Stuart Read
Telephone: 9873 8554 bh. 9326 9468 ah.
stuart1962@bigpond.com ah, or
stuart.read@planning.nsw.gov.au bh
Chair:
Stuart Read
Vice-Chair:
Murray Hook
Secretary:
Helen Bryant
Treasurer:
Peter Cousens
Committee:
Prue Anthony
Jo Hambrett
Peter Kaleski
Angela Low
Gina Plate
Rosemary Potts
Jeanne Villani
Malcolm Wilson
Welcome to the Sydney and Northern New South Wales Branch page. With over 330 members we are the second largest branch, centred in and around Sydney with many members in the Blue Mountains, Central West and Northern regions of NSW. Since November 2005 we have a New England Sub-Branch which is actively organising events in the state's north - a very distinctive part of Australia with four clear seasons, rich soils and (usually) good rains - not bad ingredients for gardening... To contact them email the Chairman, Bill Oates, at: woates@une.edu.au.
AUGUST
Date: Wednesday 11th August 6 pm Talk 7 pm.
Event: Short AGM first. Followed by a talk by Geoffrey Britton - Snapshot of a career in landscapes - two lesser known landscape deisigners.
Venue: Auditorium, History House, 133 Macquarie Street, Sydney.
Cost: AGHS & RAHS Members $20 Guests $30 includes light refreshments. Joint event AGHS & RAHS. Bookings essential.
See page 7 of Branch Cuttings Issue 32 for more on this talk.
SEPTEMBER
Date: Sunday 12th September 5 pm - 7.30 pm.
Event: A lecture by highly regarded UK garden historian Dr Janet Waymark, There's no such thing as a 'Natural' garden...is there?'
Venue: Auditorium, History House, 133 Macquarie Street, Sydney. Joint event AGHS & RAHS.
Cost: AGHS & RAHS Members $20 Guests $30 includes light refreshments. Bookings essential.
See page 6 of Branch Cuttings Issue 32 for more on this talk.
SEPTEMBER
Date: Saturday/Sunday 25/26th September commencing 11 am Saturday 25th
This trip is now booked out but we are keeping a waiting list.
Event: A trip to Grenfell to visit 4 private gardens and Iandra Castle Pastoral Estate.
Venue: Meet at 11 am Taylor Park, adjacent to the museum, Grenfell.
Cost: Members $110 Guests $125 includes talks, all garden entries, 2 picnic lunches, Saturday afternoon tea, Saturday bus and notes.
See page 4 & 5 of Branch Cuttings Issue 32 for more on this weekend.
OCTOBER
Date: Sunday 17th October 2 pm - 4.30 pm
Event: Talk and walk with Joan Lawrence - Reminders of Thomas Shepherd’s nursery, Chippendale.
Meet at: To be advised when booking.
Cost: Members $15 Guests $25 includes light refreshments. Bookings essential.
NOVEMBER
Date: Tuesday 16th November 6.30 for 7 pm.
Event: Illustrated talk by Colleen Morris on her garden history experiences attending the Attingham Summer School in the UK in July 2010.
Venue: Annie Wyatt Room, National Trust Centre, Observatory Hill.
Cost: AGHS & RAHS Members $20 Guests $30 includes light refreshments.
PLEASE NOTE: Payment confirms Booking. Payments for all events must be made prior to the event by cheque to Australian Garden History Society and mailed to: Peter Cousens, 93 Lennox Street, Newtown, NSW, 2042 or by Internet bank transfer to: Australian Garden History Society Sydney & Northern NSW Branch, ANZ Bank, Centrepoint Branch. BSB 012 040 Account 1017 62565
Payment must include your name and the function you are booking for.
An Individual Membership entitles only that member to the Members Rate.
Members with Household Membership are entitled to Members Rate for anyone living within that household.
Refunds for cancellations will not be made if less than 48 hours notice is given.
FORTHCOMING EVENTS FOR THE NORTHERN NSW BRANCH:
21st August
Visit to three historic Glen Innes gardens and opening of Photographic Exhibition at Glen Innes Gallery.
26th September
Meeting at “Invergowrie Homestead”, Invergowrie.
28th November
Christmas party at Graham and Helen Wilson’s home, 14 Todd Close, Bona Vista.
