Blue Mountains Botancia e-Catalogue

BLUE MOUNTAINS

BOTANICA

A Blue Mountains City Art Gallery exhibition curated by Sabrina Roesner.

Developed in partnership with the Royal Botanic Gardens and Domain Trust.

Cover image: Telopea speciosissima, botanical illustration from Curtis’s Botanical Magazine, 1808.

Image courtesy Royal Botanic Gardens and Domain Trust

Blue Mountains Botanica 25 August - 14 October 2018 A Blue Mountains City Art Gallery exhibition curated by Sabrina Roesner

Developed in partnership with the Royal Botanic Gardens and Domain Trust The exhibition was supported by Leura Gardens Festival and the Blue Mountains Botanic Garden, Mount Tomah

BLUE MOUNTAINS BOTANICA The Greater Blue Mountains, an area of over one million hectares of vast and ancient eucalypt-dominated wilderness and spectacular national parks, were inscribed into the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2000 for their unique biodiversity, demonstrating the outstanding evolution of plant life in Australia. They are made up of eight connected conservation areas: The Wollemi, Yengo, Gardens of Stone, Blue Mountains, Kanangra-Boyd, Nattai and Thirlmere Lakes National Parks, and Jenolan Karst Conservation Reserve.

For more than two centuries the unique vegetation of this region has provided a rich treasure trove for some of Australia’s most notable botanists and botanical illustrators.

By naming and documenting a myriad of plant species they paved the way for today’s conservation and research efforts. Developed in partnership with the Royal Botanic Gardens and Domain Trust Blue Mountains Botanica delves into the history of botanical exploration of the Blue Mountains featuring historical botanical illustrations, plant specimens and archival material drawn from the National Herbarium of NSW, the Daniel Solander Library and the Blue Mountains Botanic Garden, Mount Tomah.

The exhibition presents seven segments: Firstly, we follow the journey of the early botanical explorers to the Blue Mountains and their attempts to document the unique plant world of this region. George Caley and his friend and companion Darug Man (Daniel) Moowat’tin, Robert Brown, Allan Cunningham, Henry Deane and Joseph Maiden, amongst many others, were instrumental in identifying, collecting and naming a large number of plants in the Mountains. These discoveries and records are of great significance to today’s plant classification, conservation and research efforts and many of them are held in the collections of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Australia’s oldest scientific institution for botany and horticulture, and the National Herbarium of New South Wales, which holds Australia’s largest reference collections of botanical specimens.

In the next part of the exhibition we explore the complex process and the many steps involved from the collection of the specimens in their natural habitat, through to their identification, classification and storage for future research.

In the segmentThe Art & Science of Botanical Illustration we examine why and how botanical illustration plays a vital role in the identification and documentation of plants.

Drawn from the collection of the National Herbarium of NSW and the Daniel Solander Library the next exhibition segment presents a range of historical botanical specimens collected in the Blue Mountains by some of the early botanists. Rare cotype specimens and matching botanical prints dating as far back as 1794 are on display together with watercolour illustrations from convict artist Joseph Lycett.

The Greater Blue Mountains have been – and always will be – home to its traditional custodians, the Darkinjung, Darug, Dharawal, Gundungurra, Wanaruah and Wiradjuri Peoples through their ongoing presence, traditional and contemporary practices, and relationship with this region. The Aboriginal Peoples of this area hold an immense and invaluable knowledge about the land and its natural resources and the Blue Mountains region is of great cultural significance to them. Each plant, animal, place and event holds living stories which are passed down through generations via oral traditions.

Blue Mountains City Art Gallery pays respect to the Elders past and present and acknowledges that this exhibition was held on the traditional lands of the Darug and Gundungurra Peoples.

In Connection to Country we examine the many ways in which the local traditional owners care for Country today and play a vital role in the conservation of the Blue Mountains region.

The Blue Mountains are home to a variety of rare and endemic plant taxa, including relict flora such as the Wollemi pine, one of the world’s oldest and rarest plants. Looking at current conservation and research efforts the next section of the exhibition explores how the Royal Botanic Gardens and Domain Trust, NSW National Parks and the Office for Environment and Heritage undertake extensive scientific research programs such as the regeneration and propagation of the Wollemi Pine in secret locations across the Mountains.

The unique landscape and biodiversity of the Blue Mountains has always been a drawcard for artists and creatives and many of them are inspired by the unique plant life of this region. In the segment Contemporary Botanica we explore the work of contemporary Blue Mountains and Sydney artists and botanical illustrators who incorporate botanical elements in their practice.

Exhibiting artists are James Blackwell, Tania Bowers, Ona Janzen, Jennifer Leahy, Angela Lober, Julie Nettleton, Edith Pass, Edith Rewa and Jacqueline Spedding.

Images top and bottom: Installation view of Blue Mountains Botanica at Blue Mountains City Art Gallery 2018. Photo: Silversalt

EXPLORING & COLLECTING IN THE BLUE MOUNTAINS The first colonial explorers journeyd through the Blue Mountains in the late 18th and early 19th century, trying to find a way across to gain access to the western plains. Amongst them were the first botanists who had travelled to Australia to explore the unique plant life of the new continent. They spent a considerable amount of time in the difficult terrain of rugged sandstone plateaus, steep gorges and the endless wilderness of eucalypt bushland, to explore the uncharted native flora and fauna.

Many of the specimens collected during those days did not remain in Australia but were sent back to Europe – many of them to the Royal Kew Gardens in London.

One of the first colonial botanists and plant collectors to explore the Blue Mountains was George Caley in 1804, commissioned by Sir Joseph Banks. He became the first white man to cross the rugged wilderness of the Grose Valley in the the upper Mountains, which he named the Devil’s Wilderness.

Robert Brown, an English botanist and librarian of Sir Joseph Banks, gave one of the Blue Mountains most iconic plants, the Waratah, its scientific genus Telopea (from Greek: best seen from afar). Brown is also known for his major botanical publication Prodromus Florae Novae Hollandiae et Insulae Van-Diemen (Prodromus of the Flora of New Holland and Van Diemen’s Land) published in 1810, which documents over 2000 plant species that he collected in Australia.

After the successful crossing of the Blue Mountains by white men in 1813 opened a route to the western plains of New South Wales, some of the first government organised botanical research expeditions took place. The superintendents and later directors of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Sydney, which opened in 1816, played a major part in organising botanical expeditions to identify and collect plants across New South Wales, including the lower and upper Blue Mountains.

In 1823, after Archibald Bell discovered a route across the northern Blue Mountains (now called Bells Line of Road), botanist and superintendent of the Royal Botanic Gardens Allan Cunningham went on several excursions to the upper Blue Mountains and discovered a variety of plants, amongst them Alania endlicheri – a small cliffdwelling lily – found only in the upper Blue Mountains.

In 1836, the 26-year old Charles Darwin, who had arrived in Australia on the HMS Beagle, travelled to what is now known as Wentworth Falls in the Blue Mountains. Many credit his visit to the Mountains, where he experienced the

grandeur of the Jamison Valley and studied some of Australia’s fauna, as a strong influence on his later discoveries.

One of the early female botanical collectors and illustrators in the Blue Mountains region was Caroline Louisa Atkinson, who lived at Kurrajong in the 1850s. She collected and illustrated a wide range of botanical specimens and sent them to her friend, German botanist Sir Ferdinand von Müller. Atkinson identified and collected a rare, primitive scrub called Atkinsonia ligustrina, which is only found in a few places in the Blue Mountains.

Joseph Maiden, botanist and director of the Royal Botanic Gardens from 1896 to 1924, undertook many botanical research trips to the lower and upper Blue Mountains. This included many expeditions with the Linnean Society.

In 1901 he extended the National Herbarium of NSW, which is now Australia’s premier scientific institution to collect, identify, document and store Australian and exotic plant specimens.

The Herbarium collection holds a specimen of the Conospermum longifolium – the Long Leaf Smokebush, which Maiden collected in Wentworth Falls in 1898.

Employed by Joseph Maiden as the Royal Botanic Garden’s first botanical illustrator, Margaret Flockton was the talent behind many of the stunning botanical illustrations of Blue Mountains specimens, including one of the region’s best known plants, Telopea speciosissima – the Waratah.

Maiden also contracted independent German plant collector Wilhelm Bäuerlen, who collected in the Grose Valley in 1899. Eucalyptus baeuerlenii, named after him, is a small gum which can be found on sheltered cliff edges in the upper Blue Mountains.

In 1906 Henry Deane, Engineer in Chief of the New South Wales Railways and an avid amateur botanist, discovered the Boronia deanei, or commonly referred to as Deane’s Boronia, while surveying for the Newnes railway. He also recorded the Eucalyptus deanei – the Mountain Blue Gum, one of the tallest trees of the Blue Mountains.

Isobel Bowden, born 1908 in Woodford, was a pioneering conservationist, who spent most of her life in the Blue Mountains and played a major role in the conservation and promotion of the regions unique flora.

From 1950 to 1967 Ernest Constable worked for the Royal Botanic Gardens as a botanical collector in Blackheath, Mount Wilson-Bell and the Mount Tomah area.

Image: The late J.H. Maiden standing on the Old Bathurst Road, Linden from Western District Relics Illustrated by Frank Walker FRAHS, 1914. Local Studies Collection, Blue Mountains City Libraries.

