle’s Musk Farm, the former schoolhouse and its garden, which were lovingly transformed by Rattle. All proceeds from sales of this book go to Friends of Wombat Hill Botanic Gardens. Mia Ridge (ed.), Crowdsourcing our Cultural Heritage, Ashgate, Surrey, England, 2014 (ISBN 9781472410221): hardback, 306pp, RRP £70 (also available as PDF and ePUB) Asking the general public to help contribute to shared goals—crowdsourcing—is increasingly popular in memory institutions for tasks such as digitising or computing vast amounts of data. This book explores the theory and practice of crowdsourcing in cultural heritage. It features eight accessible case studies of ground-breaking projects from leading cultural heritage and academic institutions, and four reflective essays on the wider implications of this kind of engagement for participants and on the institutions themselves. Nathan Webster, Historians and Copyright, Australian Copyright Council, Strawberry Hills, NSW, 2014 (revised edition, October 2014) (ISBN 9781875833579): paperback, 68pp, RRP $50 An accessible guide intended to assist historians and those working in educational institutions, libraries, archives, collecting institutions, and other organisations that need to deal with historical materials. It provides step-by-step information on how to identify when you have a copyright issue, how to go about obtaining copyright clearance, and what to do when you can’t locate or identify where to get permission. It also deals with some of the issues faced by professional historians who create their own materials, such as publishing, assigning and licensing rights, and protecting copyright online. 28 Australian Garden History, 26 (3), January/February/March 2015 Dialogue Hamilton Gardens Congratulations to Hamilton Gardens in New Zealand, and to its director Dr Peter Sergei, on winning the International Garden of the Year award for 2014. Awarded by the International Garden Tourism Council, previous recipients have included Singapore Botanic Gardens and the Gardens of Trauttmansdorff Castle, Merano, Italy. Hamilton Gardens was the venue for the inaugural New Perspectives on Garden History symposium, organised by Dr James Beattie of the University of Waikato (see AGH, 25 (4), 2014, pp.19—22). Modernist gardens The study by Colleen Morris and others (see AGH, 25 (4), 2014, p.29), commissioned by the NSW Heritage Council on the Modern Movement in New South Wales, is now online and available for free download at: http://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/Heritage/ publications/index.htm#M-0 Farmers' Journal & Gardeners' Chronicle We scarcely need to point out the extraordinary usefulness of Trove, the National Library of Australia’s portal that includes thousands of early Australian newspapers in searchable digitised form. Now we eagerly anticipate the inclusion of the first gardening periodical in this indispensible research source. The Farmers’ Journal & Gardeners’ Chronicle (1860—1864) is currently being digitised with support from the State Library of Victoria in collaboration with the Sidney Myer Fund. Imagine how useful if would be to have other Australian gardening titles, such as the Horticultural Magazine (1864—71) on line and searchable? http://www.nla.gov.au/content/new-titles-coming National Trust grows Gallipoli Oaks The National Trust of Australia (Victoria) is preparing Gallipoli Oak ( Quercus coccifera subsp. calliprinos ) seedlings for Victorian primary schools to use in commemorative planting ceremonies in remembrance of the ANZAC Centenary. The Gallipoli Oak (also known as the Kermes Oak) is an evergreen oak that grows along the ridges and valleys of the Gallipoli Peninsula. Captain William Lempriere Winter-Cooke collected acorns at Gallipoli in 1915 and they were planted by his family at their home at Murndal near Hamilton in western Victoria and at Winter Cooke’s alma mater Geelong Grammar. It is from these trees that National Trust of Australia (Victoria) has collected acorns, which have been grown into hundreds of seedlings for primary schools around Victoria. www.gallipolioaks.org Mueller's female plant collectors The painstaking research by Sara Maroske on Ferdinand von Mueller’s female plant collectors is now available, published in M uelleria (32, 2014), a refereed journal of the Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne. The article, co-authored by Alison Vaughan, contains voluminous biographical listings and forms a major contribution to the history of botany in Australia. It also incidentally draws our attention to the often-overlooked value of refereed scientific journals to Australian garden history. http://www.rbg.vic.gov.au/science/publications/ muelleria/muelleria-vol-32-2014 Eighteenth-Century studies During the recent