Spreading the Word
Garden Writing in the Sub-Tropics
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1017/qre.2012.9Keywords:
Horticulture, botany and garden design literature, designed landscapes, 1859 to 1915Abstract
This article examines local publications regarding horticulture, botany and garden design from the first 50 years of Queensland history. The primary aim was to critically review the documentary data with a focus on understanding designed landscapes. A secondary objective was to reveal the major historical figures responsible for writing about design and horticulture in general between 1859 and 1915. This article represents a summary of these sources and their authors, rather than a detailed discussion about the contents of these writings. Apart from newspapers, which devoted columns to horticultural and on occasion aesthetic matters, there were various other types of relevant publications on designed landscapes in early Queensland, including books, almanacs, nursery catalogues, gardening guides, essays, annual reports, journals and bulletins. The following review is arranged chronologically by publication date, and divided across two major eras: 1850s–1870s and 1880s–1910s. The biographical information provided with each author emphasises their design experiences and influence as part of the evaluation of the significance of these sources for the research.
References
The contents of early garden literature in Queensland are discussed in depth, along with several hypotheses about design outcomes and processes, in my doctoral thesis, which is available in full from the QUT ePrints collection: Jean C.R. Sim, ‘Designed Landscapes in Queensland, 1859–1939: Experimentation - Adaptation – Innovation’, PhD thesis, QUT, 1999.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moreton_Bay_Courier. Accessed 30 July 2011. The Brisbane Courier was merged with the Daily Mail to become the Courier-Mail in 1933, and this paper remains in publication.
Harrison, Jennifer, Guide to the Microform Collection of the State Library of Queensland (Brisbane: Library Board of Queensland, 1990). There are 207 entries on newspapers listed here alone that predate 1939.
Judith McKay, ‘“A Good Show”: Colonial Queensland at International Exhibitions’, PhD thesis, University of Queensland, 1996, 40, n. 111.
‘William Boyd, Alexander Jenyns’, in Australian Dictionary of Biography (hereinafter cited as ADB), edited by Pike, Douglas, Nairn, Bede, Serle, Geoffrey and Ritchie, John, vol. 7 (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1996–), 374–5.
Chloris, Spinifex and Panicum are all kinds of grasses; Hortulanus is Latin for gardener; Coolibah is a variant spelling for the common name of Eucalyptus microtheca.
Walter Hill, ‘Notes on Forest Conservancy I’, The Queenslander, 29 November 1879: 692–3; ‘Notes on Forest Conservancy II’, The Queenslander, 6 December 1879: 724–5; ‘Notes on Forest Conservancy III’, The Queenslander, 13 December 1879: 756; ‘Notes on Forest Conservancy IV’, The Queenslander, 27 December 1879: 821.
‘William Soutter’, in A Biographical Register 1788–1939: Notes from the Name Index of the Australian Dictionary of Biography, eds H.J. Gibbney, and Ann G. Smith, vol. 2 (Canberra: Australian Dictionary of Biography, 1987), p. 272; ‘Obituary’, Brisbane Courier, 20 April 1925: 4; ‘Death of Mr. W. Soutter’, The Queenslander, 25 April, 1925: 9.
Refer to short biography of Lucas in Hornibrook, J.H., Bibliography of Queensland Verse with Biographical Notes (Brisbane: Library Board of Queensland for the Oxley Memorial Library, 1953).
‘Theophilus Parsons Pugh’: ADB, vol. 5, 458–9.
Pugh's Almanac (PA), 1865, 169–72.
PA, 1884, p. 33. The ‘Gardening and Farming Calendar’ is described as ‘Compiled by WALTER HILL, ESQ., late Colonial Botanist and Director of the Botanic Gardens, Brisbane; with Notes and additions by Mr. JAMES PINK, Head Gardener of the Brisbane Botanic Gardens, and J.G. CRIBB, ESQ.’
These same headings are used from PA, 1867, pp. 28–42 to 1882, 33–52, and recur in many other local publications thereafter until well into the twentieth century. However, in the 1865 edition (26–34), the three headings were ‘Fruit and Kitchen Garden’, ‘Flower Garden and Shrubberies’ and ‘Field’. The term ‘bush house’ was not mentioned in any of these editions (1865–82).
PA, 1865, 169–72; these were attributed to ‘AJH’, who is assumed to be Hockings.
Walter Hill, ‘Obituary’, The Queenslander, 9 July 1904: 25–6; also refer to Hill, Walter, in A Biographical Register 1788–1939, eds Gibbney, H.J. and Smith, A.G., vol. 1 (Canberra: Australian Dictionary of Biography), 331.