George Caley (1770 - 1829) George Caley was a naturalist and explorer and he worked as a botanical collector for Sir Joseph Banks in Australia from 1800 to 1810. Whilst he also undertook many journeys north, south and west of Sydney, his primary focus were the Blue Mountains. From his residence in Parramatta he ventured into the Mountains many times and in 1804 he made an attempt to find a way across to the western plains. He got as far as the Grose Valley, where he named a location after his commissioner, Mount Banks. In a letter to Sir Joseph Banks he describes the challenges of the almost impenetrable terrain and his impressions of the landscape:

I was out three weeks which was as long as I was able to abide for the want of provisions.The rough map of the country I found beyond description. I can not give you a more expressive idea than travelling over the tops of the houses in a town.1 Much of Caley’s success in navigating the Blue Mountains and discoveries of new plants can be credited to him realising and accessing the wealth of knowledge and skills of the local Aboriginal People. He was able to record a lot of in-depth information about native birds and plants due to the knowledge of the local Indigenous communities and many of his botanical descriptions note the Aboriginal name. He befriended a young Darug man named Moowat’tin (his western name was Daniel), who had been living with a white family since a young age. Moowat’tin became Caley’s guide on many of his excursions and assisted him in gaining knowledge of the area.

During his time in the Mountains Caley became highly skilled in navigating difficult terrain and gained a great appreciation for the unique flora and fauna and its local people. It could be said that he was one of the first true bushwalkers in Australia, yet Caley never quite succeeded in his quest to explore the Mountains further and the physical challenges of the journeys took a heavy toll on his health. Shortly before he left NSW in 1808 he wrote:

deserved and many of his writings including Aboriginal names of birds and plant life have not endured. However he is credited with collecting approximately thirty plant specimens during his excursions to the Blue Mountains and conducted fundamental research on the local eucalypts. A plant that was named after him is Grevillea caleyi, commonly known as Caley’s Grevillea – a rare shrub with long spreading branches, which today is critically endangered. His explorations added greatly to knowledge of the colony’s geography and his botanical specimens constituted a valuable contribution to science.

Robert Brown (1773 - 1858) Robert Brown was a Scottish botanist who took part in Flinders’ expedition to Australia from 1801 to 1805.

Brown met Sir Joseph Banks in 1798 while in London, and heard about Banks taking part in Captain James Cook’s first great voyage. Brown was later introduced to the Linnean Society by Banks and became an associate. This gained him kudos and credibility as a naturalist and opened doors for him to explore and pursue his love for botany. In 1800 he was offered a position as naturalist for an expedition to Australia and in 1801 joined the HMS Investigator on its voyage to Australia via South Africa. Also on this voyage was George Caley, with whom he later became well acquainted.

During his time in Australia, Brown collected extensively in Queensland, New South Wales, South Australia, the Northern Territory and Tasmania. He collected over 4000 specimens of which half were new discoveries, however most of his material was lost in the wreck of the Porpoise in the Great Barrier Reef in August 1803.

I oftentimes occupy my thoughts with what new plants there are in some parts of the Blue Mountains undiscovered, and lament that I am deprived of the means of going thither.2

Brown first described the genus of the iconic Waratah in 1810 (after it was initially described in Smith’s Botany as Embothrium speciosissimum in 1793) from specimens collected in the Blue Mountains. He named it Telopea speciosissima.

The name is derived from the Greek word telepos ‘seen from afar’ and the superlative of the Latin word speciosus ‘beautiful’. The large shrub with bright red flowers is one of the region’s most popular plants and blooms in spring in the sandstone ridges of the upper Blue Mountains.

Due to his strong sense of independence, open dislike of Governor King and critical view on some of the political conditions of the colony, Caley never received the recognition he probably

In New South Wales Brown shared some field trips with George Caley in the Parramatta area, the Blue Mountains across the Nepean and into the lower Grose River. He saw evidence of Caley’s

1 Letter to Joseph Banks from George Caley, dated 16 December 1804, State Library of New South Wales Collection 2 George Caley in 1808, from the Blue Mountains History Journal

ability during these trips. He noted in his diary:

A few plants found … Caley accompanied us … his loquacity, his names of plants generic (…) However he is an observer and should be encouraged … his collection not numerous but well preserved … 1

ALLAN CUNNINGHAM (1791 - 1839) Allan Cunningham was an English botanist and explorer who worked at London’s Kew Gardens before he applied to Sir Joseph Banks to become a plant collector and was sent to Australia in 1816. Cunningham was the first specifically trained botanist to work at the systematic collection of specimens of native flora in the colony. He previously studied under Sir Joseph Banks and Robert Brown, so he was familiar with some of Australia’s botany.

Upon arriving in Australia he based himself in Parramatta from where he undertook many short excursions and collected a variety of plants, which he sent back to the Kew Gardens.

In 1817 he joined John Oxley’s expedition into the country west of the Blue Mountains.

While crossing the Mountains Cunningham collected plants that had previously only been discovered in Van Diemens land (Tasmania) such as Banksia serrata – Old Man Wattle, Lambertia formosa –Mountain Devil and Grevillea acanthifolia, which he first formally described in 1825. Cunningham found the species growing in peaty bogs in the upper Blue Mountains and on the banks of Cox’s River.

In a diary entry from 10 April 1817 Cunningham notes his impression of the Mountains:

Brown held Caley’s work in high regards and was one of the first botanists to examine Caley’s plant specimens and use them for his publications.

In 1810 Brown published his legacy work, the Prodromus Florae Novae Hollandiae et Insulae Van-Diemen (Prodromus of the Flora of New Holland and Van Diemen’s Land), which includes many records of species contributed by Caley such as the Grevillea and Persoonia. On page 329 Brown wrote in his dedication of the orchid genus Caleana in Latin:

Genus pulchrum et valde distinctum dixi in honorem Georgii Caley, botanici periti et accurati …

- in honour of George Caley, a skilful and accurate botanist.

We availed ourselves of the clearness of the morning and the freshness of the atmosphere and walked onward to the 33rd miles, where...an opening presents to us a grand romantic expanse of country; mountains running beyond mountains to the very verge of the horizon, striking thebeholder with admiration and astonishment.

After several other excursions across Australia to Tasmania and the north-west coast of Australia, Cunningham returned to the Blue Mountains with Lieutenant Lawson, the Russian naturalist Fedor Shtein and artist Emel’yan Korneyev in March 1820. Shtein claimed to have sighted gold-bearing ore while in the Mountains, which Cunningham was sceptical of. During their excursion Cunningham pointed out to them the various remarkable features of the region which their limited time enabled them to investigate.

Image:Photograph of Robert Brown,reproduction of albumen print by Maull & Polyblank, 1855.

Collection of the National Portrait Gallery,London 1 From George Caley – Robert Brown’s collecting partner by Joan B. Webb, 2002

While crossing the Blue Mountains Darwin stopped at Wentworth Falls and traversed what is now called the Charles Darwin track. This track follows Jamison Creek to the falls where Darwin recognised the view as ‘exceedingly well worth visiting’. After taking in the view of the Jamison Valley, Darwin documented his thoughts in his journal:

Below is the grand bay or gulf, for I know not what other name to give it, thickly covered with forest. The point of view is situated as it were at the head of the Bay, for the line of cliff diverges away on each side, showing headland, behind headland, as on a bold Sea coast.1

Between 1822 and 1823 Cunningham spent further time botanizing in the area between the Blue Mountains, Bathurst and the Cudgegong River and in 1823 travelled along Bells Line of Road to collect specimens. Alania endlicheri Kunth, which grows on moist sandstone rock faces in sclerophyll forest or cliff-line shrub communities, is named after Cunningham as well as Alania endlicheri, a small, cliff-dwelling lily found only in the higher Blue Mountains.

Of the geological formation of the Blue Mountains Darwin incorrectly concluded that their formation of valleys and ravines was due to an ancient inland sea. He didn’t believe that erosion from rainfall could have contributed to their formation, as he very much underestimated the age of the continent and didn’t believe that enough time could have passed for this to be the reason.

Cunningham returned to England in 1831 to document his extensive work undertaken in Australia and to catalogue many of the specimens he collected. In 1837 he returned to NSW and became the superintendent of the Royal Botanic Gardens, where he remained for only approximately two months before heading off to New Zealand to continue his botanical explorations.

He died in 1839 and his remains are now located near a monument dedicated to him, in the Royal Botanic Gardens. His tombstone is mounted on the wall of the National Herbarium of New South Wales.

Charles Darwin (1809 - 1882) Famous naturalist, biologist and geologist Charles Darwin arrived on board the HMS Beagle in Australia in 1836, when he was 26 years old.

To gain an understanding of the Australian countryside he hired guides and two horses and commenced his journey to Bathurst.

Image top left: reproduction of an engraving of Cunningham from the Picturesque Atlas of Australasia Vol 2, 1886 Image bottom right: Charles Darwin, reproduction of photographic print by Julia Margaret Cameron, ca 1886 1 From Diary of the Voyage of the HMS Beagle by Charles Darwin, Volume 1, 1836

Before departing Australia Darwin had a revelation that would eventually inform his grand theory of evolution by natural selection.

He visited friends west of the Blue Mountains at Wallerawang and examined a platypus and ratkangaroo. He noted that they occupied what is now established as ‘ecological niches’. In his diary he wrote:

Surely two distinct Creators must have been [at] work.2 Darwin realised that similar ecological niches in different parts of the world tend to be occupied by very different species, and that these are related to other species that occur in that part of the world. This realisation was one of the biggest impacts that his visit to Australia had on his ideas which eventually emerged in his famous work On the Origin of Species.

His five-year journey on the HMS Beagle and the records from this time which were published in his journal The Voyage of the Beagle brought him fame and recognition as an eminent geologist and author.

in a number of plants being named after her. She is commemorated in the Loranthaceous (showy mistletoe) genus Atkinsonia.

The species Atkinsonia ligustrina, a small shrub which parasitises the roots of other plants, was first collected by Atkinson. Ferdinand von Müller described the plant in 1861 and named it after her. Other species named after her are Erechtites atkinsoniae, Epacris calvertiana, Helichrysum calvertiana, Xanthosia atkinsoniana and Doodia atkinsonii.

