One of the wonderful benefits of a garden, apart from beautiful flowers and fresh home-grown food, are all its other inhabitants – the interesting insects and spiders, the beautiful butterflies and the amazing bird life! We are always finding something new, both in our garden and our explorations of this beautiful area, which is so rich in natural history! Because the insect world is so vast, we have yet to find a good general guide on Australian insects and possibly never will! I suspect that it is probably easier to research and identify them from internet sites like :
http://anic.ento.csiro.au/insectfamilies/ ;
https://www.csiro.au/en/Research/Collections/ANIC/ID-Resources
http://www.ozanimals.com/australian-insect-index.html and
https://australianmuseum.net.au/insects .
However, butterflies are a particular love of mine and there are a number of excellent publications!
I have always adored butterflies. They are such fragile ephemeral creatures, yet remarkably tough to survive at all and have such beautiful patterns, both as adults and caterpillars, and interesting life cycles, their emergence from their pupas being quite miraculous! While we have a number of butterflies in our garden here in Candelo, like the majestic Orchard Butterfly, we particularly loved their colourful cousins in Tropical North Queensland, like the iridescent-aqua Ulysses Butterfly, the pursuit of whose image resulted in my daughter falling through old rotten verandah boards and damaging her leg! In 2008, we were lucky enough to visit Iron Range National Park, a biological hotspot, not just for birds, but also butterflies, where we watched butterfly expert and James Cook University lecturer, Peter Valentine, in a crane, netting species in the tops of tall trees, while being kissed on our hands by salt-hungry butterflies – a very special moment! So, we could definitely identify with the author of this book:
An Obsession With Butterflies by Sharman Apt Russell 2003
This paperback is a fascinating read about equally fascinating creatures!
I learnt so much about them, including some of the following facts:
Butterflies belong to the Order Lepidoptera, which contains 18 000 known species of butterflies and 147 000 species of moths. This was back in 2003. There are more species identified now – see later! Apparently, their appearance can morph within a gender; within different populations and habitats, and even within the same place at different times of the year, which makes identification a very difficult task indeed!!!
They have wonderful names like owls; birdwings; apollos; hamadryads; satyrs; jezebels; tortoiseshells; milkweeds; snouts; fritillaries; painted ladies, admirals, buckeyes, checkerspots ; crescents; moonbeams; brimstones; sulphurs; hairstreaks; swordtail flashes; metalmarks; coppers; cornelians; ceruleans; azures; oak blues; imperial blues; emperors and even, white albatrosses.
In the Middle Ages, people believed buterfloeges were fairies in disguise, who stole butter, cream and milk.
Lord Rothschild (1868 – 1937) had a butterfly collection of 2.25 Million butterflies and moths, which he bequeathed to the British Museum, London, making it the largest collection in the world at that time.
2000 species of butterflies exhibit myrmecophily (a love of ants), where ants will maintain and protect larvae from parasitic wasp attack, in exchange for honeydew secreted by glands on the caterpillars eg. Bright Coppers and other blue butterfly species.
On emerging from its chrysalis, the Tiger Swallowtail engages in puddling or salt-drinking at muddy puddles with their bar buddies, who then practice hilltopping behaviour, where they congregate at the top of the hill to lie in wait for unsuspecting (or usually, not so unsuspecting) females to mate! While waiting, they engage in spiral territorial fights trying to establish dominance, all the while keeping a lookout for females! Not that different to humans really!
Monarch butterflies in Canada and Northern USA overwinter in Mexico. They can fly in clouds at altitudes as high as 3000 feet and as far as 50 miles a day. See: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z9rZz3fILt4 and https://www.mexperience.com/travel/outdoors/monarch-butterflies-mexico/.
We also have migratory butterflies in Australia. See: http://www.qm.qld.gov.au/Find+out+about/Animals+of+Queensland/Insects/Butterflies+and+moths/Common+species/Migratory+Butterflies#.WMh7e2fj_IU and https://australianmuseum.net.au/caper-white-butterfly.
I remember sitting on our east-facing verandah at Dorrigo and watching hordes of Caper Whites, flying west up the escarpment, then up over our roof and ever onward. And they weren’t just hill-topping- there were too many of them!!! If this book has whetted your appetite to know more about butterflies, it is worth obtaining a comprehensive guide.
We actually possess three : Butterflies of Australia by IFB Common and DF Waterhouse 1972/ 1981; The Complete Field Guide to Butterflies of Australia by Michael F Braby 2004; and The Butterflies of Australia by Albert Orr and Roger Kitching 2010 . The first one is Ross’s old classic; the second, a more recent field guide, a perfect weight and size to carry with you on your butterfly walks; and the third and most recent, written by one of Ross’s ecology lecturers, when he studied environmental science at Griffith University, back in 1976 to 1978. This latter book is the one we tend to use most, so is the one I will discuss!
The Butterflies of Australia by Albert Orr and Roger Kitching 2010
This is an excellent book – very comprehensive, with clear readable text and lots of wonderful illustrations of butterflies in the field, reacting with their natural environment, rather than as dead museum specimens (the usual presentation in previous guides). If you can only own one butterfly guide, this is it!
As of 2010, in Australia, there are over 20 000 species of butterflies and moths, arranged in 82 families. The majority are moths, but the 400 species of butterflies are grouped in five families.
In Part One, the book discusses their anatomy; life cycle, reproduction, habitats, relationships with plants and other animals and human impacts and butterfly gardening.