Bailey, J.F., ‘Introduction of Economic Plants into Queensland’, Presidential Address read before the Royal Society at Queensland, 26 February 1910, Proceeding Royal Society of Queensland, vol. XXII: 77–8.
Walter Hill, Catalogue of Plants in the Queensland Botanic Gardens, 1875; Hill, Walter, Botanic Gardens, Brisbane: Collection of Economic and other Plants . . . (Brisbane: James C. Beal, Government Printer, 1880). In 1862 he wrote Catalogue of Specimens of Woods Indigenous to Queensland for the London International Exhibition and in 1880 wrote Collection of Queensland Timbers, Botanic Gardens Brisbane.
Hill, ‘Notes on Forest Conservancy I’: 692–63; Hill, ‘Notes on Forest Conservancy II’: 724–5; Hill, ‘Notes on Forest Conservancy III’: 756; Hill, ‘Notes on Forest Conservancy IV’: 821.
Sim, Jeannie and Seto, Jan, Inventory of Historic Cultural Landscapes in Queensland, Final Report for Stage 1 (Brisbane: AGHS, Queensland Branch, 1996), 27: an advertisement in PA 1866 locates the nursery at Montague Road, South Brisbane and the seed warehouse at Queen Street, North Brisbane. Advertisements for Hockings were still running in the 1897 issues of The Queenslander, with addresses at Albert St and Eagle Junction, Brisbane. In The Queenslander, 3 March 1888: 351, Hockings's establishment is reported as ‘the oldest nursery in the colony’. However, the Queensland Post Office Directory (1863) states that Edward Hay's nursery at South Brisbane was established in 1854. Hockings's business began as a general store in 1848, which he took over from Petersen who began trading in 1842. See Advertisements, Moreton Bay Courier 2 (103), 3 June 1848: 3, c. 5; and 3(113), 12 August 1848: 1, c. 4.
Hockings, Albert John, Queensland Garden Manual (Brisbane: A. Cleghorn, 1888). Advertisements for these works appeared in both PA and The Queenslander. Copies of the 1875 and 1888 publications only were found in the John Oxley Library, within the State Library of Queensland.
Hockings, Albert John, The Flower Garden in Queensland. Containing Concise and Practical Instructions on the Cultivation of the Flower Garden, and the Management of Pot Plants, in Australia (Brisbane: Geo. Slater & Co., 1875), Preface.
Biographical information on Angus Mackay can be found in Aitken, Richard and Looker, Michael (eds), Oxford Companion to Australian Gardens (Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 2002), p. 388.
Later editions of this last work in 1890 and 1895–96 were titled The Australian Agriculturist.
Mackay, Angus, The Semi-Tropical Agriculturist and Colonists’ Guide: Plain Words upon Station, Farm, and Garden Work, House Keeping, and the Useful Pursuits of Colonists. With Directions for Treating Wounds, Fevers, Snake Bite, etc., etc. (Brisbane: Geo. Slater & Co., 1875), Preface.
Advertisement for forthcoming publication by Angus Mackay in The Queenslander, 5 September 1874: 1. Note the use of the term ‘semi-tropical’, which has been superseded by ‘sub-tropical’ today.
Mackay, The Semi-Tropical Agriculturist and Colonists’ Guide, Preface.
He mentions the surnames of these authors (the contemporary equivalent of scholarly referencing): ‘Lindley, Loudon, Stephens, Johnston, Burn, Morton, Youatt, Gamgee, Mechi’.
For example, these fruits are discussed in order of listing: apple, pear, quince, plum, peach, nectarine, almond, apricot, cherry, mulberries, blackberries, raspberries, grape, banana, fig, guava, custard apple, date plum (‘Diospyrus Kaki,’ etc.), Litchi ‘or Leechee’, Loquat, The Orange Tribe (mandarins, bitter orange), mango, jack fruit, ‘pine apple,’ Brazilian cherry, Cape gooseberry, and passionfruit.
Mackay, The Semi-Tropical Agriculturist and Colonists’ Guide, 177.
Sim, Jeannie, ‘Profile: Lewis Adolphus Bernays – Botanist, Writer and Public Servant’, Australian Garden History, 8 (2) (1996): 20.
Lewis, ‘Adolphus Bernays’, ADB, vol. 3, 149.
PA, 1890, c. 106.
Cited as sixteen years in PA, 1885, 385, and in the present tense.
Queensland 1900 (Brisbane: Alcazar 1900), p. 44.