Atkinson’s other passion was writing and she produced a number of articles and fictional works which were published in the Sydney Morning Herald and the Sydney Mail. However the most notable of her works are those dealing with natural history, which together with her botanical drawings she contributed to many journals in Sydney such as the Horticultural Magazine from 1864 to 1870.

In 1869 Atkinson married explorer James Snowden Calvert, a survivor of Leichhardt’s expedition (1844 - 1845), who was also interested in botany. She died young at the age of 38 years from a heart disease.

Caroline Louisa Atkinson (1834 - 1872) Caroline Louisa Atkinson was a botanical illustrator, naturalist, conservationist and science article writer who lived in Fernhurst at Kurrajong Heights in the Blue Mountains. There she collected, studied and drew many plants from the areas of the Grose Valley, Mt Tomah and Springwood. Atkinson championed the cause of conservation and understood the significance of the knowledge of the flora and fauna of the region held by local Aboriginal communities.

Atkinson is also credited with being a somewhat revolutionary when it came to women’s dress codes and would openly promote wearing more practical clothing, suitable for the harsh conditions of the Australian bush.

Atkinson was a friend of German botanist Ferdinand von Müller and reverend Doctor Woolls, a teacher and amateur botanist. She would send them many of the specimens that she collected around the Kurrajong which resulted Image bottom right: Caroline Louisa Atkinson, reproduction of albumen photoprint, background painted out with watercolour, ca. 1879. Collection of the State Library of New South Wales 2 From Diary of the Voyage of the HMS Beagle, by Charles Darwin, Volume 1, October 1836

Wilhelm Bäuerlen (1840 - 1917)

Henry Deane (1847 - 1924)

Wilhelm Bäuerlen was a German independent collector of plant specimens, who from 1883 onwards collected for Ferdinand von Müller, government botanist for the colony of Victoria.

From 1886 he collected for Joseph Maiden, back then curator of the Technological Museum, Sydney and later director of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Sydney. He collected widely in New South Wales, especially in the north-east, around Lismore and Ballina and in the north-west, central, south-east and central coast areas.

Bäuerlen’s collections amount to many thousands of specimens.

Today Bäuerlen is also known for his love affair and collaboration with the botanical artist Gertrude Lovegrove on the ambitious publication The Wildflowers of New South Wales. The publication included 30 beautiful illustrations

by Lovegrove and was intended as a 25-part publication. The first edition was printed in 1891 but the pair failed to raise the necessary funds for the project and no further parts were printed.

After the failed project Bäuerlen and Lovegrove separated and Bäuerlen went on to collect in the Blue Mountains (Grose Valley) and Bathurst around 1899. The species Eucalyptus baeuerlenii F. Muell, which can be found in the upper Blue Mountains as far as north as Wentworth Falls, is named after Bäuerlen.

Henry Deane immigrated to Australia from England in 1880. He became Engineer in Chief of the New South Wales Railways and was in charge of the construction of the Newnes Railway in the Mountains which connected the western railway at Clarence to the oil shale works in the Wolgan Valley.

Deane was also a keen amateur botanist and during his time in the Blue Mountains collected a myriad of botanical specimens. He was, like Joseph Maiden, a member of the Linnean Society of New South Wales (from 1887 to 1912) and was their president from 1895 to 1896.

With fellow society members he went on many botanical excursions around the lower and upper Mountains.

An archival photograph in this exhibition shows him and Joseph Maiden amongst other Linnean Society members during an excursion to the Nepean River in September 1888. He and Maiden also published a number of papers, often on botany and paleontology and conducted a special study on Australian timbers.

Five species are named after Deane: Acacia deanei, Boronia deanei, Eucalyptus deanei, Leptospermum deanei and Melaleuca deanei.

Eucalyptus deanei – the Mountain Blue Gum, is one of the tallest trees growing in the Mountains.

Boronia deanei is a rare shrub first recorded on the Newnes plateau by Deane in 1906 during the construction of the Wolgan Valley rail. It was later named by Maiden and Ernst Betche to commemorate Deane’s contribution to Australian botany.

Image bottom left: Wilhelm Bäuerlen, reproduction of cabinet photograph, albumen print by L. Herbst, ca.

1900 Caroline Simpson Library & Research Collection, Sydney Living Museums Image top right: Henry Deane, reproduction of platinotype photographic print by John Hubert Newman, ca. 1890 - 1901. Collection of the National Library of Australia

Joseph Maiden (1859 - 1925) Joseph Maiden, born in England in 1859, was a botanist, educator, curator and director of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Sydney from 1896 to 1924. He is known for his major contribution to scientific research on the Australian flora, especially the Eucalyptus genus in his publications A Critical Revision of the Genus Eucalyptus and Forest Flora of New South Wales, published in 1904. This work was greatly assisted with botanical illustrations by the Royal Botanic Garden’s first botanical illustrator Margaret Flockton, whom Maiden employed in 1901.

Another major achievement of Maiden was the extension of the National Herbarium of NSW and the Botanical Museum in 1901, which is one of Australia’s largest reference collections of botanical specimens used to study the classification, ecology and evolution of plants in New South Wales.

For the Herbarium Maiden secured a set of specimens by Daniel Solander and Sir Joseph Banks from their voyage to Australia with Captain James Cook on the HMS Endeavour.

Today the Herbarium collection includes over 1.4 million specimens – including 20,000 type specimens – and more than two thousand scientific botanical drawings of Australia’s flora

by Margaret Flockton amongst many more from other botanical illustrators.

Maiden was an active member of many societies including the Linnean Society, which Henry Deane was also a member of; the Royal Society; the (Royal) Australian Historical Society; the Horticultural Society; and the Field Naturalists’ Society, amongst others. Maiden would go on regular excursions and botanical research expeditions to various locations around Sydney, including the lower Blue Mountains. He also collected botanical specimens in the upper Blue Mountains near Mount Tomah and extended his excursions into the Kurrajong.

Maiden was a great appreciator of George Caley’s early botanical research and in 1905 and 1906 visited Linden to inspect the Cairn of stones, formerly known as Caley’s Repulse, reputed to have been constructed by George Caley to mark the limit of his unsuccessful attempt at crossing the Blue Mountains (its authenticity is disputed by historians).

Maiden’s name is commemorated in two generic, thirty-five specific and three infra-specific botanical names. Examples are Eucalyptus maidenii and Acacia maidenii – also known as Maiden’s Wattle – a large wattle of forest environments which was collected in the Blue Mountains by Ernest Constable for the Herbarium of NSW. The Herbarium collection also holds a Conospermum longifolium specimen, which Maiden collected in Wentworth Falls in 1898.

Margaret Flockton (1861 - 1953) Margaret Flockton was born in England in 1861 and migrated with her family to Australia at the age of 27 in 1888. She was employed by Joseph Maiden as the Royal Botanic Garden’s first botanical artist in 1901. Trained in England as one of the first female artists in lithography at some of the best art schools such as Cardiff Science & Art School and the Female School of

Image right: Joseph Maiden, reproduction of a photographic print from the series ‘Technical Education staff and others TAFE NSW’. Collection of the State Library of New South Wales

…the help I have received from the artist of this work is immense…The faithfulness of the drawing sometimes brought out a hitherto unsuspected point…She is practically a joint author. 1 Not much is known about whether she accompanied Maiden on his journeys to the Blue Mountains but it was due to Flockton’s scientific accuracy and skillful artistry that many of the botanical specimens collected in the Blue Mountains in the early 20th century were beautifully documented and are now part of the Royal Botanic Garden and Domain Trust archives. Many of the botanical specimens from the region can be found in the publication The Forest Flora of New South Wales.

Art in Bloomsbury – which is now part of Saint Martin’s College of Art & Design – Flockton was probably one of the best trained female artists in Australia. Before she began her work at the Royal Botanic Gardens she set up her own art teaching studio and joined the Royal Art Society of NSW. In 1895 the National Art Gallery of New South Wales (now the Art Gallery of New South Wales) acquired one of her works from the series Australian Wild Flowers which depicts a Waratah.

Flockton met Joseph Maiden at the Technological Museum, Sydney where he was the curator at the time, and impressed him with her meticulous and accurate drawing skills and attention to detail. Later in 1901, when Maiden was director of the Royal Botanic Gardens, he offered her the position as botanical artist of the Gardens and she worked there for 24 years.

During her time at the Gardens Flockton contributed hundreds of botanical illustrations to Joseph Maiden’s key publications, including 88 illustrations for A Critical Revision of the Genus Eucalyptus and The Forest Flora of New South Wales. The collaboration between her and Maiden lasted decades and Maiden wrote of her contribution to his Eucalyptus revision:

Flockton also illustrated one of the Blue Mountains’ most iconic plant, Telopea speciossima – the Waratah. The shrub Acacia flocktoniae or commonly known as Flockton Wattle, which can be found on sandstone in dry forests in the Blue Mountains, is named in Flockton’s honour. It was first described by Maiden in the Journal and Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales, after being collected in Yerranderrie near what is now the Kanangra-Boyd National Park. Maiden also named a Eucalypt, the Eucalyptus flocktoniae after Flockton.

Today the Royal Botanic Gardens celebrate Flockton’s legacy and contribution to Australian scientific botanical illustration with the annual Margaret Flockton Award which showcases the work of botanical artists from around the world.

The award is first shown at the Royal Botanic Gardens and then tours to the Blue Mountains Botanic Garden, Mount Tomah.