XV David Nichol Smith conference on ‘Ideas and Enlightenment’, at which Professor John Dixon Hunt was a keynote speaker, an inaugural meeting was held to form the Australian and New Zealand Society of Eighteenth-Century Studies. Congratulations to Jennifer Milam and her colleagues on the establishment of this body, one that has some significant common interests with the Australian Gallipoli Oak Garden History Society. We wish ANZSECS ‘grandfather tree’ at , 1111 1 1 1 r 1 r Murndal, western robust good health and look forward to future Victoria collaborative ventures. Photo: Anna Foley Australian Garden History, 26 (3), January/February/March 2015 29 AGHS News Call for papers for 2015 AGHS annual national conference The 2015 annual conference of the Australian Garden History Society will be held in Adelaide from 16-18 October 2015. It is planned to have a pre-conference symposium on 15 October also in Adelaide. The theme for the Conference and the Symposium is From Garden to Table which concerns gardens and gardening, food and JDH in full flight during 1 • -i -n • r hi s Melbourne lecture gastronomy, and similar topics. Expressions or Photo: Richard Aitken interest for presenting a refereed paper at the Conference and/or the Symposium are invited. Enquiries and proposals for papers should be sent Att: Ray Choate info@gardenhistorysociety.org.au Kindred Spirits Fund: honours and postgraduate funding applications now open The Australian Garden History Society, through its Kindred Spirits Fund, is making available several small grants ($500 to a maximum of $2500) to support students at Australian tertiary institutions who are undertaking research for an honours or postgraduate degree. These grants are to support the applicants in their research endeavours, and may be used for travel, photography, printing, special equipment, or similar research support. For more information please contact the National Office (1800 678 446). Garden Restoration Fund At the October 2014 National Management Committee meeting, in Albany, the Committee approved an application to jointly supply funding of $10,000 towards the Fern Gully Restoration (Stage 2) at Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne. This includes the restoration of the Central Lake Inlet Bed and the Strelitzia Point Rockery. The Committee agreed to additionally supply funding of $8000, to go towards irrigation, planting, and mulching of the area running between Eel Bridge, and the William Tell Rest House at the Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne. During this meeting is was also agreed that the Garden Restoration Fund would now also award grants (maximum amount is $10,000 in total—$5000 from Branch and $5000 from NMC) to go towards the production of Conservation Management Plans of gardens and significant landscapes at risk. Applications are open, more information is available on the website https:// www.gardenhistorysociety.org.au/news/details/19 John Dixon Hunt lecture tour Many Australian Garden History Society members and colleagues enjoyed the two Australian lectures given by eminent garden historian John Dixon Hunt, in Melbourne on 5 December and Sydney on 10 December 2014, the latter a keynote for the XV David Nichol Smith Conference. The AGHS was one of the sponsors of Professor Hunt’s visit and this provided a valuable opportunity to work collaboratively with several kindred organisations, consolidating valuable links into the worlds of education and science while at the same time providing access to one of the most gifted minds in garden history internationally. We look forward to Professor Hunt’s forthcoming book, which is to feature The Australian Garden at the Royal Botanic Gardens Cranbourne. CAL payments Many AGHS members have written articles for the Society’s journal and other publications over past years. Copyright Agency Limited (CAL) monitors photocopying of material in libraries and academic institutions, and collects fees on behalf of authors. The AGHS have recently been receiving payments from CAL although many of these payments (approximately 100) are less than $5. If you have been a contributor to Australian Garden History or Studies in Australian Garden History you may be entitled to a payment, which we will transfer to you on receipt of your banking details. You may, however, consider donating your payment to the Society, which would minimise administrative costs and assist the Society in furthering its aims. Please note that CAL payments received by AGHS before 30 August 2013 that have not been claimed or donated will be transferred as donations to the AGHS on 30 March 2015. Authors can complete a claim form at anytime and payments after August 2013 will be held for at least two years. Please email Kathy Wright (kwrighti@bigpond.com) to advise of your intention with regard to these payments. Mary Isobel Downer (1924-2014) At the recent Albany conference, delegates were saddened to learn of the death of Lady Mary Downer, a long-time Australian Garden History Society member and doyenne of the South Australian garden scene. She enjoyed wide- ranging interests in health and community arts programmes, and maintained an active 30-year membership of the AGHS. 30 Australian Garden History, 26 (3), January/February/March 2015 Recognition for AGHS members It is pleasing to see the efforts of our members recognised in their respective fields, and so we were delighted to see Gwen and Rodger Elliot receive the top award from Horticultural Media Association Australia, its Gold Laurel and Hall of Fame award for 2013—14. Richly deserved recognition. The Society was also pleased to note recognition of Dr Anne Vale’s book Exceptional Garden Makers, with the 2014 Victorian Community History Award (administered by the Public Record Office Victoria in partnership with the Royal Historical Society of Victoria)— Anne’s book was published with assistance from the AGHS through the Kindred Spirits Fund. The garden at La Trobe’s Cottage, Melbourne, won the Historical Interpretation Award in the same programme, a community project that has had input from many AGHS members past and present, including Sandi Pullman, Helen Botham, and Beverley Joyce. Gardens of Tropical North Queensland Tour Warm sunny days and exotic gardens with magnificent trees and gorgeous flowers amidst verdant foliage beckon us to Tropical North Queensland. The tour will run from Saturday, 29 August to Friday, 4 September 2015. Our leader will be Kim Woods Rabbidge, Brisbane-based garden writer and photographer who has lead successful tours here before, has drawn together TNQ horticulture and garden design professionals for popular presentations. Over six days we will visit outstanding gardens and meet the owners and designers who have created them. We also explore historic, and sometimes quirky, landscapes that reflect the multi-layered regional character. For more information please contact the National Office on 1800 678 446. Montague Island project update In early November 2014, five ACT Branch members travelled with Colleen Morris to Montague Island (see story in AGH, 26 (2), pp. 35—36) to monitor and assist with works associated with the kitchen garden restoration project. Progress made under the guidance of Cassandra Bendixsen, Montague Island coordinator, NPWS, was impressive. Eight timber frames had been constructed. Students from St Peter’s Anglican College in Broulee had planted seeds and successfully raised seedlings according to the list in Colleen Morris’s report, ‘Plan for the Reinstatement of the Kitchen Garden, Montague Island’, and twenty students subsequently Continued page 34 Volunteers and NPWS staff hard at work on the kitchen garden restoration at Montague Island Photo: Colleen Morris Australian Garden History, 26 (3), January/February/March 2015 31 Profile: Julie Collins Dr Julie Collins pictured in preparation for the recent Cultivating Modernism exhibition, at the Architecture Museum ofThe University of South Australia, a museum for which she is the Collections Manager. Photo: Richard Aitken I have always found gardens to be a great way of connecting with people. From breaking the ice with neighbours by exchanging a few words about the endless wait for rain, to wandering through the paddocks with my uncle pointing out tiny local orchids on his farm, the living, breathing, and always changing landscapes which we inhabit have never left me short of words. A desire to create inspiring places led me to university to study architecture. After completing my degree with an honours thesis looking at Australian ideas of home, I decided to pursue a PhD in architecture examining the relationship between the places designed for home and for work. While studying, my supervisor Don Langmead introduced me to the collection of archival documents that was to form the basis for the Architecture Museum at the University of South Australia. Back then it was mostly stored in cartons, with Ann Riddle, archivist and geographer (and Australian plants enthusiast), working her way through accessioning the collection. I was intrigued and more than just a little excited at the prospect of being allowed to dig through these piles of old drawings, photographs, letters, books, and ephemera, uncovering stories of our built environment. Suddenly history came alive for me. Donald Leslie Johnson had begun assembling this collection in the 1970s, when I was just a child, rescuing beautiful water-coloured architectural plans from certain destruction. Now, here was an opportunity to bring