Bernays, Lewis Adolphus, Cultural Industries for Queensland: Papers on the Cultivation of Useful Plants Suited to the Climate of Queensland; Their Value as Food, in the Arts, and in Medicine; and Methods of Obtaining their Products (Brisbane: Government Printer, 1883).
Lewis Adolphus Bernays, ed., ‘The First Annual Report of the Queensland Acclimatisation Society with Rules and Objects of the Society, and Lists of its Officers & Members’, 1863; Bound compilation of various annual reports (1863 to at least 1876) all published by Government Printer, Brisbane.
There is no reference to Theodore Wright in either the ADB or Gibbney and Smith, A Biographical Register 1788–1939.
Wright, T., The Queensland Horticulturist and Gardener's Guide, 1886 (Brisbane: James C. Beal, Government Printer, 1886); also Fletcher, P., Hints to New-Comers (Brisbane: James C. Beal, Government Printer,) ‘Preface’, signed Theodore Wright, 18 January 1886. No copy of the first edition of Fruit Cultivation in Queensland has been found to date.
Wright, The Queensland Horticulturist and Gardener's Guide, 1886; Fletcher, Hints to New-Comers, 42.
Fletcher, Price (ed.), Colonial and Indian Exhibition, 1886. Queensland: Its Resources and Institutions, Essays (London: William Clowes & Sons, 1886).
Gibbney & Smith ‘Philip McMahon’, ADB (1987), vol. 2, p. 66. Note difference in spelling of MacMahon.
‘FD’ [author], ‘Brisbane's Beautanic Gardener’ under the ‘Sketcher’, The Queenslander, 6 June 1896: 1077; Queensland, 1900: A Narrative of Her Past, Together with Biographies of her Leading Men Brisbane: Alcazar Press, 1900), 110–11.
‘W.’ [Author], ‘Philip MacMahon [Kewite obituary]’, J. Kew Guild, XIX, 1912: 49. ‘Kewite’ is the term for those trained at the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew who formed a society (Guild) with members all over the globe.
Queensland, 1900, 111.
Queensland, 1900, 111.
‘F.D.’ [author], ‘Brisbane's Beautanic Gardener’ under the ‘Sketcher’, Queenslander, 6 June 1896, 1077.
Queensland, 1900, 111.
Queensland, 1900, 111.
MacMahon, Philip, Alphabetical List of Orchids in the Government Botanic Gardens, Brisbane, Queensland, 1901 (Brisbane: Government Printer, 1901); MacMahon, Philip, The Merchantable Timbers of Queensland, Australia: With Special Reference to their Uses for Railway Sleepers, Railway Carriage and Wagon Building, and Engineering Works (Brisbane: George Arthur Vaughan, Government Printer, 1905).
Correspondence from Kewite ‘Mr. MacMahon, Philip (1882), Curator of the Botanic Gardens, Brisbane, writes . . .’ dated 28 February 1896, in J. Kew Guild, 4 (1896): 16.
The Queensland Horticulturist and Fruit-Growers’ Journal, I(8) (8 August 1892): 9.
FD, ‘Brisbane's Beautanic Gardener’: 1077.
‘W.’, ‘Philip MacMahon [Kewite obituary]’: 49.
William Soutter, in Gibbney and Smith, A Biographical Register, vol. 2, p. 272; Obituary in Brisbane Courier, 20 April 1925: 4; William Soutter is briefly mentioned in his son's entry: ‘Richard Ernest Soutter’, ADB, vol. 12, pp. 22–3.
The Exhibition Building, now called the Old Museum Building, remains at the corner of Gregory Terrace and Bowen Bridge Road.
John Oxley Library (hereafter JOL) holds issues of the Queensland Horticulturalist from the first issue (January 1892) to December 1895, in both original hard copy and microfilm. There may be more as yet not uncovered.
Bick, E.W., ‘Landscape Gardening’, The Queensland Horticulturist and Fruit-Growers’ Journal, IV (12) (7 December 1895): 3–4.
Editor's reply to Letter to Editor signed ‘Hortus’ [possibly Boyd, A.J.], The Queensland Horticulturist and Fruit-Growers’ Journal, I (3) (7 March 1892): 12.
Soutter, William, ‘Editor's Notes’, The Queensland Horticulturist, II (11) (7 November 1893): 8.
For example, William Soutter, ‘Shrubs’, under ‘Horticulture’, The Queenslander, 18 December 1897: 1181.
Identified in his obituary ‘Death of Mr. W Soutter’, The Queenslander, 25 April 1925: 9.
