http://davidsonfamilyarchives.blogspot.com.au
Friends Cottage is the headquarters of the Friends of the Royal Tasmanian Botanical Gardens. It has a display of historic photos of the Gardens with a selection on Botanists, Illustrators and Collectors.
Friends Cottage is the headquarters of the Friends of the Royal Tasmanian Botanical Gardens. It has a display of historic photos of the Gardens with a selection on Botanists, Illustrators and Collectors.
The Cottage was built in 1848 and home of the Overseer or Head Gardener for many years. Many employees of the Gardens lived there until the last family inhabited it in the early 1980s. After being restored in 1998 the Cottage was offered to the Friends of the Royal Tasmanian Botanical Gardens as their headquarters.
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| Friends Cottage - photo taken 2006 |
Display wording at Friend’s Cottage,
Botanical Gardens, Hobart.
The Gardens began 1818.
The Royal Tasmanian Botanical Gardens began
as a Government garden in 1818.
It was intended to be used to acclimatize
fruit and vegetables for use in the fledgling colony.
When Lieutenant Governor George Arthur
arrived in 1824 he found the gardens neglected and with the exception of the
Cook, it had no permanently assigned workers.
He immediately ordered four convicts to be sent from the penitentiary
for a few hours work each day.
“It was my wish that a Botanical Garden be
proceeded with in the Domain and I had hoped it might have commenced this
season nothing having been done in collecting plants and shrubs etc. with which
the colony abounds.
It is discreditable not to stir in this and
I am anxious about it as I find it remarked by strangers.”
Letter to the Colonial Secretary by
Lieutenant Governor George Arthur 1828.
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| The Gardens began 1818 |
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| A well watered garden |
In November 1828 Arthur appointed twenty
four year old William Davidson as the first Superintendant of the Gardens.
Davidson had won medals for melons,
mushrooms and asparagus in England
and had arrived in Van Diemans Land with capital, trees, grapevines, seeds,
cuttings and letters of introduction.
Arthur was delighted.
Davidson was appointed on a 100 pound
salary and with a cottage to be built in the Gardens for him. He proved to be the right man for the job and
the Gardens developed quickly.
By 1829 he was building fences and mushroom
beds, negotiating with the army for the supply of horse dung and ordering seeds
from England.
By 1830 he had twelve gardeners and twelve
convicts and had cleared and enclosed thirteen acres.
By 1831 the Gardens contained more than one
hundred and thirty species of native plants and he was exporting seed to England.
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| William Davidson appointed Superintendent 1828 |
Early days of the Gardens.
There were mixed feelings about the Gardens
in its early days. Powerful arguments existed both for and against its
establishment and there was anger at the running costs. It was alternately seen as the pride of Hobart Town
and as one of George Arthur’s greatest follies.
“This morning I went up to the Governor’s
garden having not been there for more than six months and I found it very
beautiful with prodigious quantity of fruit of every kind”.
Rev. Knopwood’s Diary - February 18th,
1834.
“Now it is very evident, what with the loss
of interest in not selling the Domain – and the direct expense of maintaining
so many workmen, that unless the cost is met in some manner or shape, a serious
incubus is placed on the Colonial resources in forcing people to support so
many labourers. We know of no advantage
whatever these Hobart
Town Gardens
are to the public …….
Extract from a letter appearing in “The
Colonial Times” - September 16, 1834.
(It is interesting to note that John
Macdougall and his son John C.Macdougall were the owners and publishers of “The
Colonial Times” from 1839 to 1857. The grandson of John Macdougall, William
Macdougall married Sarah Allason in 1876.
After William Davidson died in 1837, his wife Elizabeth married Edward
Allason. Sarah was a daughter of Elizabeth and Edward Allason. A small world).
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| Early days in the Gardens |
William Davidson appointed
Superintendent & “Cabbage Bag” Affair.
The Gardens have always had
challenges. Its continued existence has
only come as a result of the efforts of dedicated workers and skilled
advocates.
Some of these people however, paid a high
personal price in return.
When William Davidson first arrived in Hobart Town
he sought a meeting with Governor Arthur.
The Governor rarely met with common people, but in this case allowed
Davidson his introduction.
Shortly after their meeting, Davidson
decided to try his luck in Sydney,
but soon decided he did not like it and returned, this time to Launceston. He had 500 pounds, just enough capital to
entitle him to a grant of land. He
promptly applied to the Governor for one, but Arthur, who remembered the young
man, had other plans.
Instead of granting him his land, the
Governor asked the Commandant at Launceston to meet with Davidson and propose
that he take charge of the Government
Gardens.
Eventually Davidson was convinced with the
incentive of a decent salary, a ration and a place to live.
The Commandant reported that Davidson had
agreed, but added:
“In going to Hobart Town
he would, of course, be obliged to make some sacrifices”.
These sacrifices included leaving behind a
vineyard he had planted with two hundred vines he had brought from England,
a planting of three hundred trees and of course his land grant.
This was the background to Davidson’s
appointment.
The circumstances of his departure from the
Gardens, as reported in “The Colonial Times”, gives us an insight into
conditions in the Colony at that time.
“Colonel Arthur and his suite were taking
an afternoon ride in the Domain, about a fortnight since, when they met a man
with a sack containing something. His
Excellency’s curiosity – Paul Pry like – induced him to ask the man what it
contained and in answer to which the man replied vegetables. It soon appeared that the vegetables came
from Colonel Arthur’s garden, for so the man gave His Excellency to understand.
His Excellency ordered the man forthwith to
show the contents of the sack when, wonderful to relate, the luxuries it
contained astonished all present.
