Wittunga Botanic Garden - part of History Week: Keith takes in some fresh air and the beauty of this wonderful garden in the Adelaide Hills region of South Australia
Ask anybody how many Botanic Gardens are there in the Adelaide area they would come up with the Adelaide Botanic Garden in North Terrace and at Mount Lofty. But there's a third garden - Wittunga Botanic Garden. It's not as big as the other two but it is a giant tale of personal passion and generosity.
Just 30 minutes from Adelaide - on Shepherd's Hills Road, Wittunga is 14 hectares of botanical utopia smack bang in the middle of Blackwood.
We asked Helena Jenkinson, President of the Friends of the Botanic Gardens, to show us around the lesser known of her charges. She told us it's the result of the Ashby family's passion for all things horticulture.
Helena Jenkinson, President of the Friends of the Botanic Gardens: "It was established by Edwin Ashby in 1902 as a mixed farm."
Edwin Ashby - Quaker, naturalist, philanthropist and true believer in hard work cleared the bush to establish his exotic garden and a sprawling and very productive orchard of apples and pears.
As the old saying goes, 'adversity breeds diversity' so when water quality in the dam deteriorated, Edwin and his son, Keith's fascination for plant collecting took over and Wittunga became home to a sprawling collection of Australian Natives and their South African cousins.
Helena Jenkinson: "He was a great collector. Apparently his wife was very poorly but she more or less ran the property from her bed while he was off collecting plants. Then, after a bushfire went through in 1934 he really concentrated on the garden itself - he built the terraces, the Maluka beds and another section he called the 'never never'. It's massive. So it was a huge property."
His plant collecting took him far afield - even spending several weeks bumping around in his old jalopy in the West Australian bush. Decades on, many of the plants he collected survive in the very same stonewall raised beds he built for them.
Helena Jenkinson: "The Maluka Beds are named after Edwin Ashby. They called him Maluka which I think comes from 'the boss' from the book 'We of the Never Never' by Aeneas Gunn. It was written about the same time as he was planting this up. He was trying to emulate the sandy areas of Western Australia so he built them up for good drainage and he brought in lots of sand."
The Ashby's were particularly fascinated with the relationship between plants from the south west of Australia and South Africa. Here you can see the botanical link with the great geographical phenomena of Gondwana - the ancient supercontinent.
One section is given over to South African and in another, Kangaroo Island. Helena Jenkinson: "This area is mainly Kangaroo Island plants, a lot of which were planted by the children from Kangaroo Island. Except for one great big tree which is a Kangaroo Island Mallee planted from a seed that Edwin Ashby collected when he went to KI. It's the tree they use to make Kangaroo Island eucalyptus oil and if you hold it up to the light you can see the little spots in the leaves - that's the eucalyptus oil."
Edwin Ashby died in 1941 and his son Keith, donated Wittunga to the state in 1965 - and we're glad he did. It's been managed by the Botanic Gardens of Adelaide ever since - and is now a living lesson on waterwise gardening.
Helena Jenkinson: "It's really a showpiece garden. If you want to cut down your water usage, come here, see the plants that are thriving and they are the plants that should be in your garden perhaps."
Wittunga Botanic Garden is on Shepherd's Hill Road in Blackwood and it's open every day of the year and it's free. If you have any further questions please email info@postcards-sa.com.au
As part of History Week, the Friends of the Gardens will be running special tours of Wittunga at 10.30 every day. History Week kicks off on Friday May 21 and runs until Sunday May 30. There are heaps of activities right around the state - check out the full program at www.historyweek.sa.gov.au
Wittunga Botanic Garden
Shepherd's Hill Rd
Blackwood
Weekdays 8.30 am - 4 pm
Weekends & public holidays 10 am - 5 pmHistory Week
21 - 30 May 2010
www.historyweek.sa.gov.auPublished 16th May 2010
