Smart Garden Watering.

This website has much to offer. A quick glance confirms many of my choices, which is encouraging.

We live in a terrace house in Brunswick. The front garden has two trees, a Pittostporum, ‘Peter Stirling’ which is not really in the right place, and an ornamental flowering crab-apple. There are a few shrubs, Philadelphus mexicanus, an Abelia xgrandiflora and some camellias, ‘Janet Waterhouse’ and ‘E.G. Waterhouse’ variegated, and a few others. The front garden needs some further thought – as to the design.

Along the side there are a few shrubs – Nandina domestica, two more camellias and an Alister Clark climbing rose ‘Black Boy, Akebia quinata that is claiming more territory than it really needs and an outgrown pot of Aspidistra elatior that needs to be moved into the shade.

The back yard is largely paved, but we do have a hardy persimmon,

Diospyros sp.



Five years ago this tree was stripped of all its leaves by possums. As the drought continued, the tree was defoliated again the following year. I thought that the tree was doomed, but I kept watering it. The following two years, it grew leaves, but no fruit. With the heavy rain earlier this year, I am amazed and delighted to find that it has borne an abundance of fruit – which the birds pilfer by day and the possums by night! The fruit that we can salvage is beautiful!

We also have two feijoas, Acca sellowiana, grafted varieties, ‘Mammoth’ and ‘Large Oval’. The ‘Mammoth’ tree received the same attention from the possums as the persimmon. Only the lower two branches had any leaves left on them. The tree became so stressed, that it has sprouted from the stock. But it has also recovered, and this year is producing lovely large fruits.

We have a number of pots which have some of the plants recommended for back yards and cottage gardens. Plants such as Rosa banksiae, Escallonia species, a number of salvias, lavenders, kangaroo paws and herbs.

We use rainwater collected from the roof of our house and grey water to water our plants. We seldom use any reticulated water. I look forward to having more time to browse through this website and see how others have managed to garden despite the water restrictions.

Adopt a Tree.

I have focused on three different developments in the East Brunswick area. All have required a great deal of planning and effort to bring them to their present state. In all, native plants have been used, particularly species that are indigenous to this area.  With careful siting and maintenance, these plantings can be very satisfying.

 The Wetland area along the Merri Creek.

However, I have hesitated to make a judgement on the quality of Brunswick’s street scapes because, in my opinion, at best they are adequate, but usually they are poor or even neglected.

I have seen very few streets planted with London Plane trees, a hybrid of Platanus orientalis, that seem to be favourites in the leafy eastern suburbs. Most of Brunswick’s street trees are hardy natives. They have to be tough because they do not get much attention once they are planted. The majority are melaleucas, acacias, casuarinas, some eucalypts and lately, callistemons.

It seems that I am not alone in my opinion of the state of Brunswick’s street scapes because, last month, on the front page of the local paper, there was an announcement about a resident group’s new initiative.

Friends of Moreland Street Gardens urge residents and businesses to sign up to the Adopt-a-Tree scheme. People can adopt civic land which they can plant with trees and shrubs provided by the council.

The council will provide

• A council-owned nature strip or garden bed to be cared for
• Free rubbish removal, plants and mulch
• A co-ordinator and mentor, and great prizes
• To sign up email adoptatreeinmoreland@y7mail.com

The co-ordinator said residents could help ‘fix the municipalities’ neglected street scapes by donating time’. People can nominate the public garden / nature strip of their choice, and once approved, they will receive their plants.

A neglected  tree in a sea of weeds.

This nature strip has had some help.

There has been encouraging interest shown in the scheme. It is hoped that not only will this benefit the amenity of Moreland’s streets, but there will be a positive experience of community building.

A beautiful tree that has to accommodate too many wires.

Merri Creek.

The Merri Creek rises in The Great Dividing Range and flows for around sixty kilometres through the northern suburbs to the Yarra. It and its six tributaries are home to some of the most threatened ecosystems in Australia.

