On the Thursday 16thOctober we set off to the Maranoa Gardens very close by in Balwyn. Here we had our morning tea, organized by our favorite bus driver, Hayden.
Suitably refreshed we met up with Paul and Andrea, our guides for the morning. We divided into 2 groups and spent nearly 2 hours admiring the beautiful array of native plants in this extensive garden.
At the conclusion of our tour, Jane presented Paul and Andrea with some native plants donated by the club. These were purchased from Jonathon and Scott who spoke at our AGM in August about their Young Achievement Australia initiative. Frank dug the hole and Jane, Paul and Andrea planted the first seedling.
On leaving the gardens we headed for lunch in Kew at the ‘Skinny Dog’ Hotel. We enjoyed our lunch in the lovely sunny Bistro, starting with a large platter of dips and bread, followed by our delicious (and also large) main course.
After lunch we set off to visit Vila Alba Museum, just off Studley Park Road Kew, to have a tour of the garden and house.
Our tour started in the Villa Alba garden, which was re developed in 2001 by Sydney landscape architect, Dr James Broadbent to reflect the original form of the late nineteenth century landscape. Broadbent used many resources, including old aerial photos and field notebooks to assist with the rebuilding and planting of the garden.
The garden has been named the R.J.Hamer Heritage Garden as a reminder of the contribution Sir Rupert Hamer gave to Villa Alba as inaugural Chairman and Patron.
The plants are mostly new and are a mixture of ordinary and special varieties, some of which have been sourced by the public. Some areas are awaiting the availability of certain species, and other elements are waiting on funding. Maintenance and management of the garden is done by an ever growing band of volunteers.
After our tour of the garden we continued inside where we were presented with a most sumptuous afternoon tea in the vestibule.
Villa Alba is managed by a community based body called the Villa Alba Preservation Committee, who has resolved to restore the house and establish a museum and resource centre of nineteenth century interior decoration. It houses one of the most important examples of late 19thCentury decoration in Australia. There are many examples of painted, stenciled and gilded decoration as well as trompe l’oeilceiling decorations. The restoration work is painstaking as many of the walls have been painted over and requires great skill not to destroy the scenes underneath.
We were given a guided tour of the house and shown a video in the Drawing Room. It was a most enjoyable and interesting day visiting two such diverse gardens in our local area.