The larger Part Two is devoted to an in-depth discussion of each family, including identification notes about all the different species, including scientific name, size and habits, as well as a distribution map and illustrations of each species at each life cycle stage: egg, larvae (caterpillar); chrysalis (pupa); and adult male or female.
In the back is a list of butterfly books; journals; websites and societies; and two appendices : a checklist of Australian butterflies; and a list of larval host plants of Australian butterflies.
Birds
Another major interest is ornithology and we are so lucky here in Candelo with our beautiful bird population. Living high on the hill in amongst the old pepperina and loquat trees, we have an excellent vantage point for watching these amazing creatures, especially from our verandah. Not only do we have parrots and cockatoos in abundance, but also a number of smaller birds, like fairy wrens, finches and eastern spinebills, despite the high local population of cats!
Our immediate environment on the Far South Coast of New South Wales is very rich in birdlife as well, which I will write more about later in reference to local bird guides, but for now, a look at more general guides!
Every birdwatcher has their favourite bird book, which they believe is superior to all others! While my parents swore by Peter Slater and other ornithologists liked Graham Pizzey (both books, which we have owned in the past!), these days, we tend to refer to Simpson and Day as our first choice, followed by Michael Morecombe’s book for more detailed information and the Reader’s Digest Guide for top photographs.
Field Guide to the Birds of Australia by Simpson and Day 1984 – 1996 5th Edition
This is an excellent field guide with a waterproof cover, ideal for using outside! The introduction has a key to all the families and their page numbers, as well as a diagram of a bird’s body and information on bird identification using this book.
Most of the book is devoted to field notes about each bird species: its common and scientific names; abundance; movement (sedentary, annual or partial migratory and nomadic) ; description of males, females and juveniles; size; voice; and habitat, as well as excellent colour illustrations of each bird (male/ female/ immature/ races) and maps showing distribution (breeding/ non-breeding and vagrant, as well as boundary lines between races). Special identifiable features are also highlighted with black-and-white sketches of their hatchlings; head profiles; markings; tail patterns; eyes, bills and claws; or activity (display and courtship; flight; perching; calling; diving; stalking) for quick easy reference.
The Handbook in the last quarter of the book has detailed notes on the life cycle of birds; hints for bridwatchers; bird habitats in Australia; prehistoric birds; modern avifaunal regions; DNA – DNA hybridization; and more information on the different bird families in Australia, including the breeding season for each species and further reading. There is also a rare bird bulletin; a checklist for Australian island territories; and a glossary of bird terminology.
Field Guide to Australian Birds by Michael Morcombe 2000
While this book has very similar information, there are two major differences, which are very useful. Firstly, on the inside of the back cover (as well as in the introduction), there are colour tags for each family group with page numbers for quick reference, to which I constantly refer. And secondly, there is a large section in the back with 1000 colour illustrations of nests and eggs, showing the huge diversity in building techniques and aiding identification (photo below).
Accompanying the text are detailed notes on breeding season and location; courtship; nest material, shape and size; clutch and egg size; incubation ; fledging and leaving the nest. In the back is a section on migrant waders with a map of distribution; a list of extinct birds and new discoveries; and references to bird books, magazines and prominent bird groups and schemes.
Reader’s Digest Complete Book of Australian Birds 1976
The big advantage of this book is its wonderful photographs of birds in their natural environment, including amazing shots of birds feeding, wading, sitting on nests or feeding nestlings, but its large size means that it is certainly NOT a field guide! We have used this book so much that we are now on our second copy!
Part One starts with a map of altitudes; average annual rainfall and rainfall variability; and vegetation zones in Australia, then explores each bird habitat from rainforest, forest and woodland to scrubland, shrub steppe, grassland, heathland, mangroves and wetlands.
In Part Two, each bird has either a full page or double page spread with wonderful photographs, general notes (often with interesting historical notes)and an italicized section specifying other names, the length and description of males, females and juveniles; voice; nesting and distribution, including a distribution map. Towards the end of this section are lists of rare visitors, escaped captives and unsuccessful introductions, as well as notes on the different orders and families of Australian birds.
Part Three is concerned with the life of birds: the behaviour which distinguishes species (locomotion; flight; finding food; adaptations to feeding; care of feathers; aggression displays; and courtship rituals); migrants and nomads; regulation of bird numbers; prehistoric birds of Australia; and the origins of Australian birds. It is such an interesting book with a wealth of information about Australian birds.
The next two books are devoted to birds of the world and show the huge diversity and beauty of these incredible creatures.
Encyclopaedia of Birds edited by Joseph Forshaw 1998
While the primary focus is always on birds of your own country, it is great to learn more about their worldly cousins, especially if travelling overseas. The introduction looks at bird anatomy and classification; the evolution of birds from feathered dinosaurs 150 Million years ago; bird habitats and adaptations to their environment; bird behaviour and endangered species.
The remainder and majority of the book is devoted to the different orders and suborders of birds eg albatrosses and petrels; divers and grebes; herons and their allies; waterfowl and screamers; and waders and shorebirds.
Each section has key facts in an orange box: the name of the order; number of families; genera and species; the smallest and largest types and conservation status (though this information is probably outdated now!), as well as a world distribution map and detailed notes about each type of bird and lovely illustrations and photographs. For example, in Herons and their Allies, there are notes on identification by bill shape and historical notes on the Sacred Ibis of Ancient Egyptians, as well as specific notes on herons, night herons, bitterns, storks, new world vultures, ibises, spoonbills and flamingos. Kingfishers and their Allies covers kingfishers, todies, motmots, bee-eaters, rollers, ground-rollers, courols, hoopoes, and hornbills.
