HISTORY
« *•*>%?* ■ IWW
‘Dorothea and Dinah’ from Gertrude Jekyll’s Children and Gardens
Courtesy: La Trobe Collection, State Library of Victoria.
AUSTRALIAN
GARDEN
HISTORY
SOCIETY
Continuing the Story
Restoring the Garden at Nutcote
The Children s Garden at Rippon Lea
With Mirrors & Rainbows - Part 2
Charles Bogue LufFman - the Final Years
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Christopher Vernon
(from L.) Liz, Rodger and Ann chat with Jocelyn and
Howard.
A Botanical Tribute to Sarah
King on her Birthday
(during the AGHS trip to Lake Mungo in
April 2003)
Our Sarah fairer far is
Than Melaleuca armillaris.
And as graceful as Acacia wilhelmiana
Is our lovely sexageneriana.
Acacia stenophylla
With due respect cannot outstyle her.
Oh she is fair as she is sweet
As the Sugar Gums at Ned’s Retreat!
Oh! Eucalyptus cladocalyx
Grant our Sarah love’s elix —
-ir. And as the Alyogyne huegelii
Like her spreads its bounties freely
So Eremophila niaculata
And the sweet divaricata
Run riot but cannot outsmart her!
Myoporum parvifolium, oh foolish
Creeping Boobialla
Don’t try to vie with cluey Sarah!
Greetings Sarah from jasmine
The Murray River at Ned’s Corner.
-
IjjAjav-'L
"l “N»
aT*.’* hill
(from L.) Sue and Pam at the Mallee Garden, Walpeup.
In the garden at Ned's Comer.
Pens, sketchbooks and cameras recorded the AGHS trip to the
Mallee, Mildura, and Lake Mungo. A full account of the excursion
will appear in a later issue. These contributions, from Jasmine
Brunner, Sue Keon-Cohen and Ann Miller, offer a preview of
things to come.
Copyright C Atittr.ili.in Garden History Society 2003. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval
system, or transmitted in any form for commercial purposes wholly or in part (other than circumstances outlined in any agreement between
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any report, thesis or other document which has used information contained in this publication.
2 Australian Garden History Vol. 15!\ ! o 1 July/August 2003
CONTENTS
THE CONTINUING STORY
4
Restoring a Garden in the Image of its Creator
Helen Wood tells how she restored the garden at Nutcote, the home of artist and
children’s storyteller May Gibbs.
Yesterday’s Gardens for Today’s Children
Nina Crone visits Rippon Lea and talks to Phil Tulk about the ideas behind an interesting garden
for children.
^4
With Mirrors and Rainbows - Part 2
Ken Duxbury continues the story of Edward William Cole with an account of his garden
publications and his years at Earlsbrae Hall in Essendon.
£0
Charles Bogue Luff man: the final years
Sandra Pullman concludes her series on the work and life of Luffman with reference to his public
lectures, his writing and his garden design at Killamont.
£4
For the Bookshelf:
Australian Planting Design by Paul Thompson
Lilacs for the Garden by Jennifer Bennett
People and Plants: A History of Gardening in Victoria by Mary Ellis
£0
Items of Interest
£/
Diary Dates
National Management Committee
Chairman
Peter Watts
Vice-Chairman
Richard Heathcote
Treasurer
Elizabeth Walker
Secretary
Helen Page
Elected Members
Max Bourke ACT
Stuart Read NSW
LeeTregloanVIC
DianneWilkins SA
Malcolm Wilson NSW
State Representative
Gabrielle Tryon ACT
Kate Madden NSW
Glenn Cooke QLD
Wendy Joyner SA
Helen Page VIC
Deidre Pearson TAS
AnneWilloxWA
Branch Contacts
ACT/Monaro/Riverina Branch
Gabrielle Tryon
4 Anstey Street
Pearce ACT 2607
Ph: (02) 6286 4585
E-mail; gmtryon@netspeed.com.au
Queensland Branch
Glenn Cooke
PO Box 5472
West End QLD 4101
Ph: (07) 3846 1050
E-mail; glenn.cooke@qag.qld.gov.au
South Australian Branch
Di Wilkins
39 Elizabeth Street
Eastwood SA 5068
Ph: (08) 8272 9381
Southern Highlands Branch
Chris Webb
PO Box 707
Moss Vale NSW 2577
Ph: (02) 4861 4899
E-mail: cwebb@cwebb.com.au
Sydney & Northern NSW Branch
Malcolm Wilson
10 Hartley Street
Rozelle NSW 2039
Ph: (02) 9810 7803
Tasmanian Branch
Deidre Pearson
15 Ellington Road
Sandy Bay TAS 7005
Ph: (03) 6225 3084
Victorian Branch
Helen Page
c/- AGHS, Gate Lodge
100 Birdwood Avenue
MelbourneVIC 3004
Ph: (03) 9650 5043
E-mail: helenpage@bigpond.com
Western Austrauan Branch
Edith Young
21A Corbel Street
Shelley WA 6148
Ph: (08) 9457 4956
E-mail: young_ee47@hotmail.com
Australian Garden History Vol 15 No 1 July/August 2003 3
■w
~ ;
llr
Above: View over Neutral
Bay to North Sydney
from Nutcote balcony.
October 2002.
Courtesy: Yvonne Hyde.
Right: View of Nutcote
looking towards Neutral
Bay and Sydney Harbour
from the Lower Lawn
with its iris rondel,
caterpillar hedge and
rose arbour (LH side).
September 2002.
Courtesy: Yvonne Hyde.
A GARDEN IN
THE IMAGE OF ITS CREATOR
By Helen Wood
Nutcote,a house and garden museum,sits onthe foreshores of Sydney Harbour at
Neutral Bay. It was the home of its creator May Glbbs (1877 - 1969) and her husband
James Ossoli Kelly (1868 - 1939), generally known as J.O. May lived and worked at
Nutcote for over fortyyears, until 1969.
Right: The original path
leading through the rose
arbour to the house
showing the old planting of
hydrangeas. September
2002 .
Courtesy Yvonne Hyde.
M ay Gibbs was born in Surrey, England, but
the family came to live briefly in Adelaide
when she was aged four, and then settled in the
Harvey District ofWestern Australia, and later in
Perth. May was a talented artist from the
beginning, encouraged by her father Herbert W
Gibbs, a proficient watercolour and newspaper
cartoon artist employed by the Western Australian
Lands Department.
As most Australians will know, May is famous
as writer and illustrator of characters drawn from
the Australian bush — the Gunmut Babies,
Snugglepot and Cuddlepie, Little Ragged
Blossom, the Big Bad Banksia Men - and many
other‘bush and garden’ folk. There was also the
underwater world with its characters Little
Obelia, Ann Chovey and John Dory. Perhaps
not so well known are the characters in May’s
last book Prince Datide Lion, a Garden Wliim-
Wham (1953). So it would appear that May
gained her inspiration from her immediate
environment.
4 Australian Garden History Vol. 15 No 1 July/August 2003
Nutcote 1925-1969
Saved from demolition
May and J.O. built and moved into Nutcote in
1925. With their family of Scottie dogs they
would undertake long camping trips in their
1927 Dodge Tourer, May affectionately calling
the vehicle ‘The Dodg’em’. Together they
explored coastal and country environs, and May
later put those personal experiences into her
prolific work. It is well known that May always
spent her daylight hours in the garden, notepad
and pencil in her apron pocket to jot down notes,
observations and inspiration. She would then
move into her Studio (overlooking the harbours
comings and goings) and work until late into the
night.
So we see a middle to late aged couple
enjoying similar interests and hobbies in their life
at Nutcote, in particular the garden and their
family of Scottie dogs. A gardener (Bill) was
always employed to work with May andJ.O.,and
they grew all their annuals from seeds. Extracts
from J.O.’s letters and diaries make interesting
reading:
1935 Planted roses on the trellis. Planted privet
hedge, roses on waterfront, watefront
re-constniction - large boulders and fernery
under the rocks.
1936 September: Roses broke forth. Huge round bed
of Irises mostly white, some purple. House was
painted; lemon and plum trees.
1936 October: Liquid manure in the making. Lady
Hillingdon is preparing to burst forth.
1937 January: Phlox drum on the other side,
portulaca on edge. Phlox drum - 500 in every
shade and colour down whole side path from
road to house and watefront borders, asters and
zinnias too.
1937 June: Lemon tree 100 ripe lemons, cumquat -
1000. Roses very wet. Poor garden looks so
sad, depressed - cold. Starting another border
on the watefront, having a quantity of
excellent soil. Liquid manuring - according to
Hazelwood’s instructions. ‘Etcile de Hollande’
and another exquisite pink rose are a joy.
Hazelwood’s nurscry at Eppingfor roses.
1937 September: Stocks over now - borders dug up.
Barring the snapdragons, rose, sweet peas, and
nemesias. Poplars in full leaf and looking
fine.
An excerpt by Beatrice Lilley, from Woman
dated 29 January 1943, refers to May and her
garden:
Her chief joy she finds now in her garden, which
tellingly reflects her personality. It is delightfully
informal, colon ful andfriendly, and it seemed only
logical that there should be a gum tree there, two
boards combining with its twisted limbs to form a
garden seat. Exactly the sort of gum tree one would
expect to find in May Gibbs’ garden.
Nutcote, designed by architect B.J. Waterhouse,
was saved from the demolishing developers in
1990 and restoration work began in 1992. The
house was run down but fortunately no ‘modern’
alterations had been made to it. The garden was
overgrown with weeds, however a few gallant
garden plants survived and were listed:
Hydrangeas
Roses — ‘Dorothy Perkins’ (1901) and ‘Lady
Hillingdon’ (1917)
Banksia integrifolia (circa 1850)
Ancient Casuarinas
Port Jackson Fig
Poplar (borer infested and later replaced with
a Magnolia grandijhra)
May’s Gum, the Bangalay, Eucalyptus
botryoides (originally growing from sandstone
crevices and replaced in 1996 because of
white ant infestation)
After 18 years of neglect Nutcote finally May Gibbs’cover design for
opened to the public in 1994. Original structures the first edition of Prince
still surviving are the all important brick garden Courtesy: Nut cote Archives.
path leading from gate to front door, cement
terracing and pocket rock garden borders along
the sandstone-edged garden beds on the
waterfront, and rough stone path and steps. With
the restoration of the house, the original double
garage was converted to a shop and admittance
area incorporating a tearoom, terrace, and toilet
facilities for public comfort. At this time the
Nutcote Trust commissioned a landscape plan.
