Interview Recording
Interview Transcript
Christine Swan interview on 14 June 2017 by Liz Chappell
Synopsis
Christine Swan came to live at Byron Station in Northern NSW when she married Bill in 1964. She grew up in the Inverell district, on Paradise Station famed for Tom Roberts’ paintings of ‘Bailed Up’ and ‘On a Corner of the MacIntyre’. She pays tribute to her mother-in-law, Nell Swan, as a gifted gardener who introduced a variety of trees and shrubs to the Byron Station garden, including Liquidambars and Claret Ash for autumn colour and a now towering blue spruce (Picea pungens). The earliest trees, Photinea and Pinus radiata, are already mature in photographs from the 1990s. Christine has added drought-hardy perennial borders and extended the collection of reliable shrubs.
The interview cleverly takes the listener around the garden on a virtual walk, visiting spaces and plants and having Christine explain their significance and stories.