Even while writing officially for The Queenslander, Soutter wrote to the editor on matters of importance, such as his observations that insufficient numbers of seeds were being grown ready for the increase in agriculture after World War I; Letter to Editor signed ‘Coolibar from Sunnybank’, The Queenslander, 1 June 1918: 32.
Skerman, P.J., Fisher, A.E., and Lloyd, P.L., Guiding Queensland Agriculture: 1887–1987 (Brisbane: Queensland Department of Primary Industries, 1988), p. 5. This book has no direct referencing to primary sources, nor does it carry either a reference list or bibliography.
Skerman, Fisher, and Lloyd, Guiding Queensland Agriculture, p. 103.
‘Annual Report’ found in Queensland Votes and Proceedings, 1892, vol. IV, 595–690 without Bulletins attached; also published separately with Bulletins No. 10 to No. 18 attached as Appendixes.
Only two papers of interest were found; Maunsell, Mrs, ‘Fruit and Fruit Growing, a Report from the Agricultural Conference at Bundaberg’, Queensland Department of Agriculture, Bulletin, 10 (1891): 100–4; and Young, Miss E.M., ‘Flowers, a Report from the Agricultural Conference at Bundaberg’, Queensland Department of Agriculture, Bulletin, 10 (1891): 97–100.
Shelton, E.M., ‘Tree Planting for Shade and Ornament: Suggestions for Teachers and Others Interested in the Planting of Trees’, Queensland Department of Agriculture, Bulletin, 17 (1892): 1–18.
‘William Alexander Jenyns Boyd’, ADB, vol. 7, 374–5. He is also described as ‘FRGSQ’ (Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society of Australasia, Queensland Branch) on the first issue of the Queensland Agricultural Journal (hereafter QAJ)
Skerman, Fisher and Lloyd, Guiding Queensland Agriculture, 104–5, 184–5.
QAJ, 1(1) (July 1897): 87.
QAJ, 1(1) (July 1897): 191–3.
QAJ, 2 (March 1898): 247.
Ebenezer Cowley, in Gibbney and Smith, A Biographical Register 1788–1939, vol. 1, 147.
QAJ, 3 (October 1898): 333.
QAJ, 3 (December 1898): 485.
MacMahon, Philip, ‘Our Botanic Gardens’ (No. 1) QAJ, 1 (November 1897): 364. Comparative circulation rates for the present-day Courier-Mail are: Monday to Friday (215,500 papers); Saturday (335,000) and the Sunday Mail (579,995): Audit Bureau of Circulation, June 1997.
Skerman, Fisher and Lloyd, Guiding Queensland Agriculture, 105. This same source also cites a series of articles by Boyd called ‘First Steps in Agriculture’, republished as Elementary Lessons in Agriculture for the Use of Schools, of which a copy of the second edition (1910) resides at JOL.
This group was cited by J. Keith Jarrott, lobbying for government protection of the Lamington Plateau (now part of a World Heritage Area) in 1896; Jarrott, J. Keith, History of Lamington National Park (Brisbane: Jarrott and National Parks Association of Queensland, 1990), 3.
‘Frederick Manson Bailey’, ADB, vol. 3, 734.
The Queensland Flora (1899–1902); General Index (1905); Comprehensive Catalogue of Queensland Plants (1912).
Frederick Manson Bailey (1886), ‘The Flora of Queensland’, in Fletcher, Colonial and Indian Exhibition, 1886, 2–14.
Bailey, F.M., ‘Presidential Address: Concise History of Australian Botany’, Proceedings of the Royal Society of Queensland 7 (1891): xvi–lvii.
Bailey, F.M. and Tenison-Woods, Rev. J.E., ‘A Census of the Flora of Brisbane’, Proceedings of the Linnean Society of NSW IV (1879): 137–204; and Frederick Manson Bailey, Catalogue of Plants in the Two Metropolitan Gardens, The Brisbane Botanic Garden and Bowen Park (the Garden of the Queensland Acclimatisation Society); Arranged According to Bentham and Hooker's ‘Genera Plantarum’, Interspersed with Numerous Notes on the Uses and Properties of the Plants (Brisbane: James C. Beal, Government Printer, 1885).
‘John Frederick Bailey’, ADB, vol. 7, 137–8.
Bailey, ‘Introduction of Economic Plants into Queensland’, 77–102.
Everist, Selwyn L., ‘History of the Queensland Herbarium and Botanical Library, 1855 to 1976’, Austrobaileya 1 (5) (1982): 429–45.