Australian Garden History Vol. \5 No 1 July /August 2003 5
Plan of Nutcote Garden
Courtesy: Helen Wood
This cartoon strip, c. 1930s
or 1940s, was Helen Wood’s
inspiration for the ‘caterpillar'
hedge.
Courtesy: Nutcote Archives.
This involved changing the gentle sloping site, on
the street side, into three terraced levels, with an
iris rondel surrounded by sandstone flagging,
lawns and the reinstatement of a collection of old
roses planted along the brick path. The shade
border on the northern boundary was started
with permanent plantings of Murrayas, Azaleas
and Anemones. I have since added Sasanqua
Camellias, old Fuchsias, species Iris, Viburnum,
Philadelphus, deciduous Magnolia, and as stated
earlier, the central focus and great screening plant,
Magnoliagmndiflora, now the dominant feature of
the of the ‘shade border’. Today all are maturing
well, adding a voluptuous feel to this backdrop.
With the initial structural work complete, funds
dried up and any ongoing work ceased
temporarily.
Volunteers in the garden
I became involved with the garden when I was
studying Horticulture, and there was nobody
available and no budget for garden development.
The house was by now open to the public, and
visitors expected to see a well-maintained garden,
reflecting May’s life and time. Many visitors went
away, loving the restored house and contents, but
disappointed with the garden. As an initial
supporter oPSave Nutcote for the Nation’ 1 had a
strong motivation to redress this situation. 1
voluntarily undertook the coordination of the
garden and did so for over six years - a one to two
day commitment each week, along with two or
three other volunteers, usually retired women
who worked most diligently. Now the garden is
overseen by the Honorary Archivist and
volunteer gardener, Yvonne Hyde, helped by
more voluntary labour that is always most
welcome.
I widened the pathway garden beds to 2.5
metres in 1995 and planted a box hedge as
backdrop for the extensive and intensive
cultivated annuals that were planted twice a year,
with the Summer planting boosted by Dahlias to
give an ‘over-blown’ feeling when walking to the
house. The hedge was intended to introduce
some whimsy back into the garden by shaping it
''Tout.fi wood!” cried Tig. “A caterpillar br
And tat down all the lawn for mt."
6 Australian Garden History Vol. 15 No 1 July/August 2003
into a ‘caterpillar’ hedge, with smooth ripples up
the slope, with its many legs (trunks) and its head
kicked up for good measure. It has taken a while
to ‘show’ but now looks as familiar as when May
illustrated a garden caterpillar in a comic strip.
The original Dorothy Perkins rambling rose
on the southern boundary fence is a joy to behold
in early spring. Dorothy Perkins is a character in
'Prince Dande Lion’, and she is kept trimmed by
the resident possum community. Wild life is
welcome in the spirit of May’s memory, together
with the handsome Dande-Lions. Along with
the Dorothy Perkins rose, lovely old hydrangeas
are originals that have survived. The year 1996
saw the installation of a much-needed watering
system and the re-instatement of the wooden
trellis in front of the house to accommodate an
original‘Lady Hillingdon’ climbingTea Rose, and
also the annual show of Busby sweet peas in the
only sunny patch in the winter. Near the trellis in
May Gibbs at the bottom
of the garden path,
looking
toward the street
c. 1961. Note the
English annuals, the rose
covered arbour, the
hedge lining the flower
bed on the lawn side of
the path - and May’s
Scottie dogs.
Courtesy: Y/onne Hyde.
Australian Garden History Vol. 15 No 1 July/August 2003 7
'Mr Bear was fast
asleep' from Mr&
Mrs Bear & Friends.
A very domestic,
suburban scene.
There is a lot of May
in Mrs Bear’s
character. The
picture shows May's
bedroom window at
Nutcote and the
lemon tree. May's
husband wrote a
letter in the 1930s
saying this was his
favourite spot to sit,
and perhaps May
was thinking of that
when she wrote this
book, published in
1943. Note also that
the discarded
newspaper is the
Daily Bark.
Courtesy: Nutcote
Archives.
May’s second
cousin, Marian
Shand, with her
daughters walking
up the garden path
from the house to
the street in 1961.
Courtesy: Yvonne
Hyde.
1995 I planted a Eucalyptus haematoma (the
Scribbly Gum - or the ‘Daily Bark’ to May). This
autumn it has shown the first of its characteristic
‘scribbles’.
Of interest is a photograph, circa 1960s, that
shows May with Scotties standing in the shade of
a ‘gum’. May’s former bedroom window features
in her book Mr. & Mrs. Bear & Friends (1943), and
J.O. records sitting under the lemon tree. We
re-instated a lemon tree in the exact same spot
that May sketched in her picture.
The Iris rondel was showing signs of
discontent with the Irisgermanica in purple and
white, obtained from an old farm garden. Sydney
was just too humid for the Irises and as 30% were
disappearing each year, I decided to replace them
with Iris louisiana - deep purple in the centre of
the bed, blue in the mid-centre, frothy white
around the edge, and a fringing of Lobelia and
white Alyssutn.
The waterfront garden slopes towards the
sandstone foreshore, and displays the original
sandstone edged garden beds, path and steps, with
a sloping lawn. Here the original Port Jackson
Fig, under-planted with ferns, is keeping
company with one of the most precious
remaining original Banksia integrtfblia c.1850.
Next to it are some ancient Casuarinas. In
keeping with the indigenous plants I instigated
smaller species native to the Sydney Harbour
foreshores for the bank.They tumble down to the
waters edge. Two Angophoras— A. costata (1995)
and A. hispidata (1999)- and the ‘bad’ Banksia,
Banksia serrata (1998), were added to this area.
As initially I sought to re-create the
atmosphere of May’s garden as closely as possible,
I had first to come to know its creators by reading
diary entries, personal correspondence to family
and friends, by closely examining photographs
and May s imaginative works in paintings, books
and cartoons. These archives are most invaluable.
Her work was always my primary inspiration for
ongoing planting schemes on a seasonal basis,
though it was never my intention to slavishly
‘preserve’.That opportunity was eliminated with
earlier site works. However the spirit of its
creators, May and J.O., continues to inspire
Nutcote’s evolving garden.
I invite you to visit and enjoy this small but
unique house and garden museum. Feel free to
be swept into a ‘moment in time’ with colours,
perfumes and a sense of being in an old friend’s
garden.
Helen Wood is a horticultural designer wlw was
garden curator at Nutcote from 1996 until 2001.
She works with her husband as an environmental
planner.
Nutcote: 5 Wallaringa Ave. Neutral Bay
Ph. (02) 9953 4453.
Opening rimes:
Wednesday to Sunday 11.00am-3.00pm.
Australian Open Garden Scheme:
Saturday 15 and Sunday 16 November 2003,
10am-4pm.
Web-site: www.maygibbs.com/nutcoat.html
8 Australian Garden History Vol . 15 No 1 July /August 2003
By NINA CRONE
WITH CONTRIBUTIONS FROM HELEN BOTHAM,
Richard Heathcote,
Dugald Noyes, PhilTulk
I n her memoirs Clara Webster (nee Sargood)
wrote about the fun that she and her three
brothers had in the first garden at Rippon Lea in
the 1870s:
From bare paddock and surroundings under the
guiding hand of father, the garden began to grow,
trees were planted, lawns were laid down and soon
there was a croquet lawn, on which we children
fought many a game of croquet; if we could get no
companion it was immaterial, one person could
play in turn with all the balls, taking sides quite
impartially.
Educated at home by a governess, the Sargood
children were actively involved in the garden and
the natural world, spending their free time bird¬
nesting, fishing and, in summer, tending their
animals and their own gardens, encouraged by
their mother, Marian, the first Mrs Sargood.
We had our rabbits, pigeons, and gardens, which we
had to look after ourselves,from the gardens we sold
our poor little vegetables to Mother who always
gave us praise for our labours.
It was this last recollection that inspired the re¬
creation of the children’s garden at Rippon Lea in
1998. Clara’s chance remark about the garden
was not followed up with sufficient detail to
identify the exact location of the children’s
garden,but other comments captured the spirit of
the children’s life in the wider garden at Rippon
Lea.
By and by the orangery became a favourite placefor
our games. This was planned as a circle — a centre
bed with a path round — a bed all round that, and
and ... Gertrude Jekyll.
another path, then a bed, a path, and all
surrounded by orange, citrons, shaddock and lemon
trees.
This circle framed at either end with a path.
Outside one opening was a grass circle in the
middle of which was a tree, which served as "home”
when we played hide and seek, and many a chase
we had round those beds.
The Children’s Garden at Rippon Lea
To-day’s Children’s Garden at Rippon Lea
occupies a triangular area at the southern end of
the orchard, just beyond the remnant metal base
plate of the former windmill. ‘The Chase’where
the Jones children rode their bicycles 60 years
after the Sargoods had played in the orangery,
runs along its western boundary.
At the end of the current Children’s Garden is
a fine old Mahogany Gum which Clara
described:
Here was a large red gum, up which we were fond
of climbing and sad to say many a bird’s nest was
robbed. My brothers sending me up when the nest
was in too high and difficult a position for them to
risk their limbs.