It is a fascinating book with lots of birds, of which I have never even heard and is a great addition to our natural history library.
Birds of the World by Colin Harrison and Alan Greensmith 1993
Slightly different in approach to the previous book, this pocket sized guide describes over 800 bird species of the world, with half and full page spreads devoted to each bird. Each entry has a colour-coded band on the top, specifying the family and species name and length with detailed descriptive notes, including their nests and distribution; terrific photographs annotated with key identification pointers; scale silhouettes to compare bird height with the size of this book; pictures of alternate plumage, a worldwide distribution map and a band at the bottom of the entry specifying plumage, habitat and migratory status.
There are also notes on the relationship between birds and humans over history; types of feathers; bird anatomy; bill shape; variation within species; nesting boxes and bird feeders and water containers; birdwatching in the field; identifying birds in flight; and a useful identification key. An excellent taster to the wonderful world of birds!
The Cornell Lab of Ornithology has an excellent website for bird information. See: http://www.birds.cornell.edu/Page.aspx?pid=1478 and https://www.allaboutbirds.org/. I discovered them, when researching Birds-of-Paradise. They have some wonderful video footage of the 39 species. See: https://www.allaboutbirds.org/search/?q=Birds%20of%20Paradise.
We would dearly love to see these beautiful birds in their natural environment in New Guinea one day! In the meantime, we can satisfy our desire with the above videos and maybe one day, this bucket list book: Birds of New Guinea by Thane K. Pratt & Bruce M. Beehmer 2015 . See: http://www.botanicalbookshop.com.au/product/birds-of-new-guinea/fp9780691095639.aspx.
The following two books are useful guides to birdwatching locations, especially the second one, which focuses specifically on our local area.
Best 100 Birdwatching Sites in Australia by Sue Taylor 2013
Having lived in the country for most of our life and being keen visitors to National Parks, we have never really had to think about where to see birds, but this book would have been very useful during our 2008 trip around Australia, as well as being of great value to city birdwatchers in planning their ornithological excursions.
We feel we have seen a fair bit of Australia and key birdwatching venues, so it was an interesting exercise to tick off the places which we had visited in the book, finding to our surprise that we’d only been to 46 out of the 100 places listed! Happily, there is obviously much more to see!!! We are looking forward to a desert trip one day to see more of our beautiful parrot species.
While Sue admits the choice of places was subjective, I agreed totally with many of her selections. How can we ever forget the vast flotillas of Black Swans at Tower Hill, Victoria; the huge diversity of waterfowl at Fogg Dam, near Darwin, and Kakadu National Park in Northern Territory, as well as at Parry’s Lagoon in Western Australia; the enormous flocks of Plumed Whistling Ducks and Magpie Geese at Hasties Swamp on the Atherton Tableland in North Queensland, nor the Eclectus Parrots, Palm Cockatoos, Magnificent Riflebirds and Sunbirds at Chilli Beach in Iron Range National Park and the delicate Jacanas, Blue-winged Kookaburras, Brolgas and Magpie Geese at Lakefield National Park, both areas on Cape York, North Queensland. We finally saw a Cassowary in the wild on our last bushwalk at Mission Beach; called and cuddled Providence Petrels out of the sky at Lord Howe Island; and visited Broome Bird Observatory in Western Australia. It was great seeing the inclusion of our old stamping ground at Lamington National Park and two local areas of our new home : Mogareeka Inlet and Green Cape.
There are beautiful photographs throughout the book of birds in their natural environment. It is a lovely book to own!
Birding Australia: Australian Edition 2008 by Lloyd Nielsen
A very similar book, which covers a much larger area, but doesn’t have the lovely bird photos of the previous book. It is very much a directory with maps, a brief description of each area, its climate, access/ directions and its birding highlights, as well as lists of key species and endemics; good birding spots and best times; suggested itineraries; regional field guides, CDs and DVDs; local bird groups, accommodation, tours and websites, and a table of times for first light, sunrise, sunset and last light for the first day of each month.
A very comprehensive book, which is backed up by the Birding Australia website: http://www.birdingaustralia.com.au/.
Birdwatching on the Far South Coast New South Wales by Far South Coast Birdwatchers Inc 2008
Essential reading for birdwatchers on the Far South Coast of New South Wales! We are so lucky in this area to have a wide variety of habitats with many wonderful waterways from mountain and forest; lakes and rivers; and National Parks to agricultural land and dams and many coastal lagoons and beaches. We also have three designated birdwatching routes, which never fail to please, especially the dam and floodplains at Kalaru, near Tathra, which always have a multitude of waterbirds.
This useful small book, compiled by the local birdwatching group, is divided into three sections: Places to Go; Birds to See; and Other Information. In Places to Go, each area is described, including access, favourite birdwatching spots; and the birds likely to be seen, as well as providing a handy map and random hints like binocular adjustment and care; what to do if you find a bird on the ground and the Birdwatchers’ Code of Ethics. Like with the previous book, while we have already explored many of the areas mentioned, we still have plenty of local excursions in the future!
The second section, Birds to See, lists 300 species of birds in the Bega Valley, including its scientific name; residency and abundance status; the best spots to see them and other general notes.
The last section suggests useful books and websites; gives the contact details of the Australian Bird and Bat Banding Scheme (ABBBS) and Wildlife Information Rescue and Education Service (WIRES) and a few notes about dealing with ticks, mosquitoes, sandflies and leeches!