J.C.R. Sim, Brisbane City Botanic Gardens Conservation Study: Final Report, unpublished report for the Landscape Architecture Section, Brisbane City Council (1995), 5D/49. Cyril Tenison White (1890–1950) was a grandson of Bailey Snr and succeeded his uncle, J.F. Bailey, to become the fourth Government Botanist from 1917 until his death.
Edward Mason Shelton, in Gibbney and Smith, A Biographical Register, vol. 2, 254.
Craig-Smith, Stephen J., Pearson, Craig J. and Middleton, Juliet C., Gatton College: 100 Years of Science with Practice (Gatton: University of Queensland, 1996), 205.
Lists supplied by: F.M. Bailey (four areas: Coast, extra-tropical; Inland, extra-tropical; Coast, tropical; Inland, tropical); P. MacMahon (BBG for Southern Qld); E. Cowley (near Cairns, for Northern Queensland); JS Edgar (Rockhampton for Central Queensland); W. Soutter (three areas: coast lands of Southern Queensland; inlands of Southern Queensland; and, Northern Queensland); and, B. Crow (Moreton and Coast Districts, and Darling Downs).
Shelton, ‘Tree Planting for Shade and Ornament’: 5.
Shelton, ‘Tree-Planting for Shade and Ornament’: 5.
Shelton, ‘Tree-Planting for Shade and Ornament’: 9. Lopping off gum tree tops is very dangerous: the resultant epicormal growth has a tendency to break off and cause damage when it falls. Cutting some gums back to their lignotuber can force a pleasant ‘mallee’ habit of multiple stems, but that does not seem to be the idea Shelton recommends. Most Acacia usually live for between five and ten years, and require only tip pruning to make them bushy.
Shelton, ‘Tree-Planting for Shade and Ornament’: 10.
Rawson, Mrs Lance, Australian Enquiry Book of Household and General Information: A Practical Guide for the Cottage, Villa, and Bush Home, facsimile ed. (Sydney: Kangaroo Press, 1984 [orig. Pater & Knapton, 1894]).
Addison, Susan and McKay, Judith, A Good Plain Cook: An Edible History of Queensland (Brisbane: Queensland Museum Publications, 1984), 2–3. Further biographical information on Rawson is provided in this publication.
‘Matthew Rigby’, in Aitken and Looker, Oxford Companion to Australian Gardens, 508.
‘Lawrence Summerlin’, in Aitken and Looker, Oxford Companion to Australian Gardens, 580.
Summerlin, L., Summerlin's Seed Catalogue and Amateurs’ Guide for 1891 (Brisbane: Muir and Morcom, 1890).
These were from: James Potter (Head Gardener to the Hon. J.S. Turner, MLC); John Smullans (Head Gardener, Government House Gardens); Alex Cowan (Head Gardener, Brisbane Botanic Gardens); Wm Soutter (Secretary and Manager, Acclimatisation Society of Queensland); R.R. Harding (Curator, Botanical Gardens Toowoomba); John Lowe (Head Gardener to the Hon. James Taylor, MLC); and, William McDowall of Seventeen Mile Rocks (who won several local vegetable shows using Summerlin's seeds). See Summerlin, Summerlin's Seed Catalogue, 10, 13, 15, 27, 30 and 31.
The Queenslander, 12 May 1888: 751.
Deans, William C., The Australian Flower Garden: A Simple Guide to the Cultivation of Flowers in Australia (Brisbane: Author, 1928), 72.
Summerlin, Summerlin's Seed Catalogue, 61, 62.
Treloar, Henry, Cottage Gardening in Queensland, 5th ed. (Brisbane: George H. Barker, 1920), at back, no pagination.
Samuel Hinder Eaves, in Gibbney and Smith, A Biographical Register, vol. 2, p. 201.
Obituary for S.H. Eaves in The Queenslander, 5 January 1928: 16.
Eaves, S.H., General Catalogue (Brisbane: E.A. Howard, Printer, 1897), 3. The words in capital letters in this advertisement were of Eaves's devising.
‘William Alexander Jenyns Boyd’, ADB, vol. 7, 374–5.
Boyd, A.J., Market Gardening in Queensland, 2nd ed. (Brisbane: Department of Agriculture and Stock, Government Printer, 1910), p. 39. Only this second edition is held in the JOL. Also see Boyd, A.J., Elementary Lessons in Agriculture for the Use of Schools, 2nd ed. (Brisbane: Government Printer, 1910).
Albert Henry Benson, in Gibbney and Smith, A Biographical Register, vol. 1, 52.
Benson, Albert H., Fruits of Queensland (Brisbane: Anthony J. Cumming, Government Printer, 1914).
See http://www.stgmagazine.com.au. Accessed 20 March 2012.