The design of the Children’s Garden was
dependent on the imagination and creativity of a
young gardener in the late 1990s. In Brian
Worsley Rippon Lea found someone
sympathetic to the project. He designed and built
the distinctive lychgate at the entrance to the
garden, as well as the bush-house cum cubby-
house and the gangly scarecrow that sits outside it
Australian Garden History Vot. 15 No 1 July/August 2003 9
Plan of Children’s Garden at Rippon Lea
Percy’s Garden
Jerusalem Artichoke
Celery
Carrot
Lamb’s Lettuce
Leek
Swiss Chard
Clara’s Garden
Onion
Lovage
Eschallot
Borage
Sunflower
Oregano
Winter
Savoury
Sage
Lavender Chives Maijoram
Bergamot Rosemary Catnip
Shallots
Pyrethrum
Lemon
Verbena
Rue
Scallions
Society Garlic Thyme Parsley Salad Burnet Lavender \
Freddie’s Garden
Norman’s Garden
Cape Gooseberry
Pea ‘Greenfeast’
Turnip
Potato
Palm Tree Kale
Leek
Savoy Cabbage
Broccoli
Cauliflower
Asparagus Tree Angelica
Globe Artichoke
Cape Gooseberry
Pea 'Oregon Dwarf’
Kohl Rabi
Kohl Rabi
Beetroot
Radish
Potato
Raspberry
Scarlet Runner Bean
Strawberry Sweet Pea Feverfew\
Rhubarb Sorrel
to enjoy the last of the autumn sun after his
summer duties are done. Brian’s successor,
Dugald Noyes, has brought specialist knowledge
of vegetable gardening, experience in working
with children, and great enthusiasm to his tasks in
the garden.
The cubby-house effectively cuts off the apex
of the triangular site to provide an excellent place
for the rabbit hutch and for billy tea under the tall
gum tree that Clara mentioned in her memoirs.
In front of the cubby-house are four separate
gardens named for the Sargood children - Percy,
Clara, Freddie and Norman. Clara, the eldest and
apparently the most enthusiastic gardener, has a
garden full of vegetables, herbs and flowers. The
largest garden, it has a low, woven boundary fence
in the centre.This is an interesting legacy from
a lecture-workshop given at Rippon Lea in
2001 by French architects Patrice Taravella
and Sonia Lesot, known for their recreation of
a medieval monastery garden at the prieure
Notre Dame d’Orsan, in Berry, France.
Freddy’s and Norman’s gardens are
devoted to heritage vegetables grown from
seed from Clive Blazey’s Digger’s Collection
at Heronswood at Dromana. The varieties
grown vary from season to season and year to
year. The palm-tree kale always attracts
attention and one year there was much
interest in the aerial radish planted at the
suggestion of Sally Williams, a visitor from
Boston. It was duly harvested and served with
smoked salmon.
The youngest Sargood child gardener was
Percy whom Clara chastised for his untidiness.
Richard Ideathcote, the National Trust of
Victoria’s Director of Development, says
Percy’s garden has always been a challenge to
professional gardeners for whom untidiness is
anathema.
The re-establishment of a Children’s
Garden at Rippon Lea has added another
dimension to the National Trust site -
children’s play to stimulate historical
imagination. Whereas a set program of display
through conducted tours and interpretive
signs is used inside the Rippon Lea mansion,
10 Australian Garden History Vol. 15 No 1 July/August 2003
the Children’s Garden offers a more open-ended
experience with seasonally changing gardens,
Billy the scarecrow, a bush-house and appropriate
tools.
The Edwardian contribution
Much of the thinking behind the Children’s
Garden at Rippon Lea was gathered from
Gertrude Jekyll’s delightful book Children and
Gardens that still reads as well as it did when
published in 1907, long after the Sargood
children had grown up. The text is generally as
relevant today, nearly a century after it was
written, but the photographs of children, like the
cover photo of this issue, are staged - but
wonderfully evocative of the Edwardian days of
peace and plenty that prevailed in England before
the First World War.
Jekyll recalled the things from the natural
world that made a great impression on her as a
child — ‘the difficulty in making daisy-chains ...
the scent of mown grass’ and explained how the
‘Dandelion remains with me as a London Smell.’
A thoroughgoing artisan from her steel¬
framed spectacles to her sturdy boots, and a
considerable force in the Arts and Crafts
movement,Jekyll believed that:
... children should be taught the use of tools.There
is always a vacant spot in the kitchen garden where
they can practise, under careful teaching, the three
most important operations — hoeing, digging and
raking.
Further, she enumerated the tools children
should be given for cultivating their own
garden:
. . . spade, rake, hoe, a little wooden trug basket,
and a blunt weeding knife; a good cutting knife, a
trowel, a hand-fork and a little barrow ... there will
also be wanted some raffia,for tying ...
The weeding knife was defined very
precisely: ‘a short strong knife with a smooth,
horn handle that costs sevcnpence.’
A children’s PLAYHOUSE
Jekyll details a plan for a playhouse and its garden.
This is far more formal than a bush ‘cubby’ that
the Sargood children might have known. Jekyll’s
playhouse garden was intended to produce
vegetables and herbs that could be used by
children to prepare quite sophisticated dishes like
Soupe Bonne Femme, French Julienne Soup or
simpler things like scrambled eggs.
It makes an interesting comparison with
colonial Clara Sargood’s account.:
There was the great gravel heap and alongside it the
swings and the summer house, where later we girls
were given a small stove on which on a Saturday
morning we made many weird dishes.
From the order and control of the playhouse
area, Jekyll takes children further afield
encouraging them to observe, to handle plants
and create things like cowslip and primrose balls
recalling that she herself made ‘an immense
cowslip ball two feet in diameter’. When talking
of serrate leaves she explains that the name
Dandelion is really Dent-de-Lion because of the
lion’s tooth shape of the edge ofits leaf. This leads
into quite formal botanical discussion in Chapter
7, before the next chapter describes the garden
that she and her sister, Carry, made.
Left: The lychgate entrance
to the Children’s Garden
Courtesy: Rippon Lea
Archives
Right: Inside the Children’s
Garden at Rippon Lea
Courtesy: Rippon Lea
Archives
Australian Garden History Vol. 15 No 1 July/August 2003 11
Above: Billy the Scarecrow
takes time off.
Top: Detail of Clara’s
Garden showing
wickerwork
‘A equicateral triangle'
This section is full of practical information
offering lots of activities for youngsters.
Instructions on making plans, elevations and cross
sections, suggestions for bedding plants that can
be ‘begged from the gardener’, and advising that
‘a few tufts of Daffodils, Crocuses and
Snowdrops’ will give variety to planting. Jekyll
warns that a sharp watch must be maintained for
weeds as ‘one years seeding making seven years’
weeding’.
Observation, conservation and
IMAGINATION
Jekyll encouraged children to go barefoot (after
putting shoes and stockings tidily away on a
bench), to make sandcastles, collect fir cones,
make fern pegs, build picnic fires and bury any
Above: ‘Like a pigeon pie'
Top: 'Like cutlets in a dish'
Gertrude Jekyll's view of kittens
From: Children and Gardens
rubbish or take it home. ‘Bits of paper go back
into the picnic baskets and not even a chicken
bone must be left on the ground’.
‘Pussies in the Garden’, the final chapter,
shows what empathyJekyll had with children and
animals. It evidences her sense of fun and her
creative and imaginative approach to play, to
observation and to language as she relates how a
little girl described a kitten purring as ‘Puss has
got the flutter-mill going’. And her artist’s eye sets
a wonderful example to children when she
writes:
It is amusing to see the different patterns that
kittens lying in a round basket will sometimes get
into. I have seen five kittens almost symmetrically
arranged like cutlets in a dish, and four with their
little paws all up in the air in the middle like a
pigeon pie. It is almost impossible to believe that
only four small people could have so many little
toes. Three kittens at nearly equal distances round
a saucer of milk make quite a pretty pattern. The
architect [a reference to her friend Edward
Lutyens] says it was an equicateral triangle!
Before you visit the Children’s Garden at
Rippon Lea, you should read Gertrude Jekyll’s
Children and Gardens.
PINKir WIST CLKVATION
12 Australian Garden History Vol . 15 No lJuly/August 2003
Plant List for the Children’s Garden at Kippon Lea
From Dugald G. Noyes
Annual Vegetables (Winter)
Allium cepa ‘White Lisbon’
Scallions
Allium cepa
Shallot
Allium cepa var. Aggregatum
Eschallot
Allium cepa' Paris Silverskin'
Pickling Onion
Apium graveolens var. dulce
Celery
Beta vulgaris
Beetroot
Beta vulgaris var. cida
Swiss Chard
Brassica oleracea var. acephala
Palm Tree Kale
Brassica oleracea var. botrytis
Cauliflower
Brassica oleracea var. captiata ‘Savoy King’
Cabbage
Brassica oleracea var.^tm^yMes'Purple Vienna’
Kohl Rabi
Brassica oleracea var. italica
Broccoli
Brassica rapa‘Purple Top White Globe’
Turnip
Daucus carota ‘Chatenay Red Cored’
Carrot
Pisum sativum ‘Greenfeast’
Pea
Pisum sativum ‘Oregon Dwarf’
Pea
Raphanus sativus ‘Scarlet Globe’
Radish
Solatium tuberosum ‘Pink Fir Apple’
Potato
Solatium tuberosum ‘Rippon Lea Phoenix’
Potato
Valerianclla locusta
Lamb’s Lettuce
Viciafaha ‘Cole’s Early Dwarf’
Broad Beans
Herbs
Allium schoenaprasum
Chives
Aloysia triphylla
Lemon Verbena
Artemisia abrotanum
Southernwood
Borago officinalis
Borage
Calendula qftcinalis
Pot Marigold
Chrysanthemum cinerariifolium
Py rethrum
Chrysanthemum parthenium
Feverfew
Foeniculum rn/iyirUPurpureum’
Bronze Fennel
Helianthus (innuus ‘Italian White’
Sunflower
Lavandula dentata
French Lavender
Levisitcum officinale
Lovage
Melanosolanum dicepietis
Tree Angelica
Mentha cordifolia
Common Mint
Mentha suaveolens
Apple Mint
Monarda didyma
Bergamot
Nepeta cataria
Cat Mint
Origanum vulgarc
Oregano
Origanum vulgare ‘Aurcum’
Golden Maijoram
Petroselinum crispum var. Neopolitanum
Italian Parsley
Rosmarinus officinalis
Rosemary
Ruta graveolens
Rue
Salvia doisiana
Fruit Salad Sage
Salvia officinalis
Sage
Sangtiisorba minor
Salad Burnet
Satureja montana
Winter Savoury
Thymus serpyllum
Thyme
Trapaedum majus ‘Peach Melba’
Nasturtium
Tulbaghia violacea
Society Garlic
Perennial Vegetables and Fruits
Acca sellowiana
Feijoa
Asparagus officinalis
Asparagus
Cynara scolymus
Globe artichoke
Eriobotrya japonica
Loquat
Fragaria x ananassa'Red Gauntlet’
Strawberry
Fragaria vesca
Helianthus luberostis
Phaseolus coccineus
Physalis peruviana
Rheum rhabarbarum
Ribes nigrum
Ribes rubmm
Ribes uva-crispa
Rubus idaeus
Rumex scutatus
Flowering Plants
Annuals and Biennials
Alyssum sp, (white)
Antirrhinum majus
Campanula medium
Centaurea cyanus
Chrysanthemum paludosum
Digitalis purpurea (white and apricot)
Lathyrus odoratus
Lunaria annua (white)
Viola tricolor
Bulbs and Corms
Delphinium sp.