Ernest Francis Constable (1903 - 1986) Ernest Francis Constable was appointed botanical seed and plant collector for the Royal Botanic Gardens in 1946. During his 22 year career he collected over 10,000 specimens and seeds and contributed over 4,600 specimens to the collection of the National Herbarium of NSW. Some of his samples were used for propagation, meeting the growing research needs of the

Image: Margaret Flockton, reproduction of photographic print. Daniel Solander Library. Collection of the Royal Botanic Gardens and Domain Trust 1 From: A Critical Revision of the Genus Eucalyptus, by Joseph Henry Maiden, Sydney, 1903–1931

scientific staff with many of his duplicates going to other herbaria in Australia and overseas.

Constable lived in Blackheath from 1950 to 1967 and collected plants around the area as well as from Mount Tomah and Mount Wilson-Bell. He was also the president and vice-president of the Blackheath and District Horticultural Society.

The species Apatophyllum constablei McGill and Hakea constablei, a prickly shrub found only in the Mount Wilson-Bell area, are named to commemorate him.

natural history and botany. She was also a talented botanical illustrator and produced many watercolour paintings and sketches of local orchids. Two varieties of orchids are named after her: Prasophyllum bowdeniae Rupp – the Freak Midge Orchid and the semi-parasitic, short-lived, perennial herb Euphrasia bowdeniae.

During her life Bowden contributed significantly to the Blue Mountains community and was a founding member of the Blue Mountains Flora and Fauna Association, the Pioneer Way Association and the Blue Mountains Conservation Society. Bowden was particularly interested in the effects of fire upon the local bush and became an active member of the Blue Mountains Civil Defence (State Emergency Service). She also had close connections to the McManamey family, who owned the Woodford Academy, and ran a tea and coffee shop in the academy in the 1940s and 1960s.

In 1985 Bowden was recognised for her outstanding contribution to the Blue Mountains community and was awarded the Order of Australia Medal.1

Isobel Bowden OAM (1908 - 1986) Isobel Bowden was born in Woodford in the Blue Mountains and became a passionate conservationist who dedicated her life to the promotion and protection of the unique flora of the Mountains and subsequently contributed significantly to their inscription into the UNESCO World Heritage List.

Bowden was a keen bushwalker and environmental activist and had an interest Image left: Ernest Constable, reproduction of photographic print, ca. 1950. Local Studies Collection, Blue Mountains City Libraries.

Image right: Bowden with Marie, at the Gentlemen’s Pool, Murphy’s Glen, reproduction of photographic print: Local Studies Collection, Blue Mountains City Libraries 1 From information compiled by historian Ken Goodlet and Kate O’Neill for the exhibition Blue Mountains Botanicals watercolours by Isobel Bowden at Woodford Academy, 2016

COLLECTING & IDENTIFYING BOTANICAL SPECIMENS In the Blue Mountains plant specimens were often collected from remote and rugged sites that were difficult to access. Botanical collectors would carry delicate specimens in a Vasculum – a flattened cylindrical metal or wooden case with a lengthwise opening, carried by a shoulder strapb – which was used to safely store and transport specimens in the field.

After being collected the plant specimens were preserved, in most cases by drying and pressing them between sheets of paper. The plants were carefully laid out between the sheets to retain their original shape. For example flowers would be spread out with the petals carefully arranged, and leaves would be placed with the upper and lower surface visible.

only, on the main branches, and/or on fine twigs), sometimes a wood and bark sample is collected as an ancillary collection.

Plant Names & Classification

Why use a scientific name?

Common names often seem easier to remember than scientific names, but they are not as precise. Not only can a common name refer to very different plants, conversely a single species can have more than one common name. This can lead to confusion, and potentially to serious problems if people confuse weedy or poisonous species with harmless species.

How is a plant classified?

The specimens were then stored accompanied by field notes which included locality details, descriptions of the live plant and its habitat.

Later this information was copied onto a label which would get attached to the specimen on a herbarium sheet. Occasionally specimens were dried without pressing, to retain the natural orientation of the organs such as leaves or flowers on the stem.

The act of classification can be defined as ‘the grouping of individuals so that all the individuals in one group have certain features or properties in common’.

Collecting Plant Specimens

Kingdom: Plantae Division: Magnoliophyta Order: Proteales Family: Proteaceae Subfamily: Grevilleoideae Genus: Telopea Species: speciosissima

Specimens should be as complete as possible to facilitate identification and to be useful as a plant collection.

A typical branch or portion of the stem c. 20-30 cm long, showing the leaves in position and with flowers and/or fruit is required. In the absence of open flowers, buds will be included. If variation in leaf form is apparent, specimens need to include different parts of the same plant to represent this variation. Seeds can be useful in the identification of plants and will be included with the specimen if available.

The size of a specimen is usually governed by the size of the herbarium sheet it will be placed on. Samples about 30 cm long make suitable specimens of most species, as herbarium sheets are about 43 cm long x 28 cm wide. Smaller sheets (e.g. foolscap size, c. 32 cm x 23 cm) may be used if necessary.

The features most important for identification vary between different plant groups. For example Eucalypt specimens will include flower buds as well as fruits, adult and juvenile leaves (the latter often from suckers near the base of the trunk). Notes describe the type of bark (rough, smooth, stringy or fibrous) and if rough, how far it extends (e.g. over the base of the trunk

Classifications should have predictive value, that is, they should tell us something about the object being named and its features. Take, for example, New South Wales’s floral emblem, the Waratah.

It is classified scientifically as follows:

Each level in this inclusive classification gives us more information about the Waratah so that we build up a mental picture of its features: • Plantae: tells us that this is a green plant, not an animal or bacterium • Magnoliophyta: that this is a plant with cotyledons, real flowers and seeds • Proteales: that it has, for example, 4 perianth segments in each flower • Proteaceae: that it has a unique flower structure with 3 of the perianth segments fused and 1 free • Grevilleoideae: that it’s flowers occur in pairs • Telopea: that it has large pinkish red bracts surrounding the head-like flowerhead.

Image: Isopogon anemonifolius specimen collected at Bellmore Falls, NSW in 1887 by George Beyer. Collection of the National Herbarium

THE ART & SCIENCE OF BOTANICAL ILLUSTRATION The scientific illustration of botanical specimens plays an essential role in identifying and documenting plants and is often done in collaboration between a botanist and a botanical illustrator.

Once completed and approved by the botanist, botanical illustrations are then often published as part of scientific works and alongside botanical descriptions in books, magazines, and other media.

Botanical illustrators are both artists and scientists. Their depiction of a specimen reveals all the elements of the plant that are considered important by a botanist to identify and study it. Scientific botanical illustrations can be made from living, dried, pressed or preserved plants.

Margaret Flockton was the first botanical artist working for the Herbarium of the Royal Botanical Gardens from 1901 to 1925. Not much is known about the botanical illustrators that came after Flockton and worked there from the 1930s to the 1970s, but most work was probably done by freelance illustrators. In the 1980s the Royal Botanic Gardens took on the immense task of documenting every species (native and naturalised) in NSW and employed 19 illustrators over 15 years to complete the work for the major publication Flora of NSW.

In their detailed drawing the botanical illustrator records critical information about the elements, shapes, colours, structures and life cycle of the plant. Often the layout and focus of the drawing is directed by the botanist to highlight particular sections of the plant, but generally the image will include a habitat drawing (a leafy branch with either flowers or fruits or a whole plant) and detailed drawings of the features of the species such as hair and floral details, leaf shapes and fruits.

Today the Royal Botanic Gardens have two illustrators, Lesley Elkan and Catherine Wardrop, who work with the science team to record and document new and threatened species.

Images: (left) Sample specimen of the Lachnostachys clavipetala (right) Lesley Elkan, Botanical Illustrator at work at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Sydney. Both photographs by Rob Shaw – Australian Geographic, 2018

Image: Coloured plated no 10 by Margaret Flockton, published in A Critical Revision of the Genus Eucalyptus by J. Maiden

CONTEMPORARY BOTANICA Many artists seek inspiration in the natural beauty and diverse landscape of the Blue Mountains and the flora and fauna of this region is a common subject and area of investigation in their practice. For some, the Mountains offer a place of contemplation, focus and tranquility; for others they provide a playground of historical layers and stories that transfix and beckon to be re-interpreted. Many scavenge the abundant natural materials found in this region, ranging from the rugged, smooth or prickly textures which can be found in the bush, sandstone plateaus, creeks and canyons, to the multitude of colours of the soil, sky and gum forests.

James Blackwell, Tania Bowers, Ona Janzen, Edith Pass, Jennifer Leahy, Angela Lober, Julie Nettleton, Edith Rewa and Jacqueline Spedding all have a strong connection to this region and incorporate botanical elements in their work.

James Blackwell collects local flora and uses it to create delicate grids of native plants, seeds, flower fluff and paper. The grids become small, tranquil landscapes, in which the repetition of the objects evokes in the viewer a meditative state of mind.

Tania Bowers’ work evolves from a multi-layered process of collecting local leaves and flowers which are naturally dyed on organic fabric, which is then embroidered with quotes drawn from writings and poetry.

Ona Janzen is a local photographer. For her work vivus vietus// a study of botanical decay Janzen took a range of plant specimens out of their natural environment into her studio and documented their slow decay, exploring the idea of transformation and changes that occur to every human, animal and plant over a period of time.

Image:

Jennifer Leahy works across film and digital media creating imagery that questions historical reality, memory and folklore. In her video work Timeslip Leahy investigates the secret language of flowers used in Victorian times and creates a time-lapse that documents the shifting physical qualities of a bouquet of flowers as time passes.

Edith Pass is a local floral and installation artist who works with local plant matter. Pass presents a living installation of Flannel flowers and conifer specimens to explore the vulnerability of the unique flora found within the Blue Mountains.

Angela Lober is a Sydney based botanical illustrator. In her botanical illustrations she explores new techniques and challenges the traditional approach to botanical art.