The next two books are very interesting reads about our Australian bird life.
The Lyrebird: A Natural History by Pauline Reilly 1988
My daughter based one of her science projects in Year 10 on Superb Lyrebirds, of which we had quite a large population on our rainforest block on the escarpment, adjoining Bellinger River National Park. We used this book extensively in her research for this project, as well as in the formulation of her experimental hypotheses.
She was particularly interested in their song, as male lyrebirds are superb mimics and will often go through an extensive repertoire of different bird calls to attract their mate. Armed with a tape recorder, Caro would tiptoe up on the birds, only to have them invariably go silent on her and glide off like Houdini into the bush, highly frustrating for her and by the end of it, I don’t think she wanted to see another lyrebird for a long while!
Nevertheless, she did get enough results to confirm Pauline Reilly’s assertion that the amount of time between between its own calls during the mimicry sequence is fixed and specific to each male, allowing their identification and ownership of territory.
However, her statement that lyrebirds do not mimic birds, which breed at the same time as themselves, was not supported by Caroline’s evidence, as she clearly recorded them mimicking Eastern Whipbirds in the subtropical rainforests of Dorrigo!
For anyone interested to know more about these fascinating birds, this book is a must! Chapters cover their origins and relationships; their distribution and annual cycle; descriptions of their physical appearance and the roles of both males and females; immature lyrebirds; song and mimicry; and random and interesting extra information. I have always loved Pauline’s story about the 1930s flute player, who used to play two popular songs of the time ,‘Mosquito Dance’ and ‘The Keel Row’, near his pet lyrebird, who incorporated the tunes into his song, then passed them on to his descendants, who melded them together in their territorial calls, still heard in 1969.
Where Song Began by Tim Low 2014
Australia has so many fascinating and unusual birds from the lyrebirds with their amazing mimicry to the Satin Bowerbirds, which build courting platforms, decorated with entirely with blue tobacco flowers, cornflowers, pegs, milk bottle tops etc); the scrub turkeys and mallee fowl, which build enormous incubation mounds; the male emus and cassowaries, who raise the young; the Laughing Kookaburra, which eats snakes, the territorial magpie, nominated by Canadian biologist, the aptly named David Bird, as ‘the most serious avian menace in the world‘, yet with such a beautiful melodious song; and its incredibly beautiful colourful and raucous parrots!
This is a fascinating book, primarily about the origin of birds and their evolution. There is so much interesting information about birds and their behaviour, particularly our Australian species, and while I really don’t want to add any spoilers, some of the topics include the beginning of song and the origin of parrots (both in Australia); the birds of New Guinea; gigantism in birds; rainforest pigeons and their role in forest evolution, the endangered Gouldian Finch; seabirds; and the relationship between people and birds.
It’s a very readable book, backed up by both the fossil record and contemporary research and genetic studies. I was fascinated to learn that flamingoes used to live in Australia 20 Million years ago, having always doubted the inclusion of flamingos in Swiss Family Robinson, a childrens’ book about a family, shipwrecked on a tropical island near New Guinea. Apparently, there were 3 species of flamingos at Lake Eyre, up until 1 Million years ago. And that I’m afraid, is as much as you get…! Enjoy the book!
Next, I will be discussing books about more fascinating animal life.
We have enjoyed all our travels, but my least favourite destination was probably King Ash Bay, near Borroloola, Northern Territory, on the Gulf of Carpentaria! We stumbled upon this outback fishing village by chance, but for such a remote location, it was a bit too suburban and populated for us, with all the vans camped cheek by jowl like sardines and even street names like Sunset Boulevard! It may have been good if you were a fisherman with your own boat and could get away to your own space, but as tent campers, who value their independence and love quiet spots and natural history, we were definitely out of place!
The Wow factor came, the higher we ascended the walk, with the slow reveal of the back of the Pic Midi d’Ossau, which increasingly resembled the map of our own home country! And the other Wow was the fact that our 4.5 year old daughter Caroline managed the entire 11 km walk on her own without having to be carried once!
F: Favourite mode of transportation :
These days, it’s my own two feet! We love bushwalking and exploring our beautiful National Parks! Here I am climbing Cooks’ Look at Lizard Island.
H: Hottest place you’ve travelled to :
J: Journey that took the longest :
Originally, the plan was to visit Iron Range National Park, a mecca for ornithologists and butterfly lovers like ourselves, but our youngest daughter (photo below), who had just finished her schooling, decided to join us, so we went right up to the tip of Cape York.
We had some amazing experiences from searching for (and finding) the endangered Golden-Shouldered Parrots, as well as Eclectus Parrots and Tree Kangaroos in Cape York and Gouldian Finches at Mornington, an Australian Wildlife Conservancy property on the Gibb River Road, to viewing ancient aboriginal rock art in Laura, Cape York, Kakadu National Park, Victoria River, Mitchell Falls and Wandjina Gorge and 30 000 years old engravings on the Burrup Peninsula, Western Australia.
We fed dolphins at Monkey Mia; had my first scuba dive on the Great Barrier Reef (above) and snorkelled on Lizard Island and Ningaloo Reef; climbed every mountain in sight; visited friends and family at the Daintree River, Herberton and Perth; and photographed Spring wildflowers in WA; as well as having the odd luxury of spending a few civilised nights in lovely old cottages in Denmark and Hahndorf and crossing the Nullabor in the Indian Pacific. No wonder we looked so relaxed in this photo taken at Mission Beach, with Dunk Island in the background!