Frcesia x hybrida (orange)
Calanthus nivalis
Gladiolus sp. (pink)
Hyacinthoides hispanica
Hyacintlnts sp. (blue)
Narcissus sp.
Narcissus jonquilla
Tulipa sp. (red)
Perennials
Alcea rosa
Aquilegia sp.
Diantluis deltoides
Dietes grandijlora
Erbium candicans
Geranium sp. (red, pink and white)
Gypsophila elegans
Heuchcra ‘Cathedral Windows’
Myosotis sylvatica
Nemesiafoetans' Vanilla Mist’
Passiflora incarnata
Penstcmon ’Osprey”
Tagetes lemonii
Viola cornuta
Hedges
Ligustrum ovalifolium
Muehlenbeckia complexa
Trees
Eucalyptus botryoides
Alpine Strawberry
Jerusalem Artichoke
Scarlet Runner Bean
Cape Gooseberry
Rhubarb
Black Currant
Red Currant
Gooseberry
Raspberry
French Sorrel
Sweet Alice
Snapdragon
Canterbury Bells
Cornflower
Chrysanthemum
Foxglove
Sweet Pea
Honesty
Wild Pansy
Delphinium
Freesia
Snowdrop
Gladioli
Bluebells
Hyacinth
Dwarf Daffodil
Jonquil
Rock Tulip
Hollyhock
Columbine
Carnation
Wild Iris
Bee Flower
Geranium
Baby’s Breath
Coral Bells
Chinese Forget-Me-Not
Nemesia
Passion Flower
Penstcmon
Lemon Scented
Marigold
HornedViolet
Privet
Muehlenbeckia
Mahogany Gum
Australian Garden History Vol. 15 No 1 July/August 2003 13
Ken DUXBURY CONTINUES THE STORY OF EDWARD WILLIAM COLE WITH AN ACCOUNT OF HIS
PUBLICATIONS AND HIS OWN GARDEN AT EARLSBRAE HALL IN ESSENDON.
I
I
i
I
Above: Edward William Cole
(1832-1918)
The Happifying Garden Hobby
T he first edition of the book generally known
as The Happifying Garden Hobby was
published in 1902, under the overall title of
Garden Lovers Book of Gems. It reflects its
origin as a compilation of snippets gathered from
a wide variety of sources (generally non-
Australian) — a sort of horticultural version of
Cole’s Funny Picture Book. A lengthy
introductory essay written by E.W. Cole carries
die ‘chapter heading’ of‘The Happifying Garden
Hobby’ and the compilation section of the book
carries the same title as a running page heading.
For some reason this original edition of the
book is very rare, and surprisingly little known.
The only copy I have been able to track down
resides in the rare books section of the La Trobe
Library in Melbourne. Although the first edition
bears no print date, it can be dated fairly
accurately by an advertisement for the 1902
edition of One and All Gardening Annual, by
references to the ‘Lord Rous’ daffodil as ‘being
new this season’ (1902), and by references to
Cole’s childhood ‘sixty years ago’. It is an
attractive production of 216 pages (and 24
preliminaries), measuring 22 x 10cm. with
coloured decoration of stylised flowers, good
quality paper, solid cloth binding, and very well-
produced photographic illustrations.
Cole’s introductory essay is of great interest,
and is worth quoting at some length. Cole began
by describing the composition of his book:
It consists mainly of 200 pieces and poems in
praise of gardening and flowers, [written by]
eminent personages who have seen and felt the
great value of the gardening hobby to mankind,
morally, physically and socially. Gardening is one
of the best hobbies we have, for it brings
knowledge, and health, and happiness in many
ways.
He continues to amplify the various benefits of
gardening:
It brings us health in a most satisfactory manner...
It is as good an exercise for health as general
gymnastics, and gives more lasting satisfaction; and
it gives us all this pleasant exercise and recreation
close to our home, and turns to profitable account
the very act of beautifying the home.
Flowers bring refined pleasure and, consequently,
happiness ... Flowers smell the sweetest and look
the loveliest of all earthly things, and most men and
women throughout the world dearly love them; and
the cherished wish of nearly all mankind is to go lo
a world beyond the grave where everlasting spring
abides and never-withering flowers ...
Flowers bring happiness in other ways. They bring
solace to the sick, beautify the house, adorn the hell
14 Australian Garden History Vol . 15 No l July/August 2003
and the altar, and deck the bride and the grave ...
Perhaps the most valuable effect of a garden,
especially a Jlower garden, is to make a happy
home. Hie people who live in houses with gardens
of their own planting are nearly always happier, all
other things being equal, than those who live in
houses without gardens.
Cole describes his childhood memories of
flowers and gardens and laments the fact that
despite his love of flowers, circumstances had
always prevented him from indulging in a garden.
He goes on to describe some of the features of the
ideal garden:
A garden, if possible, should have a summer¬
house, covered with beautiful creepers, or vines,
or passionffuit; also creepers over every unsightly
fence, wall, etc.; one or more plots of grass; and a
small pond to grow aquatic plants and hold a few
tame fish, and perhaps a tame frog or two, to sing
‘bollop’, if such is the choice.
He concludes with the warning:
Do not have a large garden unless you can
afford a gardener, or have plenty of leisure time
on your hands, it would cause you too much
trouble. Make gardening a pleasant recreation, a
labour of love, not a slavery and a worry.
In 1918, a new edition of the book was
brought out as part of what appears to have been
a standard uniform edition of Cole’s works, and
Anyone can Grow their own Mushrooms if they choose.
From The Happifying Garden Hobby
this entire book (451pp) bears the title The
Happifying Garden Hobby. This is the edition
that is widely known today. However as Victor
Crittenden notes: ‘Many of the quotations and
illustrations are the same [as in The Garden
Lover’s Book of Gems]. Most of the Australian
references have been removed including Cole’s
interesting long introduction.’
The extracts which make up most of the
work are so miscellaneous that they are virtually
impossible to summarise, except that very little of
the material seems to be of Australian origin -
perhaps because of copyright laws or the
likelihood of their being enforced. The section
on the language of flowers is more
comprehensive than the list in the Funny Picture
Book and includes flower dialogues.There is also
a section on the way more complex — and
sometimes rather nasty — messages can be
conveyed, for example:
Your frivolity and malevolence will cause you to be
forsaken by all.
1 Frivolity ... London Pride
2 Malevolence... Lobelia
3 Forsaken... Laburnum
Theflowers should be bound together until a fading
leaf.
OTHER GARDENING PUBLICATIONS
About 1905, Cole edited a booklet entitled
Cotton growing: the coming leading industry in
Australia. He believed that Australia was ideally
suited for growing cotton because:
It has got the finest climate in the world and
the largest and best territory in the world for
growing cotton ... But in this vast tropical region,
the un-aedimatised, white-skinned man cannot
work. He can plan and superintend, and find the
necessary capital to raise products, and find
markets for them when produced,but he will not
and cannot do the labouring work. And here
comes in our fortunate position with respect to a
splendid supply of suitable coloured labour (in
India, China, Japan and Java).
E.W. Cole published the second edition of
The Fruitgrower’s Handbook by Hamilton
McEwin in 1913. The book contains 226 pages
(plus index) and deals with the commercial
growing of a wide range of fruit including apples,
pears, apricots, peaches, citrus fruits, grapes,
raspberries, currants, passionfruit and
strawberries. There are several photographic
illustrations of tropical fruit such as bananas and
pineapples, but these are not mentioned in the
text that mainly deals with conditions in
Tasmania, where McEwin lived, andVictoria.
There are four full-colour photographic
illustrations of different varieties of apples —
including Jonathan,‘The favourite eating Apple
of Australia’, and Newton Pippin,‘The favourite
Apple of America’. The illustrations soon found
their way into editions of Cole’s Funny Picture
Book No. 2 as a two-page spread, bordered by
apple leaves and blossom and with the text
Apples refresh Man and
make Him Healthy
From E. W. Cole, The
Happifying Garden Hobby,
v E.W. Cole Book Arcade,
Melbourne 1918.
Australian Garden History Vol. 15 No 1 July /August 2003 15
E.W. Cole in the garden at
Earlsbrae Hall, Essendon c.
1916, showing the rainbow
bed and palms.
commentary:‘Apples, the Best Fruit in the World.
The best kinds should be plentifully grown and
eaten by everybody, every day, for health’s sake
read Apples andTobacco — All Booksellers.’
The spread is preceded by a page headed
‘Funny History of the Apple’ which includes a
paragraph headed ‘What Little Boys and Girls
should Do’. It runs as follows:
Little boys and girls should always have plenty
of apples to eat, and all little boys and little girls
should frequently, but respectfully, try to
impression this upon the minds of their parents;
and that their parents should eat them too.
Little boys and girls should always ask their
parents to plant some nice kinds of apple trees in
the garden; and whether they have a garden or
not, to keep some apples, fresh or preserved, in the
house, to eat for health and pleasure’s sake.
These days of course, children are far more
likely to frequently, but not always respectfully,
impress upon the minds of their parents the need
to visit McDonald’s - and not for the roof-of-
the-mouth-burning‘Apple Pies’ either.