Blackheath botanical artist Julie Nettleton focusses almost exclusively on Australian native plants, in particular those which are classified as threatened in the Sydney area, to raise awareness of the unique biodiversity of our region which is threatened to become extinct.

Edith Rewa is a former Blue Mountains based illustrator and textile designer with a deep fondness for the native flora and fauna of the Australian bush. In her work Plant Portraits, Blackheath she illustrated the native plant life which she encountered during her bushwalks.

Jacqueline Spedding is a Blue Mountains based artist who uses plants and organic material in her installations. She has printed collected ferns onto archival paper, revealing the delicate structure of their leaves.

Installation view Blue Mountains Botanica at Blue Mountains City Art Gallery, 2018. Photo: Silversalt

Image:

EDITH REWA Acacia Terminalis 2017, giclĂŠe print on archival paper, 56 x 40.7 cm

James Blackwell Blue Mountains artist James Blackwell completed a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Hons) in 2002 at the National Art School, where he majored in photography and drawing.

Blackwell has been exhibiting since 1999 with more than 30 shows to his credit, including solo exhibitions Second Nature at Bathurst Regional Art Gallery (2010) and Native Grid II at the Blue Mountains City Art Gallery (2014).

He has received a number of awards including the Windmill Trust Scholarship (2014) and was a finalist in the Blake Prize (2003). He was an artist in residence at Hill End (2011), and at Bundanon Trust (2013).

In 2009 Blackwell was commissioned by the Emirates Wolgan Valley resort and in 2017 completed a commission of four artworks for the permanent fine arts collection of the Blue Mountains Cultural Centre.

James Blackwell is represented by Lost Bear Gallery, Katoomba, NSW.

Blackwell’s anchor is the landscape in which he lives, the Blue Mountains of NSW. Since an early age it has been important to Blackwell to immerse himself in nature and seek quietude as a way of gathering his thoughts. He reflects on the numerous ways in which the natural world can inspire and teach us strength, equanimity and resilience.

The seasons in the Blue Mountains are distinct and often harsh; from freezing temperatures in winter to the heat and threat of fires in summer.

But despite these conditions, the beauty of this ancient landscape offers us in return plentiful vistas to still the mind. Forests of Eucalypts and fern covered gullies remind us of our place in nature and offer a sense of tranquillity and harmony. Blackwell’s artwork attempts to offer this meditative quality by using paper, repetition and elements of found natural materials such as gum nuts, leaves or seed pods.

Image: JAMES BLACKWELL Elevation 867 (detail) 2018, paper, Protea fluff, American basswood seeds, 57 x 40 cm

Angela Lober Angela Lober started her career as a landscape architect in 1990. Her interest in fine art and botany led to her to complete a Post Graduate Diploma in Visual Art (Plant and Wildlife Illustration) at Newcastle University in 1995.

She has been exhibiting in Australia and internationally since 2002 and has an interest in the uniqueness of Australian flora, particularly the productive rainforest species of the east coast.

Her work is found in several international collections including the Isaac M Sutton Collection in New York and the Hunt Institute for Botanical Documentation, Pittsburgh, USA; the Shirley Sherwood Collection in London, UK; the State Botanical Collection, Melbourne; and the Florilegium at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Sydney.

In 2012 Lober was awarded a Silver-gilt Medal at the Royal Horticultural Society, London and in 2014 she won the Celia Rosser Medal for Excellence in Botanic Art. In 2018 her work has been included in exhibitions at Kew Gardens’ Shirley Sherwood Gallery, and at the Royal Horticultural Society Halls in London.

When Angela Lober was a child, her family had a weekender on a rainforest block on the Central Coast. It was a retreat from their urban lives and she was allowed to explore, ride, get dirty and come home only at meal times. Her earliest memories are of meandering through the bush and focusing on the miniature world on the forest floor – there were many things to observe. Lober was always fascinated with the minute detail – the delicate native violets and maidenhairs, lichen carpeting the branches, the tiny pea flowers or ‘egg and bacon’ bush. She studied and imagined the micro world where the ants and spiders sheltered and the wrens lived and built their nests. It is only upon reflection, that she realises how much these early influences shaped her appreciation of the natural world and influenced the direction of her art.

Lober enjoys exploring new techniques and challenging the traditional approach to botanical art. With each finished painting she gains new knowledge and experience and strives to apply it to improve the next work. Her subject preference will always be for native plants, especially for those that are found in the rainforests.

Image: Installation view of (left) ANGELA LOBER Viola hederacea and black ants 2014, watercolour on paperm 28 x 28 cm and (right) Actinotus helianthi ‘Flannel Flower’ 2002, watercolour print, 35 x 29 cm

Tania Bowers Tania Bowers is a Blue Mountains textile artist who uses organic and botanical ingredients along with chemistry and embroidery to create delicate fabric installations.

Bowers was born in Melbourne in 1975, just a year after her parents had immigrated from South Africa. From an early age she learned how to sew, knit and ‘make things’ from her mother, a teacher, and also her grandmother and great aunt who were both dress makers and professional milliners.

After completing a diploma, majoring in photography at TAFE NSW – Meadowbank in the late 1990s, Bowers moved from Sydney to Chicago, USA, to pursue a career in music and, simultaneously began working for a textile designer; sewing by day and song-writing by night.

After well over a decade, in 2012, Bowers moved back to Sydney and a few years later to the Blue Mountains, where for the first time she began to look around at the natural world for inspiration.

Tania Bowers’ artistic practice is always a multilayered process: It starts with the fabric which is often raw and organic or reclaimed – often from curtains, bedspreads or bed sheets. She sources plants locally and then naturally dyes and makes leaf and flower prints through steaming or

pounding the matter into the cloth.

Cloth-dyeing has always been a passion and in particular the process of eco dyeing has been essential to Bowers’ practice.

Something about the process and aesthetic – being earthy and photographic – the ability to experiment and have surprises have led to an endless venture for the artist.

Bowers often embroiders poems, quotes and passages of writing into the fabrics she uses in her work. Embroidering and stitching into the fabric and being able to mix words enable many stories to be told along the way.

The artist also uses new and vintage sewing and millinery findings to create other worldly botanical objects, adding another element to her work.

For Animated Nature she used the research notes of botanical collector and writer Caroline Louisa Atkinson. Atkinson’s botanical writing is inherently poetic and Bowers embroidered extracts enhance the initial context in which the writing was first read. Small botanic sculptures from locally sourced twigs, leaves and seed pods, combined with millinery and vintage sewing supplies were used to embellish the curtain.

Images: (right) Installation view of TANIA BOWERS Animated Nature, 2018, curtain: silk fabric , eucalyptus, ferns, rose leaves, sculptures: found nature; leaves & twigs, millinery florals & vintage beads, 200 x 120 cm. Photo: Silversalt. (Left) detail of Animated Nature

Edith Pass Edith Pass is a floral visual artist, with an academic background in print media, drawing, floristry and education.

She completed her Fine Arts degree with Honours at the Australian National University, Canberra (2002), followed by a Bachelor in Secondary Education at the University of Canberra (2003). Pass then undertook eight years of teaching Art and Design across a range of secondary schools in Canberra, Sydney, London and the Blue Mountains. In 2014, she graduated with a Cert 4 in Floristry at NSW TAFE, Richmond.

In 2017 Pass exhibited at the Woodford Academy and most recently was included in Go West, a group show at the Hawkesbury Regional Art Gallery. She is often commissioned to create arrangements for exhibition openings, formal events and occasions.

Pass runs a bespoke floral art and design studio based in the Blue Mountains called Floral Ink located at the Woodford Academy since 2015.

As a contemporary floral artist, Edith Pass was compelled to create an installation that explores the vulnerability of the unique flora found within

the Blue Mountains and to investigate new forms of utopian landscapes.

Her work Hollow Men 2018 is a collection of conifer specimens that have had their internal tree rings hollowed out through natural decay to symbolically represent the elusive Wollemi Pine – Wollemia nobilis – and it’s delicate eco-system.

The primal textures of the trunks resemble the bones and the remains of old growth prehistoric trees and forests, all with their own unique characteristics.

In contrast, the Flannel flower – Actinotus helianthii – with it’s soft and delicate stem structure and nimble qualities, communicates optimism, hope and light; like a young tree sapling growing through a narrow space in a canopy.

Marketed as a commercial flower for many years, the Flannel flower has been cultivated to grow larger and live longer as a cut flower in contrast to it’s naturally grown relative.

Whilst researching, Pass was inspired by the interpretive qualities captured by the detailed drawings and scientific specimens collected by past botanists and illustrators, all of which are highlighting the complex biorhythm of botanical life within the Blue Mountains.

Images: (Left) Installation view EDITH PASS Hollow Men 2018, Araucaria cunninghamii - Hoop Pine, Actinotus helianthii - Flannel Flowers, and glass test tubes. (Right) Detail of Hollow Men. Photo: Silversalt

Jennifer Leahy Jennifer Leahy is a creative photographer based in the Blue Mountains. She works across both film and digital media creating imagery that questions historical reality, memory and folklore.

An alumni of the University of Western Sydney, Leahy’s passion for photography has permeated all aspects of her life. Having grown up in the rural outskirts of Western Sydney she retreated to the Mountains for a life rich in the wilds of nature, community connection and extreme weather – elements which feed her soul.

As a professional photographer she has had the opportunity to work closely with relics from our country’s history through the State Library, the Art Gallery of NSW, Hawkesbury Museum and the National Archives. Her interest and experience in photographic records and visual archives informs many aspects of her image making.

Leahy has exhibited nationally and internationally participating in residencies in France and Ireland and her work is held in collections in Australia and Europe. Leahy is also one half of collaborative duo Leahy & Watson, who explore cultural concepts through photography and installation.

