GEORGIANA MOLLOY: THE MIND THAT SHINES

It took Bernice Barry 12 years to research and write this extraordinarily fascinating and beautifully written biography, on what could be presumed to be a subject of limited interest. Far from it, Barry’s meticulous attention to the tiniest detail blossoms into a glorious story of a woman who “was strikingly ahead of her time, yet also a woman archetypical of her time”. Best known as Australia’s first and foremost world-acclaimed botanist, Molloy’s collection, shipped in 1838 from Western Australia, caused a stir among botanists, one such including Joseph Paxton, manager to Her Royal Highness’ (Queen Victoria’s) estates. Molloy had eight children (one of whom died in infancy and another drowned in a well) with sea captain husband John Molloy in remote

Augusta. Born to English heiress Elizabeth Kennedy, “Miss Georgy” had a complex relationship with her mother. Mourning the death of her father in a riding accident – debt-ridden, he cast a shadow over the family – Georgiana left her beloved River Avon childhood playground after her jealous widowed mother, just six years older than suitor Molloy, mistook his courting for herself. (Barry says he may also have flirted with Georgiana’s elder, alcoholic sister Eliza.) “Georgiana said she was surprised that, after never liking children, her own baby seemed so engaging that it would even stop her from gardening.” The seed collector died from an infection soon after the birth of her eighth child. Her mother died four weeks later in England. “Two sad letters in black-edged envelopes crossed somewhere at sea.” Superlative.