them out from hiding into the light. Following Ann’s retirement, and my graduation, I took over as collections manager and researcher at the Architecture Museum, directing my research towards the field of Australian architectural history. I have always believed architecture is a broad church and my interest in the designs of gardens and landscapes was able to be satisfied through research within this field. Working with colleagues Christine Garnaut and Susan Lustri, the Architecture Museum grew as a place that could enable research into architecture, planning, landscape, and garden histories. One of the ways we found to bring our research to a wider audience was through exhibitions. ‘Reform, Fitness and Fun’, co-curated by Susan Lustri, Louise Bird, and myself in 2009, uncovered the history of playgrounds in South Australia. From the early twentieth century, these civic outdoor spaces for children reflected social and cultural understandings of childhood, education and play. More recently, the Architecture Museum partnered with Richard Aitken, supported by the Australian Garden History Society among others, presenting the ‘Cultivating Modernism’ exhibition to an Adelaide audience at the Kerry Packer Civic Gallery within the University of South Australia’s Hawke Centre. My involvement with the AGHS dates back to my joining the Society at the time of the 2006 annual national conference in Adelaide where I heard stories of gardens and gardeners from around the country. My love of research, writing, stories, and the reflections of society and culture that can be studied through gardens and landscapes drove me to further explore and talk about these places. My own research over the last few years has been focussing on health and landscape. I have examined gardens designed for healing of the body, such as the early twentieth century grounds of Nunyara Tuberculosis Sanatorium at Belair and, more recently, for healing of the mind. Working with fellow researchers Susan Avey and Peter Lekkas, the grounds of Glenside Hospital (formerly Parkside Lunatic Asylum) have been explored and the decline of the landscape as an active part of the treatment of mental illness charted throughout the past 130 years. The memories associated with gardens run deep and are bathed in the light, sounds, smells, and feel of plants. I will never forget how, when visiting my great-grandparents’ house, clasping a bunch of cut flowers in hand, rose thorns pricking through the soggy tissue paper, we would share tea and cake, then all troop out the back door to take a tour around the garden. Grandparents, parents, 32 Australian Garden History, 26 (3), January/February/March 2015 and children would closely examine what vegies were doing well, how much the avocado tree had grown, and then enter the cool fernery, where I experienced the childhood joy of popping fuchsia buds open. My great-grandparents are no longer with us, but the memories of them live on with the memories of their garden. It is the strength of such place-based memories that lies behind my belief in the importance of writing garden histories, something I hope, through my involvement on the Editorial Advisory Committee of Australian Garden History, I can help to continue. Diary dates FEBRUARY 2015 Thursday 12 Twilight ramble and New Year drinks ACT/MONARO/RIVERINA This year we will ramble over the ANU Campus, commencing at the Lindsay Pryor Walk. 5.1 5pm, pedestrian crossing opposite Ursula Hall, Daley Road, where the Lindsay Pryor Walk starts. We will conclude in the Law School courtyard. Cost: $10 members, $15 non-members, includes refreshments. Contact (on the day) Judy Pearce on 0417 250 058. Sunday 15 Gold Coast Eco-village QUEENSLAND Visit to Gold Coast Eco-village and talk by Kate Heffernan (horticulture consultant and member of Friends of the Gold Coast Botanic Gardens), led by Glenn Cooke. Tuesday 17 Historic Boroondara (Kew) Cemetery VICTORIA Join Helen Page, past Chair of the Victorian Branch and member of the Boroondara Cemetery Trust, for a guided walk followed by a BYO picnic in adjoining Victoria Park. 6pm, main entrance to the Cemetery, 453 High St, Kew. BYO picnic. See Branch webpage for further details. Enquiries to Anna Long on 0406 551 864 or chris.long@internode.on.net Sunday 22 Alexander Carr Bennett NORTHERN NSW Local historian, Graham Wilson OAM, will speak about Alexander Carr Bennett, a photographer in Dorrigo, Armidale, and Uralla in the early twentieth century, who experimented with seeds and later established a nursery in Sydney. 3.30pm, UNE Heritage Centre, Dangar Street, Armidale. For further information contact g.wilson42@bigpond.com Tuesday 24 Gardens of Portugal and their Australian connections SYDNEY Illustrated talk by Richard Aitken. 