FRIENDS OF WARRNAMBOOL
BOTANIC GARDENS
A0032902E
Issue No. 47 Autumn 2008
NEWSLETTER
REPORT FROM THE PRESIDENT
The year has commenced with the Friends continuing to support the Warrnambool Botanic Gardens. On December 12th, 2007, the Hon. Justin Madden, Minister for Planning and Community Development, visited the Warrnambool Botanic Gardens to present our Heritage Victoria grant of $29,000 for reconstruction of the fernery.
The gardens continue to give enjoyment to the community. It was pleasing to see many people attend the 2008 Australia Day Celebrations in idyllic surrounds.
Many people also enjoyed the Jazz in the Gardens for the annual Wunta festivities.
During this time of beautiful late summer and early autumnal weather it is great to see so many families and friends using and appreciating the gardens on a casual occasion also.
The Friends are continuing to work with the very efficient staff so ably led by our curator, John Sheely. On Wednesday, February 6th, several friends, under the guidance of John Sheely, pruned and weeded the garden beds near the front entrance. Friends are invited to attend any of the working bee days.
On Thursday7th February John Sheely organised for the Geelong Garden staff and friends to visit our gardens. Staff from Warrnambool, Moyne, Geelong and Hamilton attended and all had a very fruitful day. Pat took the guests on a very informative tour of the gardens. Garden’s staff assisted by the Friends, provided a sumptuous repast for the guests.
Anne Lynch
CURATORS REPORT
The team has been kept busy with a relatively dry summer.
Summer annuals, which provided a great display, are being progressively removed with bed preparations to follow for the winter annuals.
John Hawker from Heritage Victoria visited the gardens during December and donated the following plant material:
· Photinia davidiana
· Acanthus pubescens
· Tipuana tipu
· Ficus virens
· Rapanea variabilis
· Ficus opposita
These plants will be planted within the gardens during autumn.
The extension of the bore line has been completed with a marked improvement in pressure distribution. This extension is a great asset to our new and existing plantings.
Speaking of which, recent significant tree plantings within the gardens include:
· x2 Agathis robusta (Qld Kauri)
· x1 Araucaria bidwillii (Bunya Bunya) (donated by GBG)
The team and FOWBG recently hosted staff from the following Botanic Gardens: Horsham, Colac, Hamilton, Koroit and Geelong. The aim of the day was to network with other Botanic Gardens in the South West and to lift the profile of WBG.
A big thankyou to Ros and Mark for all their work leading up to and during the day. Mark showed his skills and prowess on the BBQ and Ros worked diligently with the FOWBG behind the scenes. Another BIG thankyou to Anne, Pat and Mandy for their catering services. A high standard has been set for future lunches!
Positive feedback was received from the other teams about the gardens, lunch and the future of networking within the South West.
Our next activity in the gardens is on March 5th at 10:30 am. Looking forward to seeing you there.
Cheers,
John, Ros and Mark
FILM NIGHT
Friday 29 February
6pm – 8pm
Warrnambool Art Gallery
You will by now have received notice of the evening showing of historic films taken by Alex Wilkins in the 1940s. Seats are limited, so if you have not already bought your ticket ($5 for Friends) contact the Gallery on 5559 49494 to make a booking. This function is a joint promotion by the Friends of the Art Gallery and the Friends of the Botanic Gardens. The FOWBG are providing light refreshments at the conclusion of the films and WE NEED YOUR HELP. If you are able to contribute some finger food/nibbles please let Mandy know (55 62 0343) It would be very much appreciated.
********************
EVEN THE BIG GARDENS HAVE THEIR PROBLEMS.
At the last Association of Friends meeting, Warwick Wright representing the Friends of National Botanic Gardens Canberra, brought to our attention the troubles of their garden. He handed out cards to be signed and sent to The Hon Peter Garrett Minister for the Environment. The cards express in part …. Sadly, in recent years it has been starved of government funds. Staff numbers are now too low to properly maintain the Gardens. There is a real risk that this unique living collection will be allowed to further decline.
********************
RARE BUTTERFLY FLOATS BACK FROM EXTINCTION’S CLUTCHES
Such was the dramatic headline in The Age of January 23, 2008
The Eltham copper butterfly, a rare species thought to exist only in Victoria had been sighted near Bendigo. The sweet bursaria of which we have a remnant plant in the WBG is host to this rare butterfly. Maybe when next it flowers we will discover this coppery gold visitor is still around.
And speaking of visitors the bats seem to have deserted us.
CURATORS COTTAGE
The Friends of Warrnambool Botanic Gardens have had the goal of returning the Curators Cottage to the bounds of the gardens since the 'Master Plan' was finalised in 1995.
Now that the Council has employed a Curator it would be good that the Friends and the Curator had somewhere to meet. The Friends have a large record resource library in filing cabinets and on computer which need to be available to all those involved in the gardens, not in a private home as they are now. The Friends have a full database of planting in the gardens, collected history of trees, curators and everything relating to the gardens. This should be available to the public.
The Friends wrote to the WCC, in part - The Friends of the Warrnambool Botanic Gardens would be grateful if the Council would give consideration to granting permission for the cottage to be used for Gardens' purposes, in line with Botanic Gardens in other cities eg. Geelong, Hamilton, Colac. The removal of the fence and the restoration of the well, would enable the Cottage to once again be an integral part of the Gardens.