K: Keepsake from your travels :
In the photo below, I was so keen to photograph an ant plant, that I actually stepped on a small snake with my thongs! Needless to say, I got such a fright that I wore shoes from then on!
The architect has had a lot of fun with levels and completely destroyed my already-compromised sense of balance and equilibrium, after spending the previous night on a sailing boat on Milford Sound! In the photo below, Ross is standing upright, but appears to be leaning forward, due to the clever manipulation of angles and perspective.
Puffins are such cute birds and so trusting! It is amazing to be so close to them!
Even though the cost was exorbitant and the journey quite scary at times, as there were no doors, I was sitting right at the edge of my seat (with 3 adults sharing the back seat!) and we flew so low, I had to constantly resist the temptation to jump out (!), it was an amazing experience and we are so pleased we did it!
T: Touristy thing
U: Unforgettable travel memory :
We climbed Mt Gower on the actual day and called Providence Petrels out of the sky to land with a thud at our feet, to be picked up and cuddled- unforgettable!
It certainly is a wonderful place, if like us, you love bushwalking and natural history. For more about our amazing experiences, see: 
Y: Years spent travelling:
Gardening With Australian Rainforest Plants by Ralph Bailey and Julie Lake 2001
While on the subject of Australian flora (and fauna), it is well worth checking out an organization, called Bush Blitz, which is based at the Australian National Botanic Gardens in Canberra and conducts biological surveys all over Australia, discovering many new species in the process. Our friend, Brian Hawkins, with whom Ross worked back at the Rainforest Centre in Dorrigo, is a Senior Project Officer with them. See: 
This is a fascinating book about a fascinating subject, about which is still very little is known! This book is only concerned with macrofungi, the fungi whose finer structures can be seen without a microscope (as opposed to microfungi-like moulds) and at the time of publication, there were 20 000 to 25 000 species of macrofungi in Australia, of which 60 per cent are unknown, and yet they perform an essential role in the life cycle of all living matter, being the prime agents of decomposition and the recycling of nutrients and elements.
The introductory chapters explores the fungal organism and anatomy (we only see the fruiting bodies); fungal reproduction and spores, which also display a wide variety of shape and texture; the difference between toadstools and mushrooms; the divisions within macrofungi : Ascomycetes (yeasts; truffles and morels; ); Basidiomycetes (the majority of bushland fungi, including cultivated mushrooms); and Myxomycetes (slime moulds); and collecting, describing and preserving fungi.
The book then has a black-and-white illustrated key for all the different types of fungi, but because so many fungi have yet to be identified and the book only describes less than 200 species, the keys serve more to indicate groups of species or genera, then refers to the relevant sections of the book. Because the number of Agarics or Gilled Fungi is quite large, they have been divided on their location or food source: forest/ woodland (wood, leaf litter, soil); grassland; animal remains; and dung. There is also a toxicity key (most important for those adventurous souls out there!).
The main body of the book is then devoted to species descriptions – their common names; fruiting bodies; spores; habitats; distribution and notes, backed up by black-and-white illustrations and a central section of superb colour photographs. Did you know there was a fungi called a Curry Punk, that Stinkhorn Fungi emit the odour of rotting meat to attract flies for spore dispersal or that the fruiting body is 90 per cent water and is totally for spore production and dispersal. It is such an interesting book and an essential component of the natural history library!
Jessie Clark 1915 Clear Pink Single Climbing R. gigantea hybrid. Probably R. gigantea X Madame Martignier. Very large single clear pink roses borne abundantly on a vigorous climber in early Spring. It was the 1st R. gigantea seedling and the 3rd Glenara rose to be released, as well as his first great success as a rose breeder. Named after a favourite niece, who used to visit Glenara with her friends, Nora Cuningham and Gwen Nash, daughter of his great friend, Albert Nash, all of whom were also remembered in the names of his roses.
Sunny South 1918 A Hybrid Tea, which was a popular tall hedging rose between the two world wars. A cross between Gustav Grunerwald and Betty Berkeley. Large, very recurrent, profusely-blooming, semi-single, fragrant pale pink, flushed carmine, blooms on a very tall bush. I do not have my own photo, but have included it because it was one of Alister’s favourite roses, so please see: 
Black Boy 1919 First Climbing Hybrid Tea; A cross between Bardou Job and Etoile de France; Another great success story; Large, semi-double, fragrant, dark red blooms. Again, I have no photo, but as this particular rose has never left the nursery catalogues for its entire life, you can see the rose here: 
Scorcher 1922 named for a hot day or scorcher! Climbing Hybrid Tea, Madame Abel Chatenay is one of the parents, R. moyesii could be the other unnamed parent. Non-recurrent, large, semi-double, open, slightly fragrant, brilliant scarlet-crimson flowers on a vigorous climber. See: 
Harbinger 1923 Very vigorous climber and R. gigantea hybrid with large, single, soft-pink flowers. Named for the coming of Spring.
Lorraine Lee 1924 Second- generation Gigantea hybrid bush rose, bred from a cross between Jessie Clark and Capitaine Millet, and named for a distant cousin of the Clarks after her visit. It blooms all year round with open, double, rosy-apricot flowers with a beautiful scent and evergreen foliage, inherited from R. gigantea. It is the most popular rose ever grown in Australia. Between 1924 and 1934, nurseryman EW Hackett sold 44 000 plants of Lorraine Lee. Often grown as a hedge. She is a very tough rose, which thrives on neglect! It has both bush and climbing forms. 