In Timeslip Leahy presents the shifting form of a delicate posy of flowers contorting into a wily sculptural wreath. Continuing her visual exploration into floral memorials, Leahy pushes past the Victorian sentimentality and utilises time as the carriage for this work. As the wreath changes with time, it’s structure and form are

warped like that of our memories through the journey of grief.

It is said that mourning, by its gradual labour, slowly erases pain; I could not, I cannot believe this; because for me, Time eliminates the emotion of loss (I do not weep), that is all. For the rest, everything has remained motionless. For what I have lost is not a Figure (the Mother), but a being; and not a being, but a quality (a soul): not the indispensable, but the irreplaceable.

Roland Barthes, Camera Lucida: Reflections on Photography

Throughout time, flowers have been steeped in mythology, symbolism and meaning. In Victorian times the language of flowers – Floriography – developed into an intricate code of unspeakable emotional expression though the flower. Through this historical structure, the Flannel flower has been associated with intimacy and close relationships. Native to the Blue Mountains area they are found scattered through our rugged bushland and open forest such as the ashes and bones of those now passed.

Watching the flowers wilt, the life now gone, the memory continuously shifts, the details, just slightly creating another version of the original.

The structure, the form, the scent, the sensory triggers are construed resulting in a poetic vision of mourning.

Images:(Left) Installation view of JENNIFER LEAHY Timeslip 2018, HD digital video (loop). (Right) Detail of Timeslip. Photo: Silversalt.

Julie Nettleton Julie Nettleton was born and raised on Sydney’s northern beaches and spent many happy school holidays in the Blue Mountains. She now lives and works in Blackheath.

During her career as an interior designer she was drawn to the beautiful textile designs of William Morris and the ‘Arts and Crafts’ movement.

After seeing one of the earliest botanical illustration exhibitions at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Sydney in 2001, the lure of botanical art became irresistible and since 2006 Nettleton’s own work has been exhibited there annually.

The artits’s work is held in private and public collections including The Hunt Institute for Botanical Documentation USA; The Shirley Sherwood Collection, Kew Gardens, London; The Florilegium Society at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Sydney; and The Royal Botanic Gardens Victorian State Botanic Collection, Melbourne.

In 2016 Nettleton was awarded ‘Best Painting in Show’ and a gold-Medal at the Royal Horticultural Society’s international botanical art exhibition in

London for her series of Xanthorrhoea resinosa, commonly known as Grass Tree. In the same year her work was exhibited in The Florilegium: Celebrating 200 Years at the Museum of Sydney to commemorate the bicentenary of the three Botanic Gardens – the Domain, Mt Tomah and Mt Annan. The collection of works then travelled to Kew Gardens, London in early 2018.

Upon commencing botanical illustration 15 years ago, Nettleton found endless inspiration in her own suburban garden – even the weeds during long periods without rain – when everything else was struggling.

Over recent years she has focused almost exclusively on Australian native plants, in particular those which are classified as threatened in the Sydney region and belong to an almost extinct ecological community known as Eastern Suburbs Banksia Scrub (ESBS). ESBS once covered a vast area of the Sydney Basin but is now less than 1% of its original area.

Images: (Left) Installation view of JULIE NETTLETON Telopea speciosissima - NSW Waratah 2016, watercolour and ink on paper,52 x 37;Xanthorrhoea australis with Gleichenia - Grass Tree with Coral Fern 2018, watercolour on paper, 56 x 42 cm; and Acacia terminalis sp. Terminalis - Sunshine Wattle 2016, watercolour on paper, 53 x 37 cm. Photo: Silversalt

Image: JULIE NETTLETON Acacia terminalis sp. Terminalis - Sunshine Wattle 2016, watercolour on paper, 53 x 37 cm.

Ona Janzen Ona Janzen is a Blue Mountains based photographer. Her work is influenced by a desire to pause and still her subjects, to capture fleeting moments, seemingly between states.

Janzen’s work has been shown in group exhibitions such as the Moran Contemporary Photographic Prize (2012) at the NSW State Library; Head On Portrait Prize (2012, 2014 and 2015) Australian Centre of Photography; Keepsake, Head in the Clouds, and Collectors’ Edition#1 (2013 and 2015) Blue Mountains City Art Gallery; and Shadow Weave (2014) Western Plains Cultural Centre.

Janzen has been a finalist in the Australia’s Top Emerging Photographers Awards for several years, and has been the recipient of various Gold and Silver Industry (AIPP) Awards at State and National level (2011-2016).

Vivus vietus// a study of botanical decay (2017) depicts a series of plant specimens, collected from a property bordering the Wollemi National Park. Janzen took the specimens out of their natural environment into her studio, where she observed their slow transformation. Whilst the

images depict their inevitable decay – evoking a sense of ‘memento mori’, a symbolic reminder of everyone’s and everything’s mortality – they also provide a documentation of the changes occurring to an object once taken out of its original context.

Janzen’s work alludes to an experience that many artists have while undertaking a creative residency or going through the stages of developing new work: A subconscious process of adapting and changing perspective, once one is taken out of the known environment and routine.

Janzen also references the concept that ‘death’ as such is never really so. It is merely a catalyst for change, expansion and growth – whether that is visible or not. The decay of the specimens is a natural part of the process, and so the beauty of it is celebrated rather than rejected. The environment from which the specimens are taken continues to grow, alter, and thrive, even as a part of it is forever removed – and there lies the new creation – just as an artist recedes, adapts and then creates, they alter their reality, in order for expansion to occur.

Image: ONA JANZEN Vivus vietus// a study of botanical decay (detail) 2017, 6 digital prints on Hahnemuehle photo rag, 56 x 40.7 cm each

Edith Rewa Edith Rewa is a former Blackheath illustrator and textile designer. With a fondness for the native flora and fauna of the Australian bush she illustrates to share a sense of reverence in our natural landscapes.

Frankie Magazine, Gorman clothing, Beechworth Honey, The Wilderness Society, and Bespoke Letterpress amongst others; exhibition work and her own label, which showcases her illustrations and plant learnings onto silk scarves.

Rewa completed a Bachelor of Arts in Textile Design, majoring in screenprinting from RMIT, during which time she had a brief sojourn at the Estonian Academy of the Arts.

Rewa has always been drawn to the more scientific side of botanical illustrations and her keen interest in natural history, botany and the native Australian landscape are reflected in her work.

A job at a commercial print design studio took her to Sydney for 3 years before she moved to the Blue Mountains to work full time on her label ‘Edith Rewa’ as well as freelance illustration and design work.

Rewa now splits her time between client commissions such as Harper Collins Publishing,

The six illustrations on display are from a greater body of work titled Plant Portraits, Blackheath (2017). They depict a selection of plants that have lined the bushland tracks Rewa used to walk.

Together, they have shaped he artist’s personal Blackheath landscape.

Image: EDITH REWA Lambertia Formosa 2017, giclée print on archival paper 56 x 40.7 cm

Jacqueline Spedding Jacqueline Spedding is a visual artist based in the Blue Mountains. Spedding graduated from Sydney College of the Arts, University of Sydney in 2012 with a Master of Fine Arts majoring in ceramics.

Spedding’s artwork has been exhibited in public and private galleries, artist-run initiatives and non-traditional art spaces. Her site-specific installations have been shown locally at the NSW National Trust Property, the Woodford Academy (2014-15 and 2017), and Sculpture at Scenic World, where she won the major acquisitive award in 2014.

Spedding has taken part in group exhibitions at the Blue Mountains City Art Gallery, Katoomba; Western Plains Cultural Centre, Dubbo; Royal Botanic Gardens, Sydney; and ArtXchange Gallery in Seattle, USA. Her work featured in a national review exhibition of ceramics titled Homebrand, at Casula Powerhouse and she was selected for Hatched, a national review of emerging artists held at the Perth Institute of Contemporary Art (PICA).

She has taught fine art and ceramics as a casual lecturer for TAFE NSW, Sydney College of the Arts and Federation University and recently completed a contract as a senior collections officer for Sydney University Museums. In 2018 she returned to publishing as the managing editor of an academic journal.

Clay, found objects and locally collected organic material form the basis of Spedding’s sculpture and installations. Her daily finds – bark, leaves, dried plants, dead insects – eventually find their way into her work as ideas, inspiration or material elements. The artist and material collaborate – they lend up their remnant matter and Spedding tests and plays. It is a conversation of materials that grows and expands.

For this exhibition Spedding made a series of nature prints using bracken fern. Using an etching press, the fern is coated with liquid graphite and printed onto archival cotton paper.

Experimental in technique, these prints draw on a tradition in botanical art of printing directly from nature.

Unlike the exotic forest ferns that obsessed Europeans in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, bracken fern is often viewed as a weed.

It competes with pasture and also grows thickly alongside roads and railway lines, providing easy cover for feral animals. Yet, as a native plant, it thrives after bushfire and can play an important role in bush regeneration.

Like many native plants, insects and animals, we have an ambivalent attitude toward bracken fern because it disrupts our imposed uses of the native landscape. Our ambivalence to the environment is a key theme that Spedding continues to explore in her work.

Image: installation view JACQUELINE SPEDDING Remnant Matter 2018, liquid graphite print on cotton paper, 15 x 15 cm each Photo: Silversalt

Image: JACQUELINE SPEDDING Remnant Matter 2018 (detail). Photo: Silversalt

CONNECTION TO COUNTRY The Greater Blue Mountains World Heritage Area is divided into four geographical sectors reflecting changes in landscape and vegetation.