The Merri Creek at East Brunswick.

The Moonee Ponds Creek had been forced into a concrete drain, and to prevent the same fate befalling the Merri, concerned people met to discuss ways of reversing the decline that had been evident in the preceding decades.

Initial work involved the removal of rubbish and weeds from the waterways. Also lobbying began to require stricter legislation on contaminants that were being released into the creeks from agricultural, industrial and domestic sources.

In 1989 the Merri Creek Management Committee Inc was formed to develop policy and to liaise with the six municipal councils and the Water Authorities to outline their program. This included the development and maintenance of the Merri Creek and its tributaries, the sensitive ecological restoration of the waterways, in fact, to preserve the area’s natural and cultural heritage. Funding from local, state and federal governments, as well as grants from philanthropic trusts enabled work to begin on more than eighty sites. Planting local ( native ) grasses, shrubs and trees resulted in revegetation programs and parkland development – with the aim of linking these areas to form a linear park.

After twenty years of negotiations, work began on the Northcote Wetlands. Earth works created a billabong-type area, and since 2000, more than sixteen thousand plants have helped to restore the area to similar to what it may have been originally.

The Northcote Wetlands on the Merri Creek.

With the improvement in the flora, numbers of local fauna has been increasing. Frogs, lizards and birds such as wrens and finches have been seen in greater numbers. The kingfisher returned a few years ago, and last year there was a siting of a platypus! These have not been seen in this area for decades.

More than twenty staff are employed to implement these programs, and volunteers are always welcome. Friends of Merri Creek have a website with a calendar of coming events. They also have back copies of their newsletters. Friends of Merri Creek have won a Landcare award in the category ‘Community Group Caring for Public Land’.

Merri Park Wetlands

Ceres – A Centre for Education and Research in Environmental Strategies.

Another reclaimed brickwork site and municipal tip, about half a kilometre from Jones Park along the Merri Creek, is the 4.5 hectare Ceres site.

Part of the entrance to The Ceres Environmental Park.

Originally cleared of weeds and rubbish to establish a community garden where residents could rent a small plot to grow vegetables or flowers, around fifty allotments are still in operation. There is a permaculture and bush-food nursery where popular and more-rare seedlings can be bought. Fruit trees, nut trees as well as ornamentals are also on offer.

A farmers’ market developed to sell any excess produce and now other organic producers are involved. Saturday mornings see a thriving market where not only food, but books, clothes and general bric-a-brac are sold. Organic goodies are available from food vendors or you can sit back in the café to enjoy the live music. A festival atmosphere every week!

A primary focus of Ceres has been the teaching of self-sufficiency skills. There is an urban farm where organic food producing principles are shared  and the allied areas of compost making, worm farms, poultry care and seed savers have been incorporated. More recent additions have been the Medicinal Garden Group and The Bee Group who willingly impart all that you need to know to keep your own bees. Food preservation, bread making and cheese making are all popular workshops.

Another focus has been ecological sustainability. There is an Ecohouse where energy-saving strategies are demonstrated. The Alternative Energies Technology Association promotes the use of renewable energy, water conservation and sustainable building. There are examples of African and Indonesian village building styles.

 Ceres generates its own electricity and the windmill pumps water.

The management committee is working towards making Ceres carbon neutral in 2012. In thirty years, Ceres has developed from being a ‘grass roots’ self-sufficiency model to being a leader in sustainable living strategies. It won the Premier’s Sustainability Award in 2007.

From Butler's Brickworks to Jones Park, via the Tip.

I will look at how the use of one piece of land can change over the years.

A few years after the gold rush of the 1850s, Brunswick had more than forty brickworks. One site at the eastern end of Albion Street was, I believe, Butler’s Brickworks, established in 1857. There bricks were made in the traditional way, in a hand press.