6 for 7-8.30pm, Annie Wyatt Room, National Trust Centre, Observatory Hill. $20 members, $30 non-members, includes light refreshments. Bookings essential, to Jeanne Villani on (02) 9997 5995 orJeanne@Villani.com MARCH 2015 Yarra Valley garden tour Thursday 12 VICTORIA Yarra Valley garden tour, which will also include a visit to Lubra Bend. See Branch webpage for details. Working bee, Mount Boninyong Saturday 14 VICTORIA Join us for this working Bee at Mount Boninyong, Scotsburn, near Ballarat. From I Oam. Contact Fran Faul on (03) 9853 1369 or email malfaul@alphalink.com.au Sunday 15 Wivenhoe and Bellbird Park gardens QUEENSLAND Visit to two private gardens - one at Wivenhoe, and one at Bellbird Park. Check Branch webpage for further details. Autumn lecture—Avenues of Honour Wednesday 18 VICTORIA In this lecture Sarah Wood will speak about Avenues of Honour. See Branch webpage for further details. Australian Garden History, 26 (3), January/February/March 2015 33 APRIL 2015 Sunday 19 Shaw/Mercer Park, Nundah QUEENSLAND Visit to Shaw/Mercer Park, Nundah, with Brisbane Aboriginal historian Dr Ray Kerkhove. See Branch webpage for further details. AUGUST 2015 Saturday 29-Friday 4 September Gardens of Tropical North Queensland NATIONAL MANAGEMENT COMMITTEE Warm sunny days and exotic gardens with magnificent trees and gorgeous flowers amidst verdant foliage beckon us to Tropical North Queensland with tour leader Kim Woods Rabbidge, Brisbane-based garden writer and photographer. For more information please contact the National Office 1800 678 446. AGHS Annual National Conference, Adelaide, SA Friday I6-Sunday 18 October The Australian Garden History Society’s 36th Annual National Conference will be held in Adelaide, 16-18 October 2015. It is planned to have a pre-conference symposium on 15 October also in Adelaide and sharing the conference theme ‘From garden to table’. See the AGHS webpage for details and call for papers. Enquiries and proposals for papers should be sent Att: Ray Choate info@gardenhistorysociety.org.au Continued from page 32 visited the island and planted out the seedlings in four of the beds. The AGHS team planted the remaining four beds. The ACT/Riverina/Monaro Branch has agreed to continue supporting this project. Visits in both Autumn and Spring 2015 are proposed to further assist with planting. Stay tuned for a call for volunteers. Elaine Lawson www.gardenhistorysociety.org.au/news/details/77 Australian Forest History Society 2015 conference The national conference of our sister organisation the Australian Forest History Society is to take place at Mount Gambier, SA, from 21—24 October 2015. This area is especially rich in forest history and participants are encouraged to consider themes of social and environmental histories of planted forests in Australia and New Zealand. The AFHS especially welcomes papers on plantations of Australian native species in other countries. See website for details. http://www.fo resth i sto ry.o rg.au/ Montague Island kitchen garden, a restoration project of the AGHS ACT/Riverina/Monaro Branch now in progress Photo: Colleen Morris 34 Australian Garden History, 26 (3), January/February/March 2015 Rally to save the outstanding Rippon Lea garden from subdivision, 1963 Conserving of activism heritage: a new age Photo: J.T Collins Collection, LaTrobe Picture Collection, State Library ofVictoria A recent Australia ICOMOS symposium posed the question: has the time come for a new age of activism? The 1970s is seen as a golden age in the history of the Australian conservation movement. Grassroots activism, spearheaded by the National Trust of Australia, waged a preservation war against pollution, subdivision, and demolition. New alliances were forged, with the Green Bans of the union movement contributing to the conservation of places like The Rocks and Woolloomooloo in Sydney. Heritage conservation was enshrined in legislation for the first time, with Victoria’s Historic Buildings Act 1974 passed under premier Dick Hamer and the Whitlam government’s Australian Heritage Commission Act 1975 . Building on this legacy, Australia ICOMOS convened the Melbourne symposium in October 2014, reflecting on the role of advocacy and activism in heritage conservation and how it has progressed into the 21 st century. The conveners looked outside of the conservation field to address key issues, methods, and new technologies employed for advocacy in Australia and abroad. As a result, the list of speakers represented wide-ranging approaches. We felt there were three key messages to be taken from the day: Remaining unfinished Brendan Sydes (Environmental Justice Australia) conveyed a powerful message about the need for organisations to adapt to changing circumstances. He argued that there is a current shift in the social