Climbing Lorraine Lee was a sport of Lorraine Lee in 1932.
Baxter Beauty 1924 Gigantea bush rose; Another sport of Lorraine Lee; Not strictly an Alister Clark rose, it was discovered by Russell Grimwade before 1927 at Baxter, Victoria. Varies from light yellow to sulphur and a light salmon pink on outside of petals. It flowers in Winter like Lorraine Lee.
Milkmaid 1925 A huge, recurrent-flowering rambler with dense, shiny green foliage and clusters of medium, open, semi-double, creamy-white flowers in Spring, the scent of milk and honey, hence the name. Very vigorous climber. Crépuscule is one of the parents.
Countess of Stradbroke 1928 Climbing Hybrid Tea; A cross between Walter Clark and an unnamed variety; Large, dark, glowing, crimson, double, highly scented blooms, which are very recurrent. Named after the the wife of the 3rd Earl of Stradbroke, who was the Governor of Victoria from 1920 to 1926. The Countess raced horses and stayed with the Clarks; One of Alister Clark’s greatest successes, especially in the United States, so here is a link: 
Peggy Bell 1929 Hybrid Tea named after a family friend for her 21st birthday. Mid-pink to salmon-pink and free flowering. Rose in the right-hand side of photograph below:
Amy Johnson 1931 Soft pink, tall shrub rose; Large, cupped, fragrant, pink blooms; One of the parents is Souvenir de Gustav Prat. Named to commemorate the landing of Amy Johnson (1903-1941), famous English pilot and first woman to fly solo from England to Australia in 1930. She landed at the Moonee Valley Racecourse, where she was presented with a bouquet of Alister Clark roses.
Margaret Turnbull 1931 Large-flowered, climbing Hybrid Tea rose of unknown breeding; Very recurrent, large, double, slightly fragrant, mid-pink flowers. Named for a friend of the Clarks for over 50 years. Margaret Turnbull was a daughter of a Scots storekeeper, who became a Victorian Member of Parliament. At Bulla, it is growing at the front of the main pergola, facing the Council offices. The paler pink rose in the middle of the pergola behind Margaret Turnbull is Doris Downes (see next entry).
Doris Downes 1932 Climbing Hybrid Tea rose of unknown breeding; Named after a fellow rose breeder, who was a stylish Melbourne beauty and who married an Army surgeon. Very large, semi-double, cupped, fragrant, profuse but non-recurrent blooms.
Broadway 1933 was found at Mrs Oswin’s garden in Broadway, Camberwell, Victoria and is probably a Clark Hybrid Gigantea climber. Unknown breeding.
Marjorie Palmer 1936 Polyantha, with Jersey Beauty as one of the parents. Very recurrent, double, very fragrant, rich-pink flowers in clusters on a short bushy plant. A good friend of the Clarks, Marjorie and Claude Palmer, who lived at Dalvui, near Terang, played polo and restored and extended the original Guifoyle-designed garden.
Sheila Bellair 1937 Large, semi-double, open, salmon-pink flowers with golden stamens. Hybrid Tea shrub rose; Miss Mocata is one of the parents. Sheila met Alister through her father, who served on the Moonee Valley Committee with his friend. Sheila was an excellent horsewoman, who was a member of the Oaklands Hunt Club with Alister and became a breeder of thoroughbred horses.
Cicely Lascelles 1937 Climbing Hybrid Tea. A cross between Frau Oberhofgartner Singer and Scorcher, with abundant, warm-pink, semi-double, open blooms from Spring to Autumn and Autumn; Named after a friend of the Clarks, who was a champion golfer from a landed family. Note these photos below were taken at the Walter Duncan’s Heritage Garden, in Clare, South Australia.
Nancy Hayward 1937 Very vigorous Climbing Hybrid Tea, a cross of Jessie Clark and a 2nd generation Gigantea hybrid, with huge, single, scentless, vibrant lipstick-pink flowers all year round. It was named for the daughter of a Sir William Irvine, a Federal Minister and later Chief Justice of Victoria, as well as Patron and Vice Patron of the Rose Society from 1928 to 1943. She was also Susan Irvine’s husband’s aunt, so was one of the first ports of call when Susan Irvine started researching Alister Clark roses, although Nancy couldn’t tell Susan much and never liked that particular rose!
Sunlit 1937 Hybrid Tea bush rose of unknown breeding; Always in flower with small, double, soft apricot-pink blooms with a good scent on a compact bush. Very acclaimed in Australia at the time.
Lady Huntingfield 1937 Hybrid Tea; A cross between Busybody and Aspirant Marcel Rouyer. Large, double, fragrant, rich golden-yellow flowers. Vigorous bushy plant and very recurrent. Named after Margaret Crosby, a New York judge’s daughter, who married Australian-born Baron Huntingfield, who became the Governor of Victoria from 1933 to 1939.
Editor Stewart 1939 Cherry-red semi-double pillar rose, with wavy petals and red young foliage, named for his good friend, TA Stewart, who was editor of the Australian Rose Annual for 30 years.
Mrs Fred Danks 1951 Lilac-pink Hybrid Tea, released after Alister’s death. A highly scented shrub rose, named after a keen gardener, Dorothy (Fred’s wife!), who was a family friend of the Clarks. Unknown parentage. Very large, abundant, semi-double, fragrant, pink-violet flowers on a tall upright bush. She compliments Nancy Hayward (in the corner of the building in the background of the 1st photo) and both contrast well against the dark grey bluestone wall of the old council offices.