Each is named after a local landmark with an Aboriginal name: Monundilla (north-west), Mellong (north-east), Kedumba (central) and Colong (south).1 Six Aboriginal language groups hold strong connections with the region of the Greater Blue Mountains. The Dharawal and Gundungurra people (in the South), the Wanaruah and Darkinjung (in the North-East), the Wiradjuri (in the West and Northwest), and the Darug (in the East). Over millennia they have formed enduring cultural links to many sites across the Blue Mountains.

This connection to the region runs much deeper than just the association with physical sites.

There are ancient pathways that traverse the Mountains, sacred sites and geographic features which hold deep meaning for the traditional custodians past and present and their immense knowledge of, and respect for, the Blue Mountains flora and fauna is enduring.

Chris Tobin, a Darug man, talks about these connections:

As Aboriginal people our identity is inseparable from our Country. We are the people of that Country. It holds our stories, provides food and medicine to our bodies and spirit and it has been home to our people for all recorded history, as it has been home to our ancestors for tens of thousands of years. 3 Indigenous Land Management: The Past, Present and Future Aboriginal occupation and use of the land in the Blue Mountains is estimated to go as far back as 22,000 years. Indigenous communities developed complex land management systems suited to their specific environment and needs. Traditional forms of land care were based on location, climate, season and flora and fauna cycles, which were controlled by burning, fishing traps, hunting and harvesting.4 These systems worked harmoniously to support and sustain Aboriginal communities with the food they needed. One of the most extensive and complex systems was burning. Indigenous groups used burning to regenerate flora and alter environments to encourage animals back to their land and hunting ground.5 European settlement in the Blue Mountains significantly impacted and changed the way local Aboriginal Peoples lived on their traditional lands and as a result burning and other land management practices were restricted or not allowed. Today, traditional burning methods are recognised for their ecological importance to the Australian landscape and often used to minimise the effects of bushfire season.6

More than 1,000 Aboriginal sites including scarred trees, rock engravings and rock art, as well as places showing evidence of camping areas and tool manufacturing have been documented within the Greater Blue Mountains area.2

Along with burning, several other Indigenous land-care systems have become vital to the continued management of our environment. The efforts of governments, conservationists and scientists combined with traditional knowledge passed down by Indigenous communities, aim to restore and protect Australia’s biodiversity.

NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service encourages the co-management of the Greater Blue Mountains World Heritage Area with the six

1 From Values for a New Generation Introduction, 2014 2 Archaeological Heritage Information Management System of the NSW Office of Environment and Heritage

Aboriginal language groups acknowledging that ‘as traditional custodians of the land, Aboriginal people have a unique role to care for and manage Country.’ 7 Across the Blue Mountains LGA encompassing the Gundungurra and Darug nations whom we acknowledge as the traditional Aboriginal Custodians, there are many groups committed to the restoration and conservation of land.

For example, for over 15 years, David King, the son of Aunty Mary King, a Gundungurra Man and Gully Traditional Owner, has dedicated his time to bush and land-care. King has worked with several land care groups including Gulunga Bush care at Horseshoe Falls; Garang Land Care at Faulconbridge Lily Pond; and Garguree Swampcare at the Gully Katoomba. This work has seen King honoured with the BMCC Bushcare Legend of the year award in 2015 as well as BMCC NAIDOC person of the year. King has also worked the Birriban Land Care Group at Katoomba High School and Guulong Land Care at Megalong Public School, which aim to equip students with the knowledge and tools to care for the land.

One of our communities most significant achievements is the restoration of The Gully in Katoomba. Alongside The Gully Traditional Owners, Blue Mountains City Council and a multitude of volunteers, King promoted the cultural and environmental significance of the Gully which has resulted in amazing bush land restoration through Garguree Swamp Care.

After years of hard work weeding, planting and restoring, the group has successfully seen the Gully native bushland come back to life. Garguree Swampcare has been honoured with a regional and state Landcare award for Indigenous Land Management. While Garguree Swamp Care heals the land, it also heals the community, forming bonds between Indigenous and nonIndigenous people and groups locally, nationally and overseas. Thinking about the future, King hopes to encourage, educate and inspire the next generation, passing on his knowledge about Caring for Country.

3 From Values for a New Generation, chp.3: ‘The contemporary Aboriginal heritage value of the Greater Blue Mountains’ by Richard Mackay. Pers comm, 2014 4 From the Indigenous Land Management in Australia Report: Extend, Scope, Diversity, Barriers and Success Factors 5-6 From Landcare Australia: Traditional Aboriginal Burning and Modern Day Land Management 7 McGrath, A. Crossing History’s Mountains: The

THE WOLLEMI PINE Wollemia nobilis commonly known as the Wollemi Pine is one of the world’s oldest and rarest plants, dating back 200-million years. Thought to be extinct, it was discovered in 1994 by NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service Officer David Noble, in the rugged wilderness area of what is now called the Wollemi National Park. This was one of the most exciting botanical discoveries of the century and with less than 100 adult trees known to exist in the wild, the Wollemi Pine is now the focus of extensive research to safeguard its survival. Since there are so few specimens in the wild, a management strategy has been developed to protect them – the Wollemi Pine Recovery Plan. This includes the UNESCO listing of the Greater Blue Mountains World Heritage Area which the Wollemi National Park is part of. The Office of Environment and Heritage in collaboration with the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service, the Royal Botanic Gardens Sydney and the Blue Mountains Botanic Garden, Mount Tomah are regenerating the Wollemi Pine population and have planted close to 200 seedlings in various secret locations in the Blue Mountains. The Australian Botanic Garden, Mount Annan is researching the horticultural development of the Wollemi pine.

Saving our Species Program The Wollemi Pine’s conservation status is ‘Critically Endangered’ and has been identified under the Saving our Species Program as an iconic species that needs to be saved from extinction.

The Saving our Species Program aims to secure the Wollemi Pine in the wild in NSW for 100 years, engage local communities in its conservation, and encourage the NSW community to identify with it as a flagship for threatened species conservation.

The project was developed by experts who identified two conservation management sites: Wollemi National Park which reaches across the Blue Mountains, Hawkesbury, Lithgow, MidWestern Regional, Muswellbrook and Singleton Local Government Areas (LGA) and Mount Tomah in Blue Mountains LGA.

LIST OF WORKS Royal Botanic Gardens & Domain Trust Loans Robert Brown Prodromus florae Novae Hollandiae et Insulae Van-Diemen 1810 London: Richard Taylor & Son 22 x 14 cm Ferdinand Bauer Illustrationes florae Novae Hollandae 1813 49 x 32.5 cm Joseph Maiden & Margaret Flockton et.al Forest Flora of NSW Vol V, Pts. 41-50.

30.5 x 25.5 cm Joseph Henry Maiden Illustrations of New South Wales Plants Part II plates 11 - 20 1908, Vol V, Pts. 41-50. Sydney Govt. Printer Charles Darwin On the Origin of species 1st ed., 1st print, 1859 London, John Murray 20 x 13.5 cm Ernest Constable’s Field Notebook no 17 15 x 5 x 2 cm Wilhelm Bäuerlen Letter to Curator Tech. & Mining Museum on the genus Pipterus 1898 29 x 21 cm Allan Cunningham’s Collecting Box wood, metal 32.5 x 72.5 x 30 cm Mauchline Snuffbox owned by Robert Brown, given as gift by Sir Joseph Banks c. 1806 10 x 15 x 4 cm Vasculum metal, leather strap 25 x 40 x 17 cm Plant Press wood, leather straps 60 x 45 x 2 cm Plant Sieve wood and wire 50 cm diametre

Catherine Wadrop Planctranthus altanmouiencis digital drawings Joseph Lycett Lambertia formosa watercolour produced for Wildflowers of Australia ca 1816–1822 49.5 x 36 cm Joseph Lycett Actinotus helianthi watercolour produced for Wildflowers of Australia ca 1816–1822 49.5 x 36 cm Mary Maiden Epacris hamiltoni lithograph print produced for Illustrations of NSW Plants no. 17 in 1907 21 x 29 cm Mary Maiden Epacris hamiltoni pencil sketch produced for Illustrations of NSW Plants no. 17 in 1907 21 x 29 cm Margaret Flockton Stylidium graminifolium pencil and partly watercolor drawig 27 x 21 cm Margaret Flockton Candollea spp. pencil sketch & watercolour botanical illustration produced in 1906 Sydenham Edwards Stylidium graminifolium colour plate no 1918 botanical illustration produced for Curtis’s Botanical Magazine 1817, London Sydenham Edwards Gompholobium grandiflorum colour plate 1533 botanical illustration produced for Curtis’s Botanical Magazine 1813, London

Sydenham Edwards Epacris pulchella colour plate no 1170 botanical illustration produced for Curtis’s Botanical Magazine 1809, London Sydenham Edwards Patersonia sericea colour plate no 1041 botanical illustration produced for Curtis’s Botanical Magazine 1807, London Sydenham Edwards Goodenia grandiflora colour plate no 890 botanical illustration produced for Curtis’s Botanical Magazine 1806, London Sydenham Edwards Pimelia linifolia colour plate no 891 botanical illustration produced for Curtis’s Botanical Magazine 1806, London Sydenham Edwards Isopogon anemonifolius colour plate no 697 botanical illustration produced for Curtis’s Botanical Magazine in 1804, London Sydenham Edwards Kennedia rubicunda colour plate no 268 botanical illustration produced for Curtis’s Botanical Magazine 1794, London Sydenham Edwards Embothrium speciosissimum [Telopea speciosissima] colour plate no 1128 botanical illustration produced for Curtis’s Botanical Magazine 1808, London William Jackson Hooker Grevillea acanthifolia colour plate no 2807 botanical illustration produced for Curtis’s Botanical Magazine 1828, London