and political landscape that can be seen in actions such as the withdrawal of government funding for the national network of Environmental Defender’s Offices. As a result, established organisations need to consider how they can reinvent themselves for the times. For an organisation to remain a force for advocacy and change, their mission must remain unfinished. Sydes remarked further the need for organisations to not allow their legacy to define Australian Garden History, 26 (3), January/February/March 2015 35 Ikldle Head public meeting Passions run high at 1] ™ 7* —^ J i Activism in its various guises at Callan Park and Middle Head, Sydney Photos courtesy Roslyn Burge their future. Although important, an organisational legacy should not prevent processes of re-examination and reinvention that are central to remaining relevant. Rather an active approach should be taken, with the formulation of a clear mission and a series of tasks for the future. Use narrative to win Each speaker emphasised the importance of good communication with potential supporters and decision makers. Rebecca Wilson (Deputy Director, Australian Progress) argued that advocates are ‘in the business of storytelling’ with stories that encourage a personal connection most likely to inspire support. She spoke of the passion and expertise that makes heritage professionals and supporters care about places that matter to them, and urged participants to think about how that passion can be passed on to others. Lyndon Schneiders (National Director, Wilderness Society) continued this theme, arguing that facts and figures don’t win people over, rather emphasising the need to make issues live in the heart and minds of those you need to influence. He spoke of the power of simple stories that are personal and heartfelt. Brendan Sydes spoke of the importance of involving communications professionals in advocacy activities, presenting the model of small organisations pooling their resources to employ specialist consultants. Cultivate unusual allies Many speakers emphasised the importance of collaboration and fostering alliances to achieve common goals. Jonathan La Nauze (Healthy Ecosystems Program Manager, Australian Conservation Loundation) highlighted the importance of mutual support, arguing that it is sometimes beneficial to move beyond your own interests in order to assist others, thereby developing relationships that can be beneficial in the future. Many speakers urged advocates to approach new—and sometimes ‘unusual’—allies, looking beyond traditional supporters. Lyndon Schneiders gave the example of recent successes the Wilderness Society has had building relationships with financiers and other corporate partners, arguing that generational change has taken environmental sustainability to corporate executive and board level. He also gave the example of the Lock the Gate campaign in Queensland and New South Wales that has seen an unlikely union of farmers and environmentalists protesting against coal seam gas. Moving forward In convening this symposium, Australia ICOMOS has reignited the conversation about activism and advocacy in heritage and the environment. Crucially, in inviting speakers from outside the heritage sphere, the organisers introduced new strategies and ideas. With the advent of crowd funding, online campaigning, and shareholder activism, advocates have an unprecedented range of tools to fight the good fight. As Rebecca Wilson argued, we win when we have the power to target the right decision-maker with the right message. Taking this strategic approach, we may be entering a new golden age of activism. Resources & further reading Australian Progress—advocacy incubation and training www.australianprogress.org.au Centre for Story-based Strategy—analysis, training and campaign support http://www.storybasedstrategy.org/ Change.org—online petition platform www.change.org Environmental Justice Australia https://envirojustice.org.au/ GetUp—online activist group www.getup.org.au Lock the Gate Alliance http://www.lockthegate.org.au/ Progress 2014 Conference, May 2015 http://australianprogress.org.au/event/progress-2015/ Revolution Messaging—Washington-based digital communications agency https://revolutionmessaging.com/ Wilderness Society www.wilderness.org.au Jessica Hood is a Melbourne-based photographer and member of the Australian Garden History Society National Management Committee. Felicity Watson is Community Advocate for the National Trust of Australia (Victoria). GARDEN HISTORY Mission Statement The Australian Garden History Society promotes awareness and conservation of significant gardens and cultural landscapes through engagement, research, advocacy and activities. Phone: 03 9650 5043 ■ Tollfree: 1800 678 446 ■ www.gardenhistorysociety.org.au