17th October
2013 Conference meeting- Heritage Centre, Armidale.
For more information contact President Bill Oates on woates@une.edu.au or Secretary Angela Sole on asole@auzzie.net or 0267711661. All meetings subject to weather.
Welcome to new members– it’s great to see our branch growing with 332 members. We wish a few more would join our great events.
Our August talk by Geoffrey Britton highlight’s little-known designs by Edmund Blacket in Sydney’s Victoria Park and Charles Weston at Canberra’s Government House will follow our Annual General Meeting.
I’ve now spent nine years on the committee and must stand down: this is my last report. I’m pleased to leave a committee full of skills and ideas for new projects. I’m proud of our oral history project interviewing people with significant contributions to NSW garden history. And of two garden history exhibitions held at the Orange Regional Gallery (organised by members Kylie Winkworth, Alison Russell and Elizabeth Richards – see www.orangeblossoms.com.au) and in Armidale in 2009 (organised by Bill Oates, Graham Wilson and others) now to re-open in Glen Innes Gallery in August. These widen our outreach.
Also standing down will be Branch Treasurer Peter Cousens and ex-Chair, Malcolm Wilson. I pay tribute to their service - keeping events running smoothly, drafting reports, letters and behind-the-scenes negotiation – much done quietly. Peter’s off to create a new garden in Cairns and we wish him and Jace well. Murray Hook has agreed to step in as treasurer and we’re still looking for a volunteer to take up the Chair’s position.
In October Joan Lawrence leads a walk around Chippendale and Darlington, looking at the remains of our first plant nursery created by Thomas Shepherd. We hope a Shepherd descendent can join us, to learn more about the family’s involvement in the Hunter Valley wine industry. Also on Chippo’s streets is a community-greening project reclaiming nature strips for food: a challenge to copy...
Also in October is the Parramatta Park Heritage Rose Festival in the Rumsey Rose Garden on Pitt Street. A range of organisations like Heritage Roses Australia and AGHS will have stalls, talks, food and music to enjoy.
Recent advocacy includes; seeking that management of Sydney’s Moore Park remain with the Centennial & Moore Park Trust, not be transferred to Sydney Cricket Ground Trust; asking the NSW Roads & Traffic Authority to relocate a proposed truck rest stop on the Hume highway next to the original land grant of Varroville estate; and encouraging Penrith City Council to resist subdivision pressure and support our nomination of Werrington House and its four acres of land for State Heritage Register listing.
In July we enjoyed a talk by Chris & Margaret Betteridge on lesser-known gardens in England, Chaumont-sur-Loire in France and a woodland-landscape cemetery outside Stockholm, Sweden. Inspiring ideas about enlivening places with temporary artwork, writing, cutting-edge horticulture, friends groups, enlightened managers or owners – food for thought and emulation here!
The Hortus is an illustrated catalogue of plants grown.
Northern NSW report
The Northern NSW sub-branch spent a glorious March day at Saumarez Homestead, Armidale. This National Trust property always manages to reveal something new and members were delighted to view plants in their autumnal garb with old varieties of Eleagnus and Cotoneaster fruiting madly. “Mary’s garden” was resplendent with old-fashioned perennials including pink Saponaria, Scabiosa, Achillea, Anemone hupehensis and sapphire blue Chinese plumbago, Ceratostigma.
Our June meeting took us to the garden of Richard Bird and Lynne Walker, Heatherbrae at Black Mountain. Richard regaled us with his wonderful history on the old tools in his collection of “Old Mole Tools” but also some new finds and Lynne led a sculpture tour in their well-planted winter garden. This was followed with a shared curry dinner by the open brazier! Good news is that the Old Mole Tool collection is to be given a new home and secure future at Adelaide’s Carrick Hill. Adding greatly to that property’s collection of house, garden and contents this guarantees public access to a unique tool collection and its use in future public programmes.
August 21st will find us exploring three historic Glen Innes gardens including Stonehenge, to culminate in the attendance at the opening evening of our photographic exhibition “Historic Gardens of New England” that will hang at the Glen Innes Gallery until 17th September. Try to plan a visit: it’s well worth it.
Stuart Read. Tel: 9326 9468 or email: stuart1962@bigpond.com.