Atkinsonia ligustrina plant specimen in archival paper envelope collected in Linden, Blue Mountains in 1904 by Jospeh Maiden s.n. & Richard Hind Cambage 42 x 28.5 cm Goodenia decurrens Cotype plant specimen in archival paper envelope collected in the Blue Mountains, NSW between 1802–1805

by Robert Brown 42 x 28.5 cm Alania endlicheri Kunth plant specimen in archival paper envelope collected in Wentworth Falls, Blue Mountains, November 1888

by Henry Deane 42 x 28.5 cm Acacia Maideni plant specimen in archival paper envelope collected at Wollondilly Bridge, Yerranderie (Kanangra Boyd) in June 1906

by Richard Hind Cambage 42 x 28.5 cm Eucalyptus deanei Cotype plant specimen in archival paper envelope collected in Springwood, Blue Mountains, 1883 by Henry Deane 42 x 28.5 cm Boronia -Daenei plant specimen in archival paper envelope collected at Wolgan Valley & Clarence, Blue Mountains in 1907 by Henry Deane 42 x 28.5 cm

Helichrysum elatum plant specimen in archival paper envelope collected at Mount Caley, Blue Mountains in 1966 by Ernest Francis Constable 42 x 28.5 cm Helichrysum calvertianum plant specimen in archival paper envelope collected at Mittagong in 1912

by Edwin Cheel 42 x 28.5 cm

Grevillea longifolia plant specimen in archival paper envelope collected at Lawson, Blue Mountains in 1898

by Arthur Andrew Hamilton 42 x 28.5 cm

Lambertia formosa plant specimen in archival paper envelope 42 x 28.5 cm collected at Katoomba, Blue Mountains in 1908

by Julius Henry Camfield

Eucalyptus baeuerlenii plant specimen in archival paper envelope collected at Mount Sugarloaf, NSW in 1898 by Wilhelm Baeuerlen 42 x 28.5 cm

Actinotus helianthii plant specimen in archival paper envelope collected at Woodford, Blue Mountains in 1915

by Arthur Andrew Hamilton 42 x 28.5 cm

Pattersonia sericea plant specimen in archival paper envelope collected in Katoomba, Blue Mountains in 1908

by Richard Hind Cambage 42 x 28.5 cm Boronia floribunda plant specimen in archival paper envelope collected near Wolgan River, Blue Mountains in 1906

by Henry Deane 42 x 28.5 cm Gompholobium grandiflorum plant specimen in archival paper envelope collected in Katoomba, Blue Mountains in 1902

by Richard Helms 42 x 28.5 cm

Goodenia grandiflora plant specimen in archival paper envelope collected at Kowmung and Lannigans Creek near Oberon, NSW in 1969 by John Pickard and D. Black 42 x 28.5 cm Grevillea acanthifolia plant specimen in archival paper envelope collected at Lawson, Blue Mountains in 1898

by Arthur Andrew Hamilton 42 x 28.5 cm Isopogon anemonifolius plant specimen in archival paper envelope collected at Bellmore Falls, NSW in 1887 by George Beyer 42 x 28.5 cm

Epacris pulcella plant specimen in archival paper envelope collected at Mount Banks, Blue Mountains in 1898

by Jesse Gregson 42 x 28.5 cm

Stylidium graminifolium plant specimen in archival paper envelope collected at Woodford, Blue Mountains in 1890 42 x 28.5 cm

Kennedia rubicunda plant specimen in archival paper envelope collected at Mount Tomah, Blue Mountains in 1950

by Ernest Francis Constable 42 x 28.5 cm

Pimelia linifolia plant specimen in archival paper envelope collected at Mount Victoria, Blue Mountains in 1898

by Joseph Henry Maiden 42 x 28.5 cm

Isopogon anemonifolius plant specimen in archival paper envelope collected at Katoomba, Blue Mountains in 1908

by Julius Henry Camfield 42 x 28.5 cm

Telopea speciosissima plant specimen in archival paper envelope collected at Wentworth Falls, Blue Mountains in 1898

by Capt. Murray 42 x 28.5 cm

LIST OF WORKS Other Loans Angela Lober Viola hederacea and black ants 2014 watercolour on paper 28 x 28cm Angela Lober Actinotus helianthi ‘Flannel Flower’ 2002 watercolour print 35 x 29cm Jacqueline Spedding Remnant Matter 2018 liquid graphite print on cotton paper 15 x 15 cm each Edith Pass Hollow Men 2018 Araucaria cunninghamii - Hoop Pine, Actinotus helianthii - Flannel Flowers and glass test tubes various dimensions Edith Rewa Acacia Terminalis 2017 giclée print on archival paper 56 x 40.7 cm Edith Rewa Banksia Ericifolia 2017 giclée print on archival paper 56 x 40.7 cm Edith Rewa Leptospermum 2017 giclée print on archival paper 56 x 40.7 cm Edith Rewa Flannel Flowers 2017 giclée print on archival paper 56 x 40.7 cm Edith Rewa Sunshine Wattle 2017 giclée print on archival paper 56 x 40.7 cm

Edith Rewa Lambertia Formosa 2017 giclée print on archival paper 56 x 40.7 cm James Blackwell Etude III 2018 paper, Banksia leaves, Gingko leaves 44 x 44 cm James Blackwell Gingko Ninja II 2018 paper, Gingko leaves, Gum leaves 51 x 38 cm

Digital re-productions James Blackwell Laniakea (Immense Heaven) 2018 paper, Protea fluff, Gum nuts 44 x 44 cm James Blackwell Elevation 867 2018 paper, Protea fluff, American basswood seeds 57 x 40 cm Jennifer Leahy Timeslip 2018 HD digital video (loop) Julie Nettleton Telopea speciosissima NSW Waratah 2016 watercolour and ink on paper 52 x 37 cm

Julie Nettleton Acacia terminalis sp. Terminalis Sunshine Wattle 2016 watercolour on paper 53 x 37 cm Julie Nettleton Xanthorrhoea australis with Gleichenia - Grass Tree with Coral Fern 2018 watercolour on paper 56 x 42 cm Tania Bowers Animated Nature 2018 curtain: silk fabric, eucalyptus, ferns, rose leaves, sculptures: leaves,twigs, millinery florals, vintage beads 200 x 120 cm Ona Janzen Vivus vietus// a study of botanical decay 2017 6 digital prints on Hahnemuehle photo rag 56 x 40 cm each Isobel Bowden‘s Water Colour Box ca. 1950s 20 cm x 5 cm Isobel Bowden’s Notebook with Watercolour Illustrations: Orchids of the Blue Mountains 30 cm x 30 cm

Wollemia nobillis - Wollemi pine live specimen Blue Mountains Botanica Gardens

Caroline Louisa Atkinson reproduction of albumen photoprint, background painted out with watercolour, ca. 1879 Collection of the Royal Botanic Gardens and Domain Trust Joseph Maiden reproduction of a photographic print from the series: ‘Technical Education staff and others TAFE NSW’ Collection of the State Library of New South Wales Henry Deane reproduction of platinotype photographic print by John Hubert Newman, ca. 1890 - 1901 Collection of the National Library of Australia Wilhelm Bäuerlen reproduction of cabinet photograph, albumen print

by L. Herbst, ca. 1900 Caroline Simpson Library & Research Collection, Sydney Living Museums Charles Darwin reproduction of photographic print

by Julia Margaret Cameron, ca 1886 Allan Cunningham reproduction of an engraving of Cunningham from the Picturesque Atlas of Australasia Vol 2, 1886 Robert Brown reproduction of albumen print by Maull & Polyblank, 1855 Collection of the National Portrait Gallery, London Margaret Flockton reproduction of photographic print Daniel Solander Library Collection of the Royal Botanic Gardens and Domain Trust Ernest Constable reproduction of photographic print, ca. 1950 Local Studies Collection, Blue Mountains City Library, Springwood

Isobel Bowden with Marie, at the Gentlemen’s Pool, Murphy’s Glen reproduction of photographic print Local Studies Collection, Blue Mountains City Library, Springwood

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Blue Mountains Cultural Centre acknowledges that the City of the Blue Mountains is located on the traditional lands of the Darug and Gundungurra peoples.

Blue Mountains City Art Gallery would like to acknowledge and thank the many people involved in the development of this exhibition: Shelley James, Head of Collections, Royal Botanic Gardens and Domain Trust; Miguel Garcia, Librarian, Daniel Solander Library, Royal Botanica Gardens and Domain Trust; Lesley Elkan and Catherine Wardope, Botanical Illustrators, Royal Botanic Gardens and Domain Trust; Vanessa Barratt, former Science Communications Officer, Royal Botanic Gardens and Domain Trust; Lisa Grieve, Visitor Experience Manager, Blue Mountains Botanic Garden, Mount Tomah; The Office of Environment & Heritage; Felicity Hallam, Blue Mountains Cultural Centre;

Zoe Sims, Blue Mountains Cultural Centre Intern; John Merriman from the Local Studies Collection, Blue Mountains City Libraries; Susan de Brett and Brooke Broughton from the Leura Gardens Festival Committee; The Woodford Academy Management Committee; the Bowden Family and Historian Ken Goodlet; Chris Tobin, Darug Man, Educator & Cultural Story Teller; and David King, Gundungurra Man and Gully Traditional Owner Copyright Š Blue Mountains Cultural Centre, Royal Botanic Gardens,the author and the artists 2018.

All rights reserved.

Published in conjunction with the exhibition Blue Mountains Botanica 25 August - 14 October 2018.

A Blue Mountains City Art Gallery exhibition curated by Sabrina Roesner.

A Blue Mountains City Art Gallery exhibition curated by Sabrina Roesner.

Developed in partnership with the Royal Botanic Gardens and Domain Trust.