The first dip into the bag brought out a
turnip, the second dip a cabbage, and the third dip a carrot. His Excellency’s curiosity increased and
withal the dignity of a Governor he determined to investigate the cabbage bag
affair officially. An orderly was sent
to fetch the Superintendent. He arrived
and before him on the ground in marshal array, as witness against him – four
cabbages, four turnips, four cauliflowers, around these, drawn up under arms,
His Excellency’s suite in awful suspense waiting to see the effect these
vegetable witnesses would have upon the poor astounded Superintendent. The bag carrier was then called upon to give
his evidence.
He said that he had taken tea and sugar to
the Superintendent from the Commissariat, and that he had in return brought
these vegetables back with him for one of the clerks – the plot thickened, an
apparent case of selling Government property appeared, although the broad arrow
was not upon the turnips – the case was adjourned.
On investigating the matter of the “cabbage
bag”, it was discovered that Davidson required the tea and sugar for men
planning a seed collecting trip into the interior. A requisition had been forwarded to the
Commissariat and approved.
Davidson was innocent of any wrong doing.
Arthur dismissed him anyway, apparently for
supplying the vegetables to a lowly clerk.
After only six years in the job, Davidson
had turned the Gardens into a productive and popular place. He never received his land grant and died a
few years later leaving a young wife and two small children. He was 33.
It turned out that the vegetables in the
sack had probably been destined to lie on the ground and rot or to feed the
Governor’s cows. After Davidson’s death,
Arthur admitted that the young man had been treated badly by “the Government".
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| William Davidson appointed Superintendent of Government Gardens |
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| Cabbage Bag Affair |
Honey & Apiculture
European honey bees, (Apismellifera), were
first introduced to Tasmania in 1831 by
Dr.T.B.Wilson RN, who was a Surgeon on convict transports from England. A hive was established at the Government Gardens and by 1832, a tribute was paid
to Superintendent William Davidson for the successful management of the hive
and production of honey.
The success of this endevour is illustrated
by the supply of a hive to Governor Bourke in Sydney by Lieutenant Governor Arthur. etc.etc.
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| Honey and Apiculture |
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| Honey and Apiculture |
Superintendent’s house.
Governor Arthur appointed William Davidson
as the first Superintendent of the Gardens in 1828. As part of his renumeration, Davidson was to
have a house built for him within the grounds of the Government Gardens.
The building now used as administration
offices was his home.
Before 1824, the quality of the local
building stone had not been recognized.
Both Davidson’s residence and the present Government House – which was
built later - ……..
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| Superintendent's House |
……….prepared freestone blocks on the
northern side were for use of the Superintendent and his family.
On the opposite side of the court yard, two
rooms – with walls of rubble construction were for the Garden’s Gang, the
convicts who maintained the Gardens. Six were housed in one room and four in
the other. The windows on the northern
side are of gothic revival design.
The building has been modified greatly over
the years, and much of the original charm has been lost. Extensive alterations were carried out in
1917 with an allocation of 550 pounds approved by a Parliamentary vote. A further gothic revival window was added in
the early 1970s to the once uncovered wall on the left side of the entrance,
……..etc.etc.
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| Superintendent's house, now Administration Office |
Arthur Wall
This striking feature of the Garden was
initiated by William Davidson in 1830 – some two years after his
appointment. Three hundred and thirty
feet long, it is constructed from locally made brick on one side and sandstone
on the other.
Anticipating a cold antipodean climate,
Davidson had it permeated by a system of ducts and flues, carrying warm air
from furnaces burning at the southern end, to heat the stonework and thus
protect espaliered fruit trees planted against it.
The Tasmanian climate being what it is, the
trees proved not to need the extra heat and the furnaces were not used for
long. The chimneys have been home to
bush tailed possums since.
Although not useful in the way Davidson had
planned, the wall did prove effective in keeping the public out. It also supported a glasshouse which enabled
Davidson to grow exotic fruit.
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| Arthur Wall |
Pineapple House
Not content with just a heated wall, the
imaginative Davidson aspired to building glasshouses along its length, Governor
Arthur applied the fiscal brakes and financed only fifty feet.
Davidson could see that Tasmania offered as yet unexamined
possibilities in growing exotic fruit, and to this end he had brought with him
an array of species. Among these were
two hundred pineapple plants, about which he was fast developing an obsession.
With some modifications to the glasshouses
(which were built with one side formed by the heated wall) he managed to grow
and harvest his pineapples.
The venture was not a financial success and
the experiment ran only a short time.
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| Pineapple House |
Main Gates
The building of the Arthur Wall and the
layout of the Pinetum have, since 1830, dictated that the approach to the
Gardens should be via a long avenue.
Access to the Gardens was, however, via a small inconspicuous door at
the southern end of the wall making the entrance less than impressive.
Eardley-Wilmot Wall.
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| Main Gates |
Sir John Eardley-Wilmot became Governor in
1843 and one of his responsibilities was the Gardens.
(It is interesting to note the son of Sarah
& William Macdougall, Rev Leslie S. Macdougall, and grandson of Elizabeth & Edward
Allason (William Davidson’s wife) lived in the house once owned by Sir John
Eardley-Wilmot, in New Norfolk in 1912-1914. A small world!)
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| Eardley-Wilmot Wall |
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| "Colonial Times" Editor writes! |
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| Lady Jane Franklin wrote in 1842 |
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| "Cabbage Bag" affair |
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| By-laws of the Garden |
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| The public have free admission to the Gardens every day of the week. |
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| Food rotting on the ground |
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| Sir William Dennison 1880 |
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| Colonists go hungry while food lays on the ground |
If you have any corrections or comments please contact the author, Joy Olney via email.
If there are any Davidson descendants out there I would appreciate your contact via email:
joyolney@gmail.com
You might like to view my other blogs - https://sites.google.com/site/joysblogs123/