While preparing this article 1 noticed for the
first time, that the colour plates used to show the
apples in The Fruitgrower’s Handbook were also
used in the Funny Picture Book. It is quite likely
that the Funny Picture Book was seen as a good
opportunity to recycle these plates — which
would have been expensive to prepare — and
which would have been readily available at Cole’s
own printery in the Book Arcade. It is possible
that the existing illustrations of the very
appetising looking apples implied the apple
section of the Funny Picture Book, much as the
Pickwick Papers were initially written around
some pre-existing illustration owned by the
publisher. It is also possible that Cole’s enthusiasm
for apples implied both the decision to include
colour plates of apples in the Fruitgrower’s
Handbook (where no other fruits are illustrated
in colour) and also the Funny Picture Book No. 2
16 Australian Garden History Vol . 15 No 1 July/August 2003
xA-T-
,vrV
article on apples. In any case this episode
illustrates the way in which Cole’s activities were
closely interconnected, and also his great skill at
recycling and repackaging material and for ‘cross
promotion’.
In 1914.E.W. Cole, Book Arcade, Melbourne
published another important gardening book. It
was written by A.E.Cole, incorrectly referred to
on the title page and cover as A.F.Cole, and
entitled The Bouquet: Australian flower
gardening. A.E. Cole was a practical gardener
based in Sydney. He does not appear to be related
to E. W. Cole.
The book was available in both cloth and
paper covered issues with the covers referring to
the book as A Bouquet: Australian Flower Garden
Handbook - Cole’s books are indeed a great trial
to the bibliographer! The book has 176 pages and
contains a large number of illustrations and
diagrams. Crittenden’s bibliography notes that:
A number of line drawings explaining the
layout of a garden, the preparation of soil, path
making, tree and shrub planting. There are also
some amusing plans for garden lay out with
winding paths and star shaped flower beds, also a
lawn in the shape of Australia - a popular device
at the time of Federation.
This book is probably the best contemporary'
description reflecting the distinctive, char¬
acteristic Australian garden style that might be
called Federation Gardenesque.
About two years later, Cole published a
second work byA.E.Cole, entitledThe Australian
Floral Almanac. One hundred and twenty-six
pages in length with an illustrated paper wrapper,
it appears to have been published by the Sydney
branch of the Book Arcade and E.W. Cole may
have had little or no direct involvement in its
publication. Crittenden describes this work as
‘An enjoyable book giving the monthly garden
information in a light-hearted fashion . . . His
remarks are mainly about annuals, with some
2002 - Earlsbrae Hall, now
Lowther Hall Anglican
Grammar School. The arc
of the rainbow has gone to
accommodate oli-street
parking but much of the
front lawn remains. The
palms too, have gone but
the native trees have been
maintained.
Courtesy: Lowther Hall
Anglican Grammar School
Archives.
Australian Garden History Vol 15 No 1 July/August 2003 17
bush-house notes and information on roses and
chrysanthemums.’ A.E. Cole was later to write a
small book Half-Hours in the Bush House,
published by Angus and Robertson in 1922.
The move to Essendon
Cole’s wife died on 15 March 1911. Until that
time Cole and his family had lived in a flat at the
Arcade probably because Mrs Cole preferred city
living. Shortly after his wife’s death, and when his
health was failing at the age of 79, Cole’s life
underwent a dramatic change. He purchased
Earlsbrae Hall, in Leslie Street, Essendon, then a
sparsely settled suburb six miles to the north of
Melbourne.
Earlsbrae Hall had been built during the
1880’s land boom by Collier McCracken, a
brewer, and had reputedly cost £35,000 to build.
The facade was dramatised by 16 Corinthian
columns, creating a sort of ‘land boom
Parthenon’ character. The house contained 27
rooms and stood on 2Vz acres or slightly more
than one hectare of land. A photograph taken of
Earlsbrae Hall in 1899, when the McCracken
family occupied it, shows a typical Victorian
‘mansion garden’ with palm, cordylines and
circular flowerbeds.
Cole purchased the property for £6,000 after
it had been tenanted, and occasionally
unoccupied, for several years. The house and
garden were in poor condition and needed a lot
of attention. Cole appears to have retained the
general character of the garden as a photograph
of his family taken in 1916 from almost the same
location and angle as the 1899 photograph shows
little change.
It is likely, however, that the garden was
somewhat simplified and that some of the
elaborate floral displays would have been
converted to lawn, probably before Cole’s
occupancy and possibly during the later stages of
the McCracken’s occupancy when their financial
problems became increasingly pressing. Cole
appears to have found the property more than he
could easily cope with. His daughter, Mrs Ivy
Rudd recalled that:
It was simply too large, too expensive, and too
dilapidated. The sewerage system was
malfunctioning, the garden needed tending and
the fences mending. In our time, we too found
the upkeep eventually impossible.
Despite these challenges Cole soon made his
own unique and idiosyncratic contribution to the
house and garden, so that they became almost as
much a reflection and extension of his personality
as his Book Arcade. The property was rapidly
transformed into a sort of Xanadu of the intellect.
It soon became known, somewhat predictably, as
King Cole’s Castle.
Most famously. Cole, or his gardeners, planted
a giant 75foot long rainbow in front of his house
alongside the curving driveway. A highly
evocative photograph of the aged, white-
bearded, Cole sitting in a chair and enjoying the
sun beside his flowerbed is included in the
pictorial biography of Cole prepared by his
grandson, Cole Turnley. Cole also devised a
complicated, periscope-like system of mirrors so
that he could view the rainbow bed and other
parts of his garden from his bedroom. In one
gesture Cole had combined his lifelong interest
in flowers and gardens with the almost obsessive
preoccupation with rainbows and mirrors that
had created the memorable character of his Book
Arcade.
Cole also established a remarkable menagerie
at Earlsbrae Hall. It included a gigantic aviary
with birds ‘of notable voice to enhance the song
of the local birds in the trees’; several of Cole’s
favourite monkeys,‘smaU,gende marmosets who
could be trusted to run around the grounds
without trying to escape’ as well as a half-breed
British bulldog, a tame kangaroo named Ivy,
(perhaps after Cole’s daughter), and a young
cheetah named Leo who was soon passed on to
the Melbourne Zoo.
The context of Cole’s rainbow
GARDEN BED
Despite its unique character, Cole’s rainbow bed
was not altogether outside the garden design
fashion of the day - what might be termed
‘Federation Gardenesque’. Melbourne already
had the star-shaped garden bed, in Alexandra
Gardens adjacent to Princes Bridge, which
appears to represent the six-pointed Federation
Star. And a garden bed in the Carlton Gardens,
adjacent to the Exhibition Building, took the
form of the Australian coat of arms, die old
unofficial version, surmounted by a rising sun.
The Bouquet: Australian flower gardening
contains illustrations showing a great variety of
novel, decoratively-shaped flower beds and
garden features. A lawn in the shape of Australia
and Tasmania, girt by gravel. A garden featuring a
circular flowerbed and one shaped like a Maltese
Cross with a circular centre. A garden with two
flowerbeds shaped like an ‘exploding star’ with
four long and four shorter points. And a page
showing six different flower bed designs
including a lily and a shamrock.
One of the illustrations in Garden Gems
(1902), but better known from the 1918 edition
retitledThe Happifying Gardening Hobby,shows
a ‘curious garden’ with garden beds in the shape
of two dogs (or possibly a dog and a cat), a duck,
(or possibly a chicken), a man with outstretched
arms spreadeagled on the ground and two giant
18 Australian Garden History Vol . 15 No 1 July/August 2003
footprints. The garden also features two giant
topiary hands and what appears to be a topiary
watering can.
The final years
Cole remained mentally active — occupying
much of his time bringing out a collected unified
edition of the books he had written and
compiled, printing some of them at a printing
press set up at Earlsbrae Hall. He also made
regular visits to the Book Arcade, accompanied by
one of his daughters and a marmoset monkey
who had free range of their brougham coach.
Edward Cole died at Earlsbrae Hall on 16
December 1918, aged 86. He was buried in a
Church of England compartment at Boroondara
Cemetery where his gravestone is an open book.
It could be a bible, one of the many books
written, compiled or published by Cole - The
Real Place in History of Jesus and Paul or some
other religious or philosophical tract - or perhaps
The Happifying Garden Hobby, or even the
Funny Picture Book. Or perhaps the book is
intended to be an anonymous representative of
each and every one of the millions of books sold
by Cole at his Book Arcade. The stone book bears
the simple inscription:
FATHER EDWARD WILLIAM COLE
BORN 4TH JANY 1832
PASSED AWAY 16TH DEC
1918
Aftermath
Shortly after Cole s death Earlsbrae Hall was sold
to the Church of England and became Lowther
Hall, an Anglican Girls’School. The property has
not been subdivided and the main building
remains substantially intact, at least externally.
Generally the garden has been engulfed by
buildings, but the original driveway, and much of
the front garden still remain, although the
rainbow flowerbed, and most of the palms,
cordylines, and other Victorian style plantings
have long since disappeared.
The Book Arcade foundered through
inadequate management: leases were not
renewed, the old Fernery was converted into a
stationery department, and the first financial
losses ever recorded since the inception of the
Arcade led to the winding up of the business in
1929 when the freehold properties were
auctioned. The best of the monkeys were given
to the Melbourne Zoo and the remainder were
destroyed — a sad tale indeed for ‘the animal next
to man’! As for the distorting mirrors, once the
major attraction ofWonderland, they were sold to
Luna Park and can be seen today in the Body and A 'curious garden'.
Mind section of the new Melbourne Museum. ^ ror !] Happifying
The building in Collins Street was also soon
demolished. However, the old bluestone building
in Little Collins Street remains remarkably intact,
and pedestrians walking along Flowey Place are
still sheltered from the elements by the steel and
frosted-glass roof erected by Cole. And, visiting
the site while researching this article, I looked up
at the root and beheld — incorporated into the
ornamental ironwork, painted rusty brown but
still unmistakable — a RAINBOW.
Ken Duxbury has a Master of Landscape
Architecturefrom the University of Melbourne. He
has worked in urban and environmental planning
and as a consultant on historic gardens. Among his
interests are antiquarian books and collecting
historic postcards.
Australian Garden History Vet. IS No 1 July/August 2003 19
Sandra Pullman concludes her study of the work and life of Luffman by
DISCUSSING THE LECTURE HE GAVE IN 1901 ON THE PROPOSED DESIGN OF THE
NATIONAL CAPITAL CITY, THE PAPER HE GAVE CHALLENGING THE DESIGN IDEAS OF
Walter Butler, his garden design at Killamont and his later life.