Only one brickworks, Hoffman’s in Dawson Street, had a steam-powered mechanised system that could produce 18,000 bricks per hour. Brunswick was the brick-making capital of Australia! The fact that Hoffman’s had its own rail line into their works indicated the importance of this industry to the area. There is a movement to retain one of the Hoffman kilns as an example of Brunswick’s industrial heritage. The rest of the site is a housing development.

 

This picture from ‘Old Melbourne Town’ by Michael Cannon, illustrates the working conditions of the time. Wouldn’t pass ‘Health and Safety’ regulations today!!

Brick-making in Brunswick declined in the first half of the twentieth century because of a combination of depleted resources and the Depression, which reduced demand. After it was closed, Butler’s Brickworks became a rubbish tip.

After filling the quarry, drainage was installed and the land was allowed to settle for several years. This site is now Jones’ Park, a very popular recreational area. It has a hill on the northern side – a favourite vantage point to watch the New Year’s Eve fireworks displays, a small ‘urban forest’ a wetland, a picnic area and a children’s playground.

There has been a claim that all but two of Brunswick’s parks are filled in quarries. This may be so, but these parks are very important to the amenity of the area. Fitzroy and Brunswick are the two municipalities that have the least open space, per head of population, in the state of Victoria. As these two suburbs have rapidly increasing populations, open public space is vital for the wellbeing of their inhabitants.

Ten years ago, the area around Jones’ Park was a wasteland. Now there is multi-storeyed development, and, if real estate prices are anything to go by, it is seen as a prestigious area.

The Changing Character of Brunswick.

I have wondered why there is such a difference in the street layout between Brunswick and the splendidly gracious street layout of Carlton, our southern neighbour.

Robert Hoddle, the government surveyor, had laid out Melbourne on the grid pattern that was distinctive of the Victorian city design. He delegated the task of dividing the marshy area to the north, known as Iramoo by the Wurundjeri people, to his assistant.

North and south boundaries were drawn up, running in an east-west direction between Moonee Ponds Creek and Merri Creek. These boundaries would become Moreland Road and Park Street, respectively. A narrow road was surveyed down the centre to service what were intended to be agricultural properties.

These parcels of land were auctioned in Sydney in 1839.

Most of these lots were bought by speculators who never saw the land that they had purchased. In 1841, Thomas Wilkinson bought land from one of the original buyers. He had been an active campaigner for the rights of Caroline of Brunswick, the estranged wife of King George the IV. He named his estate in her honour, and when the first post office opened in 1846, it took on the name of Wilkinson’s property. Development was steady until the gold rush of the 1850s, when, with a huge influx of people, building materials were in great demand.

Brunswick is a clay pan on a basalt plain. There were plentiful supplies of both excellent clay for brick-making and bluestone for building. Any aspirations of gentility the Brunswick residents had were soon dashed. Brunswick became an industrial area with brick-making and quarrying the major activities, supplemented with allied industries such as potteries which made roofing tiles and drainage pipes, and also nail and rope factories. Development quickened. The agricultural allotments were subdivided for housing and industry. The north-south access lane was named Sydney Road.

Brunswick’s layout reflects this history. There are a number of streets that run east-west, but only one that runs straight north-south. There are others, but they have deviations; a situation that reflects more expedience than planning, and one that has ensured that Brunswick has continuing problems with traffic flow. Because the price of land had escalated dramatically, the roads that were made tended to be as narrow as practicable, and housing allotments tended to be smaller than that originally envisioned.

The last twenty years has seen a gentrification of Brunswick.

Many workers cottages have either been lovingly restored or demolished and replaced by large modern homes. The suburb has become popular because of its close proximity to the city, its public transport system and its very diverse cultural mix.

Brunswick has been designated as one of the centres for intensive redevelopment in the 2030 plan for Melbourne, consequently there has been a number of multi-story developments. Currently the limit is twenty-five metres which seems to allow for seven storeys - the ground floor is given over to businesses, the others are apartments.

There are many more on the way.

Royal Parade, Carlton, looking South,

Turn 180^o            Sydney Road, Brunswick.

Brunswick