Many of the photos in this post were taken at The Alister Clark Memorial Rose Garden at Bulla, the subject of my next post tomorrow. It is a very special place to visit, a firm favourite of mine and not to be missed in the Springtime, when Broadway (on the left) and Tonner’s Fancy (on the right) are in full bloom! 
Now that we are in the midst of our Australian Winter, it is an excellent time to sit beside a cosy fire to read and plan future forays! Over the next few weeks, I will be posting book reviews of some of our favourite natural history books in our library. As this is a major passion of ours, we have lots of books on this subject area, so I have divided them up into four specific areas: Plants; Birds and Butterflies; Animals and Marine Life; and General Reference Guides (including books on geology, astronomy and weather). I hope you enjoy them!
There is a free brochure at the gate with a garden map.
This pretty garden mixes Alister Clark roses with trees and shrubs like Eucalyptus citriodora (1st photo); a Quince tree (2nd photo); Silky Oaks Grevillea robusta (3rd photo); Echiums and Lilacs (4th and 5th photos);
lavender hedges;
and bulbs and perennials including : Agapanthus, Ajuga, Anchusa, Aquilegia, Bergenia, Bluebells, Catmint, Clematis, Daffodils, Day Lilies, Erigeron, Forget-Me-Nots, Geranium, Grevilleas, Hebe, Heliotrope, Hellebores, Heuchera, Iris (Bearded, Louisiana), Japanese Anemones, Jasmine, Kniphofia (yellow), Lambs’ Ears, Lavender, Lemon Balm, Lilac, Mignonette, Nasturtium, Nigella, Persimmon, Poppies, Queen Fabiola, Salvias, Scabiosa, Scilla peruviana, Snow-in-Summer, Statice, Verbena (Candy Stripe), Vervain, and Viburnum opulus.
There are 650 plants and 68 varieties of Alister Clark roses, including climbers, pillar roses, Polyanthas and Hybrid Tea bush roses,
and all these roses are identified, with interpretive boards about the dedicatees.
The garden is dedicated to growing, displaying and promoting Alister Clark’s life work and is maintained by the Hume City Council and volunteers from the Friends of the Alister Clark Memorial Rose Garden, who hold regular monthly working bees on Fridays and Saturdays between 10.30 am and 2.30 pm throughout the year. Here are some photos of the back entrance, shed and garden:
Roses were sourced from all over Australia, including many of the old gardens of the original families, after whom Clark had dedicated his roses. The best time to visit is in Spring, though there are roses in bloom from October to March, and while the garden is open every day, there is an Open Day on the Saturday after the Melbourne Cup each year, when you can chat to the volunteers, who maintain the garden.
Tomorrow is my final post about Alister Clark, with a few notes about specific Alister Clark Roses, whose photographs were mainly taken in this beautiful memorial garden!
Alister Clark was born in 1864 to Walter and Annie Clark of Glenara, Bulla. Walter Clark (1803-1873) was a Scottish immigrant from Argyllshire, who arrived in Australia in 1838, started in the Riverine area of NSW, where he made money out of stock during the gold rush, overlanded stock to Melbourne and then in 1857, he bought 485 acres at Deep Creek, Bulla, where he built a large single storey Italianate house of brick and rendered stone (granite and bluestone), with a hipped slate roof and encircling verandah with open work timber posts and lintels, on an elevated site above Deep Creek Gorge, which he called ‘Glenara’. See the bottom of this post for more about ‘Glenara’.
Alister’s mother, Annie, died when Alister was 1 year old and his father 8 years later, so Alister and his older siblings, brother Walter and 3 sisters, Annie, Jessie and Aggie, were raised by relatives. Alister was educated in Hobart, at Sydney Grammar School (1877-1878) and at the Loretto School in Scotland. He studied Law at Cambridge University (1883-1885), but never practiced, though he was a Justice of Peace. On the boat home to Australia after his graduation, he met Edith (Edie) Rhodes, daughter of wealthy New Zealander, Robert Heaton Rhodes, and married her in Christchurch, New Zealand, on the 7 July 1888. Alister bought the Glenara homestead block (830 acres) from his father’s estate in 1892 and by his death, the property was 1035 acres.
Alister was involved in the breeding of a number of new species of daffodils, his best known being Mabel Taylor, which is still grown and used in breeding today and which Alister believed was the first pink daffodil in Australia. In 1948, he was awarded the Peter Burr Memorial Cup from the Royal Horticultural Society in England, but it was roses for which he became famous!
Alister Clark was one of Australia’s most famous and prolific rose breeders. He bred over 122 (some sources say 138) varieties from 1912 to 1949, using a huge species rose from Burma and the Himalayas, Rosa gigantea (photos above), to create roses specifically suited to Australia’s hot dry climate, one of the first rose breeders to do so on both counts (ie the use of R. gigantea in breeding, as it does not thrive in the cooler climates of Europe, where many of the rose breeders hailed from at that time; and the breeding of roses ideally suited for Australian conditions). They were the most widely planted roses in Australia in the period between the two world wars. See : 
Alister named his roses after horses, people and places. His first rose, Hybrid Tea, Lady Medallist 1912, was named after a successful racehorse, as was Squatter’s Dream 1923, Tonner’s Fancy 1928, Flying Colours 1922 and Courier 1930, while many of his roses bred the name of family friends, especially women, like climbing rose Gwen Nash 1920 and bush roses Peggy Bell 1929; Mary Guthrie 1929; Marjorie Palmer 1929; Countess of Stradbroke 1928 (the wife of the 3rd Earl of Stradbroke, who was the Governor of Victoria from 1920 to 1926) and Cicely Lascelles 1937 (photo below). He named Amy Johnson 1931 after the famous English pilot, who was the first woman to fly solo from England to Australia, to commemorate her landing and Edith Clark 1928 after his wife, who was also the Patroness of the Victorian Rose Society.