Ideas for a national capital
Charles Bogue Luffman
Courtesy: Archives, Burnley
Campus, The University of
Melbourne.
I n 1901 Luffman was invited to speak at a
congress of architects and engineers in
Melbourne on the design for the new federal
capital. Later published as The Agricultural,
Horticultural and Sylvan Features of a Federal Capita? it
concentrated on presenting the options of what a
city needs to make it an attractive and pleasant
residential place. Luffman believed that choosing
the right site was of cardinal importance. It needed
to be undulating surfaces, permanent streams, and
‘one or more fine sweeps of hills, or deeply groined
mountain side.’ He continued to stress the need for
a source of water for all agricultural industries and
a good depth of soil to reduce the cost of
construction and maintenance of sites. Luffman
also believed that the native timber and naturally
occurring features should be maintained.
One interesting idea he put forward was that
farming areas should break up the suburban
development. In effect he was suggesting the
creation of‘green belts’. He also considered that
Australia should use its native flora as symbols of the
nation rather than copying the symbols of other
countries.-
He understood that Australia’s climate and flora
were unique and in 1903 he published a book
written for Australian conditions. Based on a series
of six lectures he had given. The principles of
gardening for Australia was one of the first books to
draw attention to the special features of the
Australian environment and its application to
horticulture. It is a practical book, giving good
advice on designing and preparing a site for a
garden. Its writing is somewhat romantic in tone,
although not to the extent ofVI vagabond in Spain,
rather it is informative language giving the reader
things to think about. The book covers topics such
as:
The Principles of Garden Architecture,
Designing Gardens to Meet Local Conditions,
Materials Available and the Practical Work of
Making the Garden,
The Selection and Arrangement of Permanent
Plants in Garden Schemes,
Planning. Forming and Maintaining
Small Gardens,
Garden Management and a Rose Garden.
Luffman and Butler
Together with Walter Richmond Butler, Luffman
was supposed to give a lecture to members of the
Royal Victorian Institute of Architects (the RV1A)
on 30 June 1903. Unfortunately on that particular
night Luffman was ill and only Butlers paper was
presented. Luffman delivered his paper on 26 April
1904, nearly a year later. Had it taken place as
originally planned it would have been an
interesting meeting between these two men who
had opposing philosophies.
Butler was an English-trained architect who
had been involved with the Arts and Crafts
Movement in England and had been influenced by
William Morris and Reginald Blomfield. He
believed that the architect should design the garden
because the garden was not part of the natural
environment any more than the house was, and
therefore, like the house, the garden should be a
work of art. 3 It was Butler’s opinion that the house
and garden were inseparable and that there should
be unity between the inside and the outside of the
house.
Luffman spoke of the design of the garden and
of the importance of doing it properly in its own
right. He tried to build a bridge between the
architect and landscape gardeners. 4 He talked
about designing in accordance with nature, climate,
depth of soil, style of house and surface form. He
believed that the natural soil level of a particular
area is rarely sufficient and soil must be brought in.
He believed very strongly in preparing the site by
trenching for planting and said ‘We make our
gardens with too much haste.’ He also talked about
the gardener’s input into the design suggesting the
gardener should appear early on the scene, when
plans were being discussed with the architect.
Luffman raised the question as to whether a home¬
owner was prepared ‘to keep a good gardener, or
only a man?’ He then went on to talk about the size
and architecture of the house suggesting that small
20 Australian Garden History Vol 15 No 1 July /August 2003
Key
1 Main Drive
7 Swimming Pool
12 Shrubs
2 Picket Fence
8 Tennis Court
13 Rose Garden
3 Entrance
9 Garage
14 Lawn
4 Ponds
10 Croquet Lawn
15 Brick Wall
5 Bridge
11 Vegetable Garden
16 Bamboos
houses should not have tiny lawns or grass borders.
Finally he spoke of the costs of good design and
preparation suggesting that a small investment of 2-
5% on the garden could add 12-20% value to the
cost of the property.
Marilyn McBriar discusses Luffman’s and
Butlers contributions to garden design in her
article‘A Edwardian Discussion, Formal or Natural
Gardens for Australia?’ In this paper she says
Luffman did not reject the formal garden
completely, but that he believed that architecture,
position and financial resources determined the
style of the garden. 5 McBriar also stated that
Luffman believed that the informal garden suited
Australia better than the formal style. It was
because the Australian use of dark red brick with
very dark wood, gables and strongly marked
windows and doorways topped with an over¬
awning of red tiled roofs gave a heavy and sombre
appearance that Luffman argued was a Gothic style.
He said the Gothic style was all vertical and
graceful curves and these were present in nature. 6
The YEARS AFTER Burnley 1908-1920
After finishing his work for the Metropolitan Golf
Club in Melbourne 7 Luffman returned to Spain to
work and also to hone the notes he had submitted
to the publisher John Murray in 1904. These were
an account of his earlier travels in Spain and were
published in 1910 as Quiet Days in Spain.
The appeal of citrus fruit drew Luffman to
Florida and he later visited Japan on behalf of the
United States of America. He investigated the
Japanese orange industry reporting back to the
USA on how the Japanese managed to control
disease problems in citrus orchards. This
experience led to his next book The Harvest of
Japan’', published in 1920. In it Luffman describes
the Japanese as ‘nature worshippers, gardeners,
artists and handicraft’s people’ and he regarded
them as superior to Europeans. What he felt stood
out about the Japanese is not their ability to
replicate nature on a small scale, but their
understanding and subtle knowledge of all the
elements and phenomena of tree growth. 9
During the First World War and the last year of
his life Luffman was working as a gardener at Wyke
Regis, Dorset in England with his apprentice
Agnes Sleet. He was also lecturing on gardening to
the returned servicemen. Sadly on 6 May 1920 he
died of cancer in a rented room at Babbacombe in
Devon.
Killamont
The only known garden left by Luffman, on a
property in the Western Goulburn Valley near
Kyabram, is Killamont. In 1896 James Finlay
bought the property from James McNee. It dates
back to 1869 when the original kitchen of the
homestead was built. 10
Australian Garden History Voi . 15 No 1 July/August 2003 21
Top: Killamont, looking
across the flower garden to
the homestead.
Bottom: Looking across the
croquet lawn between the
shrubberies.
James Finlay married Eleanor Affleck in 1898
and she lived at Killamont until she died in 1969.
When the final additions to the house were done
in 1904-5, Eleanor turned her attention to the
garden that was used extensively for recreation and
enjoyment to entertain friends and family. There
was a tennis court and croquet lawn. James also
kept an aviary filled with exotic birds.
How Luffinan became involved is unknown,
but as Mathews points out he was the Principal of
Burnley Horticultural College and that would
have given him some status. Before Luffinan
redesigned the garden it was a simple, formal,
symmetrica] garden with ‘wide straight paths
around the house edged with terra cotta edging
tiles.’ 11 After Luffinan redesigned it, it became a
garden of tranquillity and peace.
The garden is approximately two hectares,
regular in shape except for the northern section
that juts out on an angle. There is a picket fence, a
curvilinear driveway and one of Luffinan’s
signature features, a pond large enough to
accommodate boating.
The garden was a series of spaces with distinct
features but all spaces interconnect with each other.
Popular trees of the time were English Oak
(Quercus robur), the Peppercorn ( Schinus areira) and
the Coral Tree ( Erythina crista-galli). There was also
a shrubbery and an orchard - very important in the
early days as properties has to be self-sufficient. The
garden was designed to provide interest throughout
the year, with use of French hawthorn ( cratageus x
lavallei ) that has good autumn colour. Crepe
myrtles ( Lagerstroemia indica) added their interesting
22 Australian Garden History Vol . 15 No 1 July /August 2003
bark and there were colourful flowers and autumn
foliage as the garden was well planted with bulbs,
perennials and annuals.
The present owners of Killamont, Neville and
Wendy Varcoe have carefully restored the garden as
they were fortunate to find old photographs, the
original garden plan and notes by Luffman on how
to establish it.
Charles Luffman was a good practitioner and
communicator. His success was his ability to
educate. He well understood how to establish an
orchard and dry fruit industry. Unfortunately his
tendency to be hot-blooded probably actually held
him back because he was too difficult to deal with
and thus he may have lost opportunities that could
have furthered his career. Luffman was a promoter
of the natural landscape and of ideas on how to
achieve it. He was not as well known as his
contemporary, William Guilfoyle, because he did
not design many landscapes. Instead he wrote and
lectured.
Sandra Pullman, an undergraduate student at
Burnley College, University of Melbourne is a
member of the Landscape Committee of the
NationalTrust (Victoria). She contributes articles on
garden history to the Age and is particularly
interested in the work of early Burnley graduates.
1 C.B. Luffman, The Agricultural, Horticultural and
Sylvan Features of a Federal Capital, J.C. Stephens,
Melbourne 1901.
2 ibid, pp.1-3.
3 M. McBriar, ‘An Edwardian Discussion, Formal or
Natural Gardens for Australia?’, Australian Garden
History,V 61. 1, No. 6, 1990, AGHS, Melbourne, p.6.
4 C.B. Luffman,‘Garden Design in Accord with Local
Needs’ Journal of Proceedings Royal Victorian Institute
ofArchitects; Vbl.2, No. 2,1904-5, p. 44.
5 M. McBriar, op. cit. p. 9.
6 ibid. p. 10
7 See Sandra Pullman ,‘Charles Bogue Luffman, Part
Two: the Burnley Years’, Australian Garden Flistory,
Vol. 14, No. 5, May/June 2003,pp. 16 and 18
8 C.B. Luffman, The Harvest of Japan, T.C. and E.C.Jack
Ltd, 35 Paternoster Row, London, 1920.
9 ibid.
10 D. Mathews, Killamont Conservation: Analysis of the
Historic Garden of Killamont, 1991. Final Project
(unpublished). Royal Melbourne Institute of
Technology.
11 ibid.
Acknowledgments
The author acknowledges the generous help of John
Patrick, John Hawker, Ettie Pullman, Joss Tonkin and
Wendy Varcoe in providing material and assistance in the
preparation of this series of articles on Charles Bogue
Luffman.
