Paul de Serville

Paul de Serville reviews ‘Gardenesque: A celebration of Australian gardening’ by Richard Aitken and ‘The Oxford Companion to Australian Gardens’ edited by Richard Aitken and Michael Looker

December 2004–January 2005, no. 267 • 01 December 2004

Gardening is as old as the British settlement of Australia, but its popularity among the expanding middle classes has blossomed throughout the continent over the last forty years. The annual guide published by Australia’s Open Garden Scheme with the ABC, and Louise Earwaker and Neil Robertson’s The Open Garden (2000), attest to the variety of gardening styles practised today. Garden history, ... (read more)

Paul de Serville reviews ‘Steadfast Knight: A life of Sir Hal Colebatch’ by Hal G.P. Colebatch

April 2005, no. 270 • 01 April 2005

‘If goods cannot cross frontiers, armies will.’ This prescient remark was made by the Western Australian politician Sir Hal Colebatch, well before the German and Japanese armies started their march in 1936. In a federation not lacking in strong state politicians – Thomas Playford, Henry Bolte, Don Dunstan, Joh Bjelke-Petersen, Charles Court and Jeff Kennett come to mind for the twentieth cen ... (read more)

Paul de Serville reviews ‘The Last Explorer: Hubert Wilkins: Australia’s unknown hero’ by Simon Nasht

December 2005–January 2006, no. 277 • 01 December 2005

Australia has never been so prodigal of great men that it can afford to let even one slip into oblivion; yet George Hubert Wilkins (1888–1958) is now hardly a household name. In a life of ceaseless activity, he was a photographer, naturalist, meteorologist, geographer, aviator, submariner, war correspondent, religious thinker, and writer, but he was best known as a celebrated polar explorer. His ... (read more)

Paul de Serville reviews 'Robert Hoddle: Pioneer Surveyor, 1794-1881' by Berres Hoddle Colville

August 2004, no. 263 • 01 August 2004

Of the two groups who opened up Australia to settlement, the squatters have created about their persons a huge library, both admiring and critical. The surveyors, who followed in their footsteps, have rarely captured the imagination (with the exception of Sir Thomas Mitchell and Colonel Light) but their influence, especially in metropolitan Australia, has been incalculable. The site of Melbourne w ... (read more)

Paul de Serville reviews 'Colonial Consorts: The wives of Victoria’s governors, 1839–1900' by Marguerite Hancock

October 2001, no. 235 • 01 October 2001

Nineteenth-century Victoria was reputed one of Britain’s most turbulent colonies. For more than twenty-five years, a liberal Legislative Assembly fought a conservative Legislative Council over reform of the constitution, control of Crown Lands, Protectionism and secular education. In the middle ground between the forces stood the governor, the umpire who was the Queen’s representative, the fou ... (read more)

Paul de Serville reviews 'The Unusual Life Of Edna Walling' Sara Hardy

June–July 2005, no. 272 • 01 June 2005

Much has been written on Edna Walling’s gardens, first by herself, later by garden historians, although no detailed account of her early career has been attempted, and less still is generally known of her private life. With a play on Walling to her credit (1987), Sara Hardy presents an account of her private life (1895–1973) and of her early career. Of her childhood in Plymouth, Walling wrote ... (read more)