Sara Hardy Writes

  What a fabulous evening we all had discussing our Edna Walling -  her life and work at State Library Victoria in the aptly named Conversation Quarter (16/4/2024). A warm and appreciative audience was there to enjoy our in-depth discussion interspersed with plenty of fun. To view the video please follow this link:   https://www.youtube.com/live/ HQlbrr_XFBA?si= FQGIDod2eY8oVIzt NB move the start 'slider' 14 minutes into the video as there's a 'nothing happening' delay before the discussion begins.  pics: Millie Ross (of ABC's Gardening Australia ) above left, and Trisha Dixon on the right.

  Enjoy a fascinating talk at the State Library of Victoria as we shine a light on the life and iconic work of Edna Walling hosted by expert horticulturalist  Millie Ross  (Gardening Australia) , in conversation with Edna Walling experts,  Sara Hardy  and  Trisha Dixon . When: 16 April 2024, 6:30pm–8:00pm, Conversation Quarter, State Library Victoria, Melbourne Free to listen onsite plus online live streaming Bookings required:   www.slv.vic.gov.au/whats-on/ life-and-work-edna-walling If you’ve walked through a garden with low stone walls, mossy boulders, meandering paths, self-seeding flowers and groves of silver birches, the design has likely been influenced by Edna Walling. At a time when most women were expected to be homemakers, Edna Walling was pioneering landscape architecture in Australia, designing enchanting gardens across the country for notable clients like Dame Nellie Melba, Dame Elizabeth Murdoch and Sir Frank Packer. Despite her professional profile, Edna lived a very pr

  This image comes from a postcard printed in the UK circa 1910. The caption reads: Picturesque Devon, Bickleigh Vale, Nr Plymouth . When Edna Walling chose the name for her envisioned self-made village (though it was just two dwellings at the time, Sonning and The Barn) I think she was remembering a beloved place from childhood, called Bickleigh Vale. The reverse of the UK postcard declares: 'Bickleigh Vale is a favourite resort with the inhabitants of Plymouth, from which it is only situated a very short distance. If there is one season in the year in which the Vale is more picturesque than in another it is in the spring, when the delicate foliage of the ash still retains its freshness, and the earth beneath is literally carpeted with a brilliant growth of bluebells and anemones.' I reckon they are silver birch in that picture, one of Edna's oft used trees in her landscape designs.  Edna Walling spent her childhood in Plymouth, and each Sunday, she and her father would

Following on from my recent post, here are some more Edna Walling related treasures and pics that I've not shown anywhere before. Above shows Barbara Barnes, Edna's niece, holding up the signboard or 'shingle' that Edna made to advertise herself and her original garden contractor, Eric H Hammond (always referred to as Mr Hammond by Edna). The pic was taken at Canning Downs, Barbara's historic Queensland homestead. Barbara died a while ago and I'm not sure what happened to the shingle, but I do know that Barbara passed on a great deal of Walling's papers and photographs to the State Library of Victoria. I stayed with Barbara for a week during my research for The Unusual Life of Edna Walling, and had the privilege of viewing all this material first hand, and engaging in fabulous conversations with Barbara. She was wonderfully generous - and quite a character, as you can see!  I took these next pics during my recent stay at The Burrow at Wombat Bend (see previo

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  I recently returned from a brief holiday at a B&B called The Burrow at Wombat Bend, a wonderful mudbrick cottage set in a wildlife retreat at Dixon's Creek in the Yarra Valley, about an hour north-east of Melbourne. I have been meaning to go there for many, many years - since I'd published The Unusual Life of Edna Walling in fact, because during my research for that biography I had met Sue Forrester, the daughter of one of Edna's dear friends - and Wombat Bend is Sue's home and co-creation. 'The Burrow' is the B&B mudbrick cottage that overlooks a vast billabong surrounded by all manner of native trees and plants - and native wildlife, including wombats. This paradise was once a basic cow paddock and its creation echoes Edna Walling's magnificent self-made Bickleigh Vale Village in nearby Mooroolbark - also once a cow paddock. (See previous blogs re Walling's career as a landscape designer etc.) Sue and I had much to catch up on - and I wished