Reference Bibliography
Andrews, L., 2000, History of Burnley Gardens 1860-1939,
Honours Thesis, Bachelor of Applied Science (Hort),
University of Melbourne, Institute of Land and Food
Resources, Richmond, Melbourne pp. 177,182
Bate. W, 2001, Sustaining Their Dream, Metropolitan Golf
Club, Oaklcigh, pp. 19,237
Blake, L.J. (ed), 1973, Vision & Realisation — A Centenary
History of State Education in Victoria, Education
Department,Victoria, pp. 298,346
Blomfield, R., The Formal Garden in England. 1901,
Macmillan and Co Limited, New York
Luffman, C., 1900, Report by the Principal of the School of
Horticulture, Annual Report, Department of
Agriculture, pp. 262,262,327,328
Luffinann, C.B.. 1903, The Principles of Gardening
for Australia, The Book Lovers’Library, Melbourne, p. 34
Luffinann, C.B., 1904-05, Garden Design in Accord with Local
Needs, Journal of Proceedings Vol. 2, Royal Victorian
Institute of Architects pp. 40-42
Luffinann C.B., 1901, The Agricultural, Horticultural and Sylvan
Features of a Federal Capital, J.C. Stephens, Melbourne,
National Library of Canberra
Luffman C, B., 1920, 77ie Harvest ofJapan, T.C & E.C.Jack,
Ltd, 35 &36 Paternoster Row, E.C. London, pp. 57,92
Nairn, B., Serle, G., (ed), 1986, Australian Dictionary of
Biography, Patrick, J., Vol 10, 1891-1939 Lat-Ner,
Melbourne University Press, Carlton, Victoria,
p. 166
Nairn, B., Serle, G., (ed), 1986, Australian Dictionary of
Biography, Mettison M.,Vol 10, 1891-1939 Lat-Ner,
Melbourne University Press, Carlton.Victoria, p.167
McBriar, M., 1990,‘An Edwardian Discussion, Formal or
Natural Gardens for Australia?’Australian Garden History
Society Journal, Vol. 1, No. 6, April/May /June 1990,
Melbourne pp, 6-11
Mordaunt, F... 1937, Sinahada, Michael Joseph, London, pp.
114,118,119
Patrick J., 1988,‘Gardens and Garden Designers ofAustralia’s
Past’, Journal of Proceedings, Australian Institute of
Hortiadture Inc.
Patrick, J., 2002, The Oxford Companion to Australian Gardens,
Oxford University Press.Australia,p.381
Winzenried.A. P., 1991, Green Grows Our Garden, Hyland
House, p.l 1
1896-1897, Mildura Settlement- Report of a Mildura Royal
Commission, Papers presented to Parliament -Session
1896 Legislative Assembly Vol. Ill No. 19, Australian
Parliamentary Papers Box, LTMS 1896V3 & 4,1897VI,
V66,p. 125-128
Microfiche
1837-1956, St. Catherine’s House England and Wales, June
Quarter, Lid — Mak 2735, La Trobe Library, State
Library, Swanston Street, Melbourne
Newspaper Articles
The Australasian 25 January 1908, p. 189 ‘Luffman’s
Retirement’, Hugh George,
The Mildura Cultivator, 20 June 1896, Royal Commission,
N.B. McKay, Midura p. 1
Maps
Luffman, C., 1905, The Farm Homestead, Tear Book of
Agriculture for 1905, By the Staff of the Department,
Chapter VI, Department of Agriculture, Held at the
Department of Natural Resources and Environment,
Victoria Parade, East Melbourne
Australian Garden History Vol . 15 No 1 July/August 2003 23
o
OO K .S HFLF
U-H
Australian Planting Design
PaulThompson
Lothian Books, 2002
ISBN: 0 7344 0438 7
RRP: $65.00
Reviewed by Marion Pennicuik
Australian Planting Design is passionately written
by the acknowledged expert on Australian
planting design, Paul Thompson. A renowned
landscape architect often called upon for his detail
in planting design, Paul has been involved in a
number of significant public planting projects,
including the 25ha Australian Garden at the
Royal Botanic Gardens, Cranbourne where he
worked with landscape architects Taylor Cullity
Lethlean.
Thompson pays homage to Glen Wilson, the
Australian plant guru of thel960s and 1970s, but
his book is contemporary. He is a member of the
Design Study Group of the Australian Plants
Society. His book is quite different from that of
the convener of the group, Diana Snape, whose
The Australian Garden is aimed firmly at the
domestic garden designer.
Paul’s book is ambitious, aimed at an audience
that includes both domestic-scale and,
particularly, larger developments. He includes
detailed information on soils and earth form,
manipulation of space, light, water, structures and
vegetation. His knowledge of plants is excellent
and his bias is towards local Australian plants,
particularly trees.
Paul covers the components of a garden,
planting design, and garden management over
time. He emphasises that gardens are not static,
and that planting designs must be reassessed at
regular intervals, with plants replaced as they
become senescent or obsolete when
neighbouring plants mature. He cites patterns of
change in the Australian bush, the effects of fire
and drought, and includes numerous design case
studies to illustrate his arguments. His line
drawings illustrate his arguments well.
Australian Planting Design includes extensive
footnotes, further reading lists, a general index
and a botanical index to both common and
scientific names. The dust-jacket design is
evocative of the bush, the outback, the light, the
texture and the colour that is Australia. Paul
mentions texture only fleetingly, yet the stunning
images that illustrate his ideas are alive with
texture!
Exceptional and contemporary, Australian
Planting Design encapsulates the design emphasis
that the landscape profession has brought to the
notion of indigenous planting. An essential
reference for all landscape architects.
Marion Pennicuick currently edits ‘The Spirit of
Progress’for the Art Deco Society.
Lilacs for the garden
Jennifer Bennett
Firefly Books 2002
Distributed in Australia & New Zealand by
Florilegium
ISBN: 1552975622
RRP: $39.95
Reviewed by Nina Crone
Apart from Colette who wrote of its‘toxic aroma
of prussic acid’, lilac has received good press -
from Amy Lowell, Vita Sackville West, Eleanor
Perenyi, Joan Law-Smith and, most recently,
Lynne Strahan - yet it is often thought of as old-
fashioned. Jennifer Bennett’s Lilacs for the garden
puts a sound argument for its place in the
contemporary landscape as ‘a shrub for today,
tomorrow and yesterday.’
In the first book on lilacs for the gardener for
nearly 80 years, Bennett describes how the
common lilac (Syringa vulgans) migrated from the
Balkans across Europe and the Atlantic to
America. It found particular favour in France
where three generations of the Lemoine family
24 Australian Garden History Vol. IS No 1 July/August 2003
persevered with hybridisation to produce the
double lilacs and hyanthijlora hybrids. She traces
the successive arrivals of the Chinese varieties
into 19th century Europe and the later evolution
of the great lilac collections in St Petersburg,
Paris, Kew Gardens and at the Arnold Arboretum
in Massachusetts. Her account of the work of
Isabella Preston,John Fiala and FreekVrugtman
brings the story up to date.
Although the book is strongly oriented to the
American market, it contains valuable and
interesting material for an antipodean lilac lover.
A Canadian, Bennett considers lilacs 'the chain
letters of horticulture . . . you simply pried a
rooted shoot from the base of a shrub and planted
it somewhere else’,just as George Washington did
at Mount Vernon.
The major part of the book is devoted to
growing lilacs including their place in the
landscape (as specimen shrubs, in formal and
informal groupings and in beds of perennials).
There are pages on companion planting, hedging
with lilacs, growing them in containers and as cut
flowers. Most helpful is a comprehensive listing
of the common cultivars as well as more
uncommon varieties ‘for the connoisseur’.
Well-indexed and enticingly illustrated
the book makes pleasurable reading. It lists mail¬
order nurseries and public collections, albeit
American. The web-sites given include
minv.lilacs.-freescrvers.com for the International Lilac
Society and www.lewisriver.-com/lilacs.html, a
somewhat folksy site introducing the Hulda
Klager Lilac Gardens.
People and Plants
A History of Gardening in Victoria
Mary Ellis 2003
Distribution: Mary Ellis
P.O. Box 67, Fish Creek,Victoria 3959
ISBN 0 975033 40 9
$48 plus $7 p & p
Reviewed by Nina Crone
Mary Ellis uses an interesting method of
arranging material gathered during six years of
research into Victoria’s garden history.
Throughout her book people and places are
associated with particular plants. The birthplace
ofVictorian horticulture, Churchill Island, leads
to Araucaria lieterophylla (Norfolk Island Pine) and
Melaleuca, notably M. lanceolata (Moonah), the
biographical note on Alex Jessep prompts
consideration of camellias, Clement Hodgkinson
is followed by a discussion of elms Jean Galbraith
heralds Correa and so on. Although this
framework takes some getting used to, it proves
an effective means of linking
seemingly disparate material.
Inevitably some readers
will ponder the inclusions and
exclusions. Why is Margaret
Stones not given equal weight
with Ellis Rowan and Celia
Rosser in the section on
botanical artists, or Carl
Nobelius not included with
the Brunnings and Tesselaars
in the chapter on the horti¬
cultural industry? The temp¬
tation to cross-reference Ellis’s
material with the Oxford
Companion to Australian Gardens
is irresistible. Ellis includes
additional subject matter
pertinent to Victoria and her
accounts of the ‘Eucy’ men,
Maud Gibson, Moomba and
the work of Lyle and Elvie
Williams make enjoyable
reading. There are some slight
discrepancies between the two
publications on the birth date
of some people and fur¬
ther editing would have
strengthened Ellis’s work.
Compared with a lavishly
illustrated coffee table book on
a single subject - Leo
Schofield’s The Garden at
Bronte for instance - Plants and
People is a ‘no frills’ publication
and needs to find its own niche
market. This niggled for a time
as the writing is somewhat
uneven and in parts too
discursive, yet there is much
valuable factual material and a
warm humanity in the biographical essays. The
quality of some photographs is poor but Pat
Dale’s line drawings and those from Thompson’s
Gardener’s Assistant, published in 1907,redeem the
illustrations.
Plants and People will prove an invaluable
resource for secondary school VET and TAFE
students of horticulture and associated studies.
The language is direct and much of the material
should appeal to the older adolescent. It could be
a most useful textbook offering an excellent
springboard for discussion on contemporary
issues such as developing sustainable gardens, seed
saving, hydroponics, roadside planting and plant
variety rights, as well as giving an introduction to
the fascinating subject ofVictoria’s garden history.
