Garden party hard to resist

Inside Dame Elisabeth’s Garden, Lifestyle, today, 7.30pm

IT TOOK something special for Paul Bangay to try his hand at television hosting – and that was the chance to work with Maggie Beer on Inside Dame Elisabeth’s Garden.

The Foxtel special marks the 90th birthday of Dame Elisabeth Murdoch’s Cruden Farm at Langwarrin, Victoria, celebrated as one of Australia’s most captivating gardens.

In 1928, journalist and newspaper executive Keith Murdoch gave his 19-year-old bride Elisabeth Greene a small farm as a wedding present.

When the modest weatherboard cottage was given a major renovation, Dame Elisabeth set about “burying the house within the garden”.

Bangay, the country’s leading landscape designer, was inspired by the gardens from a young age.

“I went there when I was a student at Burnley Horticultural College and I met Dame Elisabeth and we got on quite well – we had gardening in common,” he said.

“Over the years we got to know each other quite well. We spoke gardens and family, and I would come to Cruden Farm once a year. I’ve done three gardens for the grandchildren so there is this connection of creating gardens for the family.

“Maggie and I are also friends, so I thought ‘if I’ve got to do something [television], it won’t get much better than this’ – it is gardens, it is Maggie and the Murdoch family.”

Beer plates up a mouthwatering menu for the 90th birthday party.

The special also includes interviews from son Rupert, daughters Janet and Anne, granddaughters Penny, Judy, Julie and Prudence and head gardener Michael Morrison.