August 17th, 2024Celebrating Daylesford’s Wombat Hill Botanic Gardens

The Friends of Wombat Hill Botanic Gardens were planning their annual Taylor and Sangster Lecture for 2024 when president Frank Page considered the possibility of growing that event into a full-blown celebration of the wintry gardens.

The Friends have always marveled at the unique beauty of Wombat Hill, even in the worst days of cold, fog and rain. Time to celebrate and share the unlikely joys of a challenging season.

Frank orchestrated a partnership with the Daylesford and District Horticultural Society, Historical Society, Agricultural Society and U3A to fill the weekend of August 3 and 4 with informative talks and walks, great conviviality and even a competitive opportunity for the local community and visitors alike.

Thanks go to the organising committee – Frank Page, Denise Robinson, Patrice O’Shea, John Binnion, Don Harvey, Gary Lawrence and Annie Duncan. Between them they produced four fascinating talks, a walking tour of the significant trees on Wombat Hill, an exhibition at the Daylesford Museum, a magical winter dinner in the Town Hall, two lavish teas and an inaugural Winter Flower Show.

Speakers were Janet O’Hehir, honorary curator of the Camperdown Botanic Gardens, Helen Botham and Helen Page, both active horticulturalists and garden historians – Helen Botham especially connected with Governor La Trobe and his gardening and Helen Page, former president of the Garden History Society.

Local tree enthusiast John Beetham led a walk around the gardens highlighting the remarkable collection of very important trees that our bracing climate and deep volcanic soil have preserved over the past century and which we also have a profound duty to preserve.

Peter Leigh spoke at the dinner on Hellebores – Winter Wonders in the Garden. Peter breeds beautiful hellebores in Ashbourne and has made significant donations of plant material to Wombat Hill Botanic Gardens over many years.

The huge collection of these extraordinary and diverse blooms currently lighting up the gardens was part of the motivation to time the event in what could be seen as horticultural downtime. Any visitors to the gardens over the weekend will realise that this is far from true.

The dinner, pictured above, itself was a celebration of the warmth of good food and good company in a stunning setting created by Denise Robinson and her team of indefatigable helpers.

The abundance of colour, fragrance and form that the winter garden actually provides was clearly evident at the Flower Show where 171 entries vied for rosettes and sashes in the great tradition of friendly competition between home gardeners.

Also on show at the Alf Headland Conservatory was the work of two local artists. Miriam Porter’s installation of her sculptures of local birds and huge, wonderful conifer seeds was an extraordinary show of her considerable talent.

Marcia DeVincentis shared her exquisite and quite arresting botanical paintings. Their colour and detail just underlined the potential and richness of the season.

The exhibition at the Museum was another fascinating exploration of the depth of the collection held by the Daylesford and District Historical Society and a wonderfully nostalgic experience for those of us who already appreciate or have just discovered Daylesford and Wombat Hill and its remarkable heritage.

This excellent show will be open to the public each weekend this month. So many individuals put so much work into making the weekend the triumph it was, and we thank them most sincerely.

Grants were received from Hepburn Shire and Community Bank Daylesford District. BigginScott provided the huge and eye-catching signage outside the gardens, a game changer in advertising. And they organised the presentation of the botanical artwork in the Conservatory.

But the prime mover, guiding hand and vision for what was a heroic collaboration of community groups and a significant showcase of our district was Frank Page, and many thanks must go to him for his extraordinarily hard work and perseverance.

Words & images: Contributed