Being a gentleman of private means with a philanthropic nature, Alister never bred or grew roses commercially, preferring to donate them to rose societies and charities for their fundraising efforts, as well as giving them as gifts to the people, after whom he had named his varieties. For example, Jessie Clark (photo below) was donated to the National Rose Society of Victoria to contribute to prize money at rose shows.
Alister Clark was the founding President of the National Rose Society of Victoria in 1889. He was highly regarded in the USA and was awarded a Honorary Life Membership of the American Rose Society in 1931 and elected as Vice-President of the Royal Horticultural Society of London from 1944 – 1948. In 1936, he was awarded the Dean Hole Medal from the National Rose Society in London, the highest honour in the rose world. Here is a photo of gold rose: Baxter Beauty 1924, not strictly bred by Alister Clark, but a sport of Lorraine Lee :
Alister died in 1949 and after his death, interest in his roses waned with the renewed availability and popularity of roses from Europe and America after the end of the Second World War. Also, they are large roses for large gardens and most bloom only in the Spring, so are unsuitable for gardens with limited space. While Black Boy, Nancy Hayward and Lorraine Lee remained constantly in nurserymans’ catalogues, many Alister Clark roses were lost during this period.
A Garden, A Pig and Me: A Year at Torryburn by Jenny Ferguson 1999
Helen O’Neill also has a special personal connection to daffodils. Her mother painted them and there is one of her lovely pictures in the book. Daffodils also offered Helen great hope and brightened up some of her darkest days during her cancer treatment. I was also tickled pink to discover a connecting link between ourselves and the author through her mention of an old Armidale friend and author, Sophie Masson. The photo below is the Tête à Tête variety.
Daffodils have a fascinating history, covered in great depth in the book from their origin and the myth of Narcissus to daffodil collectors (daffodilians); the Daffodil King and his dark legacy; and the daffodil code. Despite their general toxicity, they have great medical potential, as they contain a number of different alkaloids like galantamine (slows the onset of early Alzheimer’s disease); lycorine (inhibition of ovarian cancer cell growth); narciclasine (treatment of primary brain cancers); and jonquilline (antiproliferative effects against a large range of different cancers), which is amazing, given the daffodil’s starring role in fundraising for cancer research on Daffodil Day! Daffodils are also used in the perfume industry and the cut flower trade, both of which are discussed at some length. Throughout the book, we learn about all the different species and hybrids. In the back is the Royal Horticultural Society Daffodil Classification Code, with its 13 divisions, a most welcome addition, given there are over 30 000 different cultivars bred by hybridizers and 36 species, as well as naturally occurring hybrids. The photo below is of the Acropolis daffodil.
The other special attribute of this book is its stunning photography and inclusion of some very beautiful romantic artworks. I particularly loved Daniel F Gerhartz’s Woman at Tea Time; Konan Tanigami’s daffodil woodblock print; Gustav Klimt’s Dancer 1916; Eugene Grasset’s Avril 1896; Burbidge’s Pictures of Narcissus poeticus 1875; Lawrence Alma-Tadema’s When Flowers Return 1911 and Frederick Richardson’s Daffy-Down-Dilly 1915. I even loved the William Morris-like daffodil frontispiece, designed by Hazel Lam of HarperCollins Design Studio – a lovely touch!
While tulips were much loved during the early Ottoman empire, they experienced a resurgence in their popularity during the Tulip Era (1718 – 1730) during the reign of Ahmed III. He held tulip festivals over two successive evenings during the full moon in April, when the tulips were in full bloom. Guests wearing clothes, which harmonized with the flowers, would wander through the tulip beds illuminated by candles fixed to the backs of slow- moving tortoises. These were not the varieties favoured by the Dutch, but the slender, needle-pointed Istanbul tulips. I have always been entranced by this image! It was a riveting tale and I learnt so much about the history of Turkey and Holland through this wonderful book about the tulip!
Jennifer is an excellent researcher and her accounts of each plant’s history is so comprehensive and makes for fascinating reading. I never knew that in Ancient Greece, lily flowers were used to make perfume for men and were crushed and boiled in wine in early Christian monasteries as an antidote to snakebite, nor that the orchid kingdom was so huge! Apparently the orchid family, Orchidaceaea, is one of the largest plant families on earth with the greatest diversity of flora. There are 25 000 species of orchids in 850 genera (compared to the rose with 150 species, mostly in the one genus, Rosa), with 155 000 more hybrid orchid varieties, the number of new hybrids increasing at a rate of 250 to 350 per month and that was back when the book was published in March 2012! And, while some orchid species are disappearing due to over-collecting and habitat destruction, between 200 to 500 new species are identified each year! Orchids have the longest history of cultivation in China, dating back at least to the time of Confucius (551-479 BCE), with over 1000 species in over 150 genera. No wonder I was keen to know more! Which leads me to my final book for this very long post!
