Celebrating women in horticulture on International Women’s Day

By Joanna Cave, CEO GIA
 

There are many women working in horticulture that I admire: landscape designer Fiona Brockhoff, Jennie Churchill the garden writer and our own Karen Brock and Elaine Duncan, both industry leaders in the fields of plant production. But on International Women’s Day, I am drawn to honouring those women who forged careers in this industry at a time when most women were expected to be homemakers. These are just a few of my personal heroes. Their contributions would have always been remarkable, but are especially so in the context of their time:  

Marian Ellis Rowan (1848-1922) took up botanical illustration to “pass the time”. Ellis, as she called herself – possibly to disguise her gender - was entirely untrained yet swiftly found an appreciative audience for her botanically precise yet beautiful work, which was exhibited internationally and awarded countless prizes. In 1905, Rowan embarked on an ambitious mission to find and illustrate every species of wildflower in Australasia. Travelling in often challenging conditions, she contracted malaria several times. Her work culminated in an exhibition in Sydney of more than 1000 paintings in 1920, including many previously unclassified wildflowers. Rowan was widowed at a young age and lost her only child to suicide yet remained committed to her career for the duration of her life. Today her works are held in several Australian museums and are wonderful to experience first-hand.

Edna Walling (1895-1973) is of course one of Australia’s most celebrated garden designers and journalists and a favourite of mine. Born in Yorkshire, England she arrived in Melbourne as a teenager and enrolled at Burnley College to study horticulture. Apparently a mediocre student, Walling was however hardworking and strong, embracing those roles traditionally thought of as belonging to men, an approach she retained in her practice as a garden designer, insisting on undertaking many of the physical tasks herself. As her exquisite design drawings testify, Walling had the discipline of an architect, but she was also deeply sensitive to landscape, believing firmly that “nature is our greatest teacher”. It was Walling who bemused her moneyed clients by throwing potatoes over her shoulder to determine tree placements and insisted that spoil heaps be left where they were (rather than tidied up) to be eventually claimed by the garden.  Walling designed over 300 gardens, becoming a household name as a designer and taste-maker, was a canny business woman, an expert self-publicist, an accomplished photographer and a skilled builder. Several of Walling’s gardens are still extant and whenever I visit one, I enjoy imagining the colourful Walling, striding about the property in her signature riding jodhpurs (accessorised occasionally with a Viking helmet) finding ways to make the new project “as wild as it can be”.

Dr Joyce Winifred Vickery MBE (1908-1979) studied botany at the University of Sydney and, after receiving her Master’s Degree in 1933, was offered a role as assistant botanist at the National Herbarium of New South Wales.  Because the salary on offer was less than was paid to men with the same qualifications, Vickery turned it down. Her astounded prospective employers had the good sense to negotiate and, with an increased pay offer Vickery took up the position, working at the National Herbarium for the duration of her career. Vickery almost single-handedly revived taxonomic research. She was responsible for the painstaking revision of the Australian grass family Gramineae (now known as Poaceae), a notoriously difficult group to classify, and is credited with the joint discovery of Lomandra hystrix. However, it was in 1960 when she achieved public acclaim as an expert witness in a high-profile kidnap and murder trial. It was Vickery’s analysis of crime scene plant matter found on the suspect’s clothes which resulted in a conviction. Reading the trial transcripts offers a fascinating insight into the early role played by forensic botany.

Eileen Bradley (1911 – 1976) & Joan Bradley (1916 – 1982). The Bradley sisters were walking their dogs through bush reserve in the Mosman suburb of Sydney in the 1960s when they started systematically pulling up the weeds that did not belong amongst the native flora. They observed that their interventions enabled the bush to naturally regenerate and from this humble beginning, an entirely new system of bush regeneration was developed. These unlikely eco-warrior siblings recruited friends and volunteers to help scale up the effort, insisting that three principles must always be followed to ensure success. The Bradley Method, which was taught to me when I studied horticulture, is still followed by bush care volunteers all over Australia and is undoubtedly responsible for the preservation of many hectares of natural landscape.

Aunty Frances Bodkin (1937- ) Frances Bodkin is a descendent of the D’harawal people of the Bidiagal clan. She is an environmental scientist, botanist, climatologist, author and gifted storyteller. Combining the knowledge passed down from her Aboriginal mother with her university education, Bodkin has a unique and holistic understanding of the natural environment and ways to care for it. She also works as an Education Officer at the Mount Annan branch of the Australian Botanic Gardens. I live quite close to Mount Annan, and it is a favourite place of mine to visit. If you ever get the chance to go there, be sure to join a tour or a workshop led by Aunty Fran; it will an experience you will not forget. Listening to her explain how the behaviour of sugar ants can foretell rain or bushfires and how the growth of Gymea lilies can signal the commencement of whale migration is extraordinary and humbling.  

Elsewhere in this edition you can read interviews with some of our female colleagues working in the industry today whose work builds on the legacy of the women who went before, not only the trailblazers but also the many unsung women who have contributed over years to the greenlife industry. On this International Women’s Day, we salute them all.

Regards,
Jo Cave
CEO – Greenlife Industry Australia