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Guest Article from Liz Kerr: Edna Walling is one of the best-known names in Australian gardening, particularly so here in Victoria, where she lived most of her working life. She was born in England in 1896 and her family migrated to Australia when she was a young girl. She graduated from the Burnley Horticultural College in Melbourne in 1916 and went on to become perhaps the most famous garden designer in Australia. Her talents were not confined to design - she wrote regularly for magazines and produced four books in her lifetime Gardens in Australia, Cottage and garden in Australia, A gardener's log and The Australian roadside. These books are now quite scarce and have become very collectible. There is a collection of her very beautiful coloured garden design drawings in the La Trobe Library in Melbourne, although many of the original plans have been retained by the owners of the gardens. She was a very talented photographer and all her books are illustrated with black and white photographs of her gardens and the Australian landscape. Edna Walling's life and work has inspired a number of books, the most recent having been published in 1998 (The vision of Edna Walling by Trisha Dixon and Jennie Churchill, which contains 50 of her watercolour plans accompanied by photographs of the gardens today). Another book published in 1988 The garden magic of Edna Walling edited by Margaret Barrett was inspired by thousands of unpublished photographs and manuscripts found crammed into an old suitcase after Wallings death. A strong feature of her gardens are what Walling called "architecture in the garden" - the use of walls, steps, seats, pergolas, statues, ironwork, pools and fountains. Early in her career she became enchanted by stone walls and she used these extensively in her work; she also used or created natural stone outcrops. Ellis Stones (author of Australian garden design built many dry walls and made other stonework for Edna Walling; he was encouraged by her to change from his original occupation of builder/carpenter to garden landscaper. Walling is the most influential and probably the best-remembered of the early garden designers, but several other women graduated from Burnley Horticultural College in the early years of this century. Women were allowed to enrol from 1903 onwards, amid some controversy, and the course was one year. Olive Mellor (nee Holttum) was the first woman to complete the two year scholarship course to receive a Diploma of Horticulture in 1915. Go To Page: 1 2
The copyright of the article Burnley College and early women landscapers. in Alpines and Bulbs is owned by Gary Buckley. Permission to republish Burnley College and early women landscapers. in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
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