Among 19thcentury exotica
The gardens of Sydney’s Vaucluse House maintain plantings that would have been familiar to its famous 19thcentury owner, William Charles Wentworth. Gillian Vine reports.
THESE days, it’s a 40minute bus ride from central Sydney to the suburb of Vaucluse but in 1827 when William Charles Wentworth bought a 208ha estate with a small stone cottage, it was an isolated rural property despite being barely 10km from town.
Son of a convict woman, Wentworth (17901872) was one of a group that crossed the Blue Mountains in 1813, the first Europeans to do so in a feat that was to open up the inland pastureland of New South Wales.
After a period in Europe and training in England as a lawyer, Wentworth returned to Sydney in 1824 and cofounded The Australian, the colony’s first independent newspaper, was active in politics and pushed for the establishment of the University of Sydney.
He married Sarah Cox, daughter of two former convicts, in 1829 and as their family grew, so did the house, now furnished to reflect the Wentworth years, from 1827 to 1861.
In 1910, the New South Wales Government bought the property, not as much to honour its former owner as to obtain access to the Sydney foreshore. Within a couple of years, the ground floor was open to the public and, in the 1920s, tearooms were built to cater for the rising tourist trade.
Over the years, the grounds have shrunk to 9ha, large by today’s standards, and are filled with plants with which the Wentworths would have been familiar. Many of the trees date back to their day, including the avenue of pink box (Lophostemon
confertus syn. Tristania conferta) that leads to the house. The views of the harbour from the house are now obscured by trees, not necessarily a bad thing as they also hide the encroaching houses.
Other old trees and shrubs around the house and in a paddock alongside include a hedge of Cape honeysuckle (Tecoma capensis), a Cook Island pine
(Araucaria columnaris), very similar to the more familiar Norfolk Island species; damun or Port Jackson fig
(Ficus rubiginosa) that is a pest in this country; a huge Norfolk Island hibiscus (Lagunaria patersonii); Magnolia grandiflora, palms, Australian tree ferns and camellias with trunks as thick as my nolongerslender body.
Underplanted with clivias, naked ladies, ornamental gingers, Helconia, salvias and bromeliads, the trees make an attractive border above the Pleasure Garden and around the lawn with its feature pond.
Bright notes in the Pleasure Garden come from South American
Dichorisandra thyrsiflora, erroneously called blue ginger, as it is not related to true gingers, bright pink crepe myrtle (Lagerstroemia indica), buddleias and old roses, among them Mutabilis draped over an arch.
Keeping the Wentworth spirit alive in the garden is not too difficult, horticulturist Anita Rayner says.
‘‘The actual outline has always [survived] and there are many pictures,’’ she explains.
New plantings are based on Sydney’s colonial plants database, which has more than 11,000 listings of plants known to be available in the colony of NSW before 1870. This list has been compiled using old catalogues, botanic garden records and lists made by gardeners of the time.
Anita’s special interest is Vaucluse House’s vegetable garden.
‘‘The garden was built in 2000 and on what would have been part of the original kitchen garden,’’ she explains.
Post holes, pollen, seed and holes left by trees that had died helped pinpoint the location.
One of the earliest resources Anita has is an 1817 seed list and she grows ‘‘nothing past 1850’’, sourcing from two specialist heritage seed companies whose provenance is trustworthy.
Wentworth was a keen gardener who competed at garden shows. One of his outstanding exhibits, grown at Vaucluse, was a peach with a girth of 30cm, something Anita feels she is unlikely to repeat.
‘‘Some of the plant varieties [we grow now] were mentioned in letters by Sarah and William,’’ she says.
The present garden has hedges of bush lemon and prickly pear (Opuntia stricta), the latter brought to Australia in the hope of establishing a cochineal industry but the plant has become an invasive pest in drier parts of the country.
As well as peaches, a loquat, bananas and a medlar, there is a Devonshire Quarrenden apple, known to have been grown in England since about 1685.
At ground level, a pinkfruited ‘‘rough’’ pineapple with prickly stems flourishes with little attention, while the selfsown patch of African horned cucumber or kiwano (Cucumis metuliferus) would be the envy of New Zealand gardeners who have struggled to get it to grow.
I spot a jam melon, the first I’ve seen in decades, and an immature Atlantic Giant pumpkin, underlining how well all this family grows in Sydney.
Anita grows only four tomato varieties — Red Pear, Yellow Pear, Riesentraube and the tiny Currant — and five heirloom climbing beans. If modern gardeners might feel her choices limited, they reflect what was grown by one of the great men of Australian colonial history.