Australian Garden History Vol . 15 No 1 July/August 2003 25
ITF.M.S
of INTEREST
Notice of Annual General Meeting
The 23rd Annual General Meeting of the
Australian Garden History Society will be held in
Mueller Hall at the Herbarium, Melbourne, on
Monday 13 October 2003 at 7pm.
Items for inclusion on the Agenda should be
posted to the Secretary, Helen Page, c/- AGHS
Office, Gate Lodge, 100 Birdwood Avenue,
Melbourne, 3004 by 22 August 2003. Branches
should also nominate their representative for the
National Management Committee by this date
and forward the name to Helen Page.
There will be one vacancy on the National
Management Committee. Current Chairman,
Peter Watts, is standing down due to work
commitments. Nominations to the National
Management Committee open on 28 July and
close on 2 September 2003. To obtain a
nomination form contact Jackie Courmadias on
03 9650 5043 or Toll Free 1800 678 446.
Elections offer an opportunity for members to
participate in the management of the Society.
Each year the NMC holds three face-to-face, full-
day meetings, which are interspersed by three
meetings of one-hour duration via a telephone
link-up.
Elected members of the National Manage¬
ment Committee serve a 3-year term and are
eligible for re-election for a maximum of one
additional term of 3 years. An allowance, to assist
with travel cost for meetings in Sydney and
Melbourne, is available if required.
E-commerce for AGHS
One of the benefits of upgrading
www.gardenhistorysociety.org.au is that the
society has entered the world of e-commerce.
As this will be a secure site, members will be able
to subscribe or renew subscriptions, book for
the annual national conference and purchase
merchandising items on-line. Much more
information is being added to the site. Abstracts
of articles in past issues of the journal will be
gradually added to the publication pages.
Branch pages will have a similar format but will
allow for individual arrangement and inclusion
of material. The aim is to have a clear,
informative and interactive site.
Our valued packers
Sincere thanks to Di Ellerton.Janc Johnson,John
Joyce,Ann Miller, Sandi Pullman, Kaye and Mike
Stokes and Sandra and John Torpey for their help
in packing the last issue of the journal.
IARY
ATE S
July
16 Wednesday
Victoria, East Melbourne — Working
Bee at Bishopscourt Helen Page
(03) 9397 2260.
20 Sunday
New South Wales, Rouse Hill Estate —
Rose Pruning and Propagation
Workshop. An intensive three-hour
workshop to learn how to prune and
grow modern and species roses. Enjoy
a Devonshire tea with rose-hip jam
and take home potted rose cuttings.
Bring secateurs, a hat and sensible
shoes. Cost: General $20,
Concessions/Members $15.
Bookings: (02) 9518 6866.
26 Saturday & 27 Sunday
Victoria, Castiemaine - Working Bees
—Tute’s Cottage (Saturday-
Vicroads 287 70) and Buda (Sunday
—Vicroads 287 4Q). Helen Page
(03) 9397 2260.
27 Sunday
Western Australia, Gosnells — AGM
Day — a visit to a pioneer cemetery at
Kenwick, lunch and AGM at Gosnells
Hotel followed by a visit to the
Wilkinson Homestead (formerly
the Orange Tree Farm Museum) in
Gosnells.
August
5 Tuesday
Sydney & Northern NS W— AGM -
7pm. Light refreshments will be
available from 6pm, followed by a
short meeting and election of office
bearers at 7pm, and then an illustrated
talk. Venue: History House, 133
Macquarie Street, Sydney. No charge
but please confirm you are attending
with Malcolm Wilson on
(02) 9810 7803.
7 Thursday
Victoria, Melbourne - AGM Victorian
Branch at 7.15pm followed by a
Lecture ‘The Getty Garden: the
Garden, the Art Museum and the Death
of Art’ given by Associate Professor
26 Australian Garden History Vol. 15 No 1 July/August 2003
David Marshall of the Art History
Program of the School of Fine Arts,
Classical Studies and Archaeology,
University' of Melbourne. Venue:
Mueller Hall, Birdwood Avenue
South Yarn. Time: 8pm. Cost: $12
($16 non-members). Helen Page (03)
9397 2260.
9 Saturday
Tasmania, Launceston - 10.30am AGM
and Guest Speaker GregLeong an
international and local artist who will
present an interesting insight on the
‘Chinese Connection’. Venue:
QueenVictoria Museum,Wellington
Street, Launceston. Lunch will be
followed by a visit to the corner of
Charles and Canning Streets where
stone from the Great Wall of China is
incorporated into a seat and the
footpath. Acceptances to Deidre
Pearson (03) 6225 3084 and
Monica Harris (03) 6331 3679.
Sydney, Vaucluse House — Up the
Garden Path —‘In the Fountain
Garden with Dave’. From 9-11 am
join Dave Gray and the Vaucluse
House gardening team to dig up,
design and replant a section of the
circular flower bed around the
fountain. Get some valuable tips
while helping and enjoy a
ploughman’s lunch afterwards.Cost:
General $20, Concession/Members
$15. Bookings (02) 9518 6866.
10 Sunday
Southern Highlands, Exeter - AGM
and Speaker. Dr James Broadbcnt
Will speak on ‘The “How and
Why” of conserving and/or
restoring an Historic Garden’.
Time: Registration 10.30am
followed by Lecture,AGM, Lunch and
a Garden Visit. Venue: Exeter
Community Hall. Further details
from Ros Craig (02) 4862 2535 or
Kate Madden (02) 4861 6845
10 Sunday
Sydney & Northern NS W, Harris Park
(near Parramatta) Heritage Garden
Tool Show. 10am-4pm at
Experiment Farm Cottage. An
exhibition of old tools, talks on their
history and design, and maintenance
workshops. Also house and garden
tours, water divining and stalls selling
quality tools, plants, books and food.
Entry $10 ($5 for members and
children). Held in association with the
National Trust (NSW). For
information contact Silas Clefford-
Smith (02) 9569 3417 or Malcolm
Wilson (02) 9810 7803.
20 Wednesday
Victoria, East Melbourne — Working
Bee at Bishopscourt. Helen Page
(03) 9397 2260.
24 Sunday
Friends of the Royal Botanic Gardens
Cranbourne - Winter Lecture Day at
the Frankston Fire Station (Melways
102 D3). Dr Rachel Webster,
astrophysicist, will speak about Global
Warming and Climate Change: the
local impact, and Doug Evans, author
of Indigenous Plants of the Sandbelt
will speak on the use of indigenous
plants for domestic gardens. Cost
(includes lunch) Members $18 Others
$25. For bookings, phone 5990 2200.
30-31 Saturday & Sunday
Victoria, Birregurra — Working Bees at
Mooleric (Saturday -Vicroads 92 6E)
and Turkeith (Sunday-Vicroads
92 6E). Helen Page (03) 9397 2260.
September
13 Saturday to 21 Sunday week
Throughout New South Wales - History
Week 2003:‘Minding the Past’ will
explore the complex processes of
remembering and forgetting, the fine
balance of conserving, managing and
accessing history, and the necessity' of
engaging with the past for our future.
Further information from Roslyn
Burge on (02) 9385 1070 or on the
web-site:
www.historycouncilnsw.org.au.
17 Wednesday
Victoria, East Melbourne - Working
Bee at Bishopscourt. Helen Page
(03) 9397 2260.
Victoria, Melbourne — Edna Walling
Forum - See AGHS web-site and
Letter toVictorian Members. Helen
Page (03) 9397 2260.
27 Saturday
Victoria, Bulla — Working Bee at
Glenara (Melways 177 C9). Helen
Page (03) 9397 2260.
Advance Notice
October
5 Sunday
Victoria, Colac & Birregurra — Mooleric
and Turkeith - a visit to these two
great Guilfoyle gardens.Travel by car,
meeting at the Colac Botanic Gardens
at 9.00am. Further details Helen Page
(03) 9397 2260.
13 Monday
Victoria, Melbourne National AGM
7.00pm, followed by a Lecture ‘ Walter
and Marion Burley Griffin and their
Melbourne Influences' given by
Christopher Vernon from the
Faculty of Landscape andVisual Arts,
University ofWestern Australia.
Venue: Mueller Hall, South Yarn.
Time: 8pm. Cost $12 ($16 non¬
members). Details: Helen Page (03)
9397 2260.
Australian Garden History Vot. 15 No 1 July /August 2003 27
I n the past 76 years,’Mawarra’ has only
changed owemship twice.
Described by Edna Walling as a ‘symphony of
steps and trees’, the majority of the gardens at
‘Mawarra’ remain as they were when Edna
designed them in 1927.
‘Mawarra’ has never been open to the general
public. Privacy and seclusion have been the
priorities of the previous owners. But now, for
those who understand the essence of an old
garden and the magical qualities that lie within,
‘Mawarra’s’ new owner, Mr. Jess Exiner has
opened a ‘Garden Stay’.
He and his partner, Jonathan Seares, offer an unforgettable ‘Garden Experience’ where their guests are
invited to indulge in some of the pleasures that living on a property like ‘Mawarra’ can provide.
© Explore inner tranquillity around the reflection pond with a cognac or a cup of camomile tea.
© Spend time reading many of the 1st edition books by Edna Walling whilst reclining on one of the
‘daybeds’ in the Manor House library.
© Take gentle exercise in ‘Mawarra’s’ indoor heated swimming pool.
As one would expect, only two parties of guests are accommodated on ‘Mawarra’ at any one time
in either
‘Wendy’s Cottage’
Designed as a child’s playhouse in the
early 1930s, ‘Wendy’s Cottage’ was
styled on ‘The Little House’ at Royal
Lodge for the Princesses Elizabeth and
Margaret. It is now a fully self-contained
cottage for only two adults.
or
‘The Lodge’
A1917 Arts & Crafts style home on
3 acres of parkland which has become
an extension of the land held by
‘Mawarra’.
For bookings and further information on ‘Mawarra’ and our ‘Garden Stay’ please contact Jess Exiner or Jonathan Seares.
Telephone ( 03 ) 9755 - 2456 Fax ( 03 ) 9755-1969
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