The WCC reply in part concluded;
In the short term there is no need to change the current operational arrangements.
Long term it would be desirable to have the Curator's cottage revert from rental accommodation to an integrated part of the gardens serving as an office for the curator and as a base for the friends.
DISCUSSION PAPER CONCLUSION
1. That Council advise the Friends of the Warrnambool Botanic Gardens that at this stage the Council does not intent to change the current use of the Curator’s Cottage.
2. Council will re-consider their request to co-locate in the Cottage with Council’s Curator in the event that the current tenant moves out.
While they would like a firmer timeline, say, three years The Friends will continue to work towards the long term goal which is consistent with the 1995 'Master Plans' recommendations as follows.
· Conserve components of the cottage/depot precinct which either remind us of past activities or provide clues to earlier layout, i.e. structures, boundaries, access points, pathways, plantings.
· Conserve the original landform.
· Re-establish the strong visual and physical connection between the cottage front garden and the public garden area, all in accordance with Scoborio period layout and features.
· Conserve the cottage facade (east wall).
· Conserve the well shed, remnant picket fence, toilets and mower shed (as noted in 6.1 above).
· Conserve the propagating house and the stone shed.
· Co-ordinate these conservation works with the proposed adaptation of the precinct for compatible new uses.
GARDENS OF MEMORY PROJECT
Do you have memories of a garden that has been a special place for you? Garden history is not confined to large, grand or famous gardens. It includes the history of front gardens and back yards of suburbs, towns and farms all over the country.
The Gardens of Memory Project is a response to the changing way we use gardens.
We would like to find out what your garden, or a garden that was important to you, was like when you were growing up. In this way we will be able to capture a snapshot of gardens and how they were used and planted during much of the twentieth century.
This project by The Australian Garden History Society caught my imagination and prompted me to take a nostalgic journey back in time. It would be wonderful if through the FOWBG we could collect some memories of the gardens our members knew. Please take a little time to record your memories. It might be just a few sentences, or a story that is dear to you. It will help define what gardens have meant to us all.
Send them to Mandy so we can include them in a future newsletter.
Garden memories
My parents built their dream home on a bare quarter acre block of gravel and clay in the 1930s. Dad cemented a path that curved from the front veranda to the wrought iron gate on the corner of the chain wire fence. Then he planted the front yard with potatoes as preparation for sowing a lawn. A golden privet hedge was planted on each side in line with the front of the house, to close off the front garden. As they grew, the lawn was cut with a hand mower and the hedge trimmed manually with hedge cutters.
On hot summer days we kids ran under the sprinklers on the lawn to cool off. At night we would lie out on a tarpaulin Dad had thrown on the lawn and look at the stars, while Mum recited poems. Years later when both the privet hedge and we kids were older, my sister recalls Dad jumping out of the privet hedge brandishing a .22 rifle as she puckered up for a kiss on her first date. More in pantomime than anger?
The land at the back of the house was divided in two, separated by what we called a rockery. It was a two level cement walled terrace which was planted with catmint and flowering annuals such as sweet peas and asters Between here and the back door a large concrete area was broken up by two rectangular garden plots. Each year one bed was planted with phlox and the other with petunias. Gladioli also grew here. This yard was perfect for riding our trikes and scooters as we did laps around and around the flower gardens. They in turn provided a challenge to jump over and not into, while dodging the props of the clothesline.
By the fence along the side lane, my mother’s efforts to grow a boobialla hedge were frustrated by frosts and “Martin’s bloody cows”; a phrase that went down in family history, such words being uncommon from our Mum. The garage and the rear of the lavatory were also accessed from the lane. Eventually the garage was covered with Virginia creeper and akebia, and the lavatory screened by a fernery with tree ferns, fish bone fern, staghorns and hanging baskets of maiden hair. There was a Judas tree and some grevillias in this protected environment and violets by the path.
In the rear third of the block was the fowl yard, wood heap and rubbish pile. The area was boggy in winter and dry in summer. A couple of apple trees grew here and the pumpkins and spring vegetables that required more space than that provided at the side of the house. It was here among the cabbages that my sister’s pet rabbit met its nemesis after escaping from the coop.
Dad made us a ‘whirl around’ by pivoting a sapling to a post set in the ground and lubricated with lard and this was way down the back yard. The wood heap provided even more fun after the travelling saw bench cut the five-foot logs into one-foot blocks. We used these to build cubby houses with shaky walls and frightening roofs. Feeding the chooks, gathering the eggs, pulling milk thistles for the hens and finding snails for the ducks occupied much of our time. Our cats were out door animals and we watched them stalking their prey. There was always something exciting in the back yard. Sparrowhawks terrified the chooks, cats caught the mice and snakes confronted the cats. We raced for the long handled rake at the sight of a snake. The pet lamb ate the prize zinnias and subsequently died.
It was a real jungle out there.
Dad had built us a playhouse. It was separate room with its door and window facing the concrete back yard, but it had its own small lawn and cement path and its own garden where we grew a collection of small cactus. A good choice for an often neglected garden. On one side of the playhouse we had a swing which later became a trapeze, and on the other side, the woodshed where the onions and pumpkins were stored over winter. The onions were grown in a bed on the east of the house and when pulled were hung in bundles from the roof of the shed. Here we split the ‘morning wood’ and laid it and some soft stringy bark on a sugarbag ready to light the stove.