“There are many possible approaches to Australian garden design, and they all reflect the designer’s individual response to gardens. For my part, I love all things most gardeners abhor … I like the whole thing to be as wild as possible, so that you have to fight your way through in places.”

– Edna Walling

Edna Walling is one of Australia’s most famous landscape gardeners. After studying at the Burnley School of Horticulture, Walling quickly developed a flourishing reputation as a landscape gardener, attracting the attention of some of Victoria’s most influential names including Dame Nellie Melba and Dame Elisabeth Murdoch. A talented pioneer, Walling was one of the first women to establish a successful landscape design practice. One of her most enduring achievements was Bickleigh Vale, a housing estate development across 10 hectares in Mooroolbark. Created between 1920 and 1940, Bickleigh Vale emerged around Walling’s own residence Sonning and her studio The Cabin. Walling was heavily involved in the development of the historically significant estate, which is an extraordinary achievement in urban design. Low density residences with low fence lines covered in greenery provide a sense of a continuous, uninterrupted landscape of cottages, houses, gardens and nature. Today Bickleigh Vale is a community of Friends of Edna Walling, dedicated to preserving and protecting Bickleigh Vale village and its surrounding environment.

Of the numerous private commissions Walling attracted in the Dandenong Ranges, perhaps the most famous is ‘The Grove’ at Mawarra in Sherbrooke, which Walling herself described as a ‘symphony in steps and beautiful trees’. 

IMAGE:

Edna Walling, after 1967

photograph

10.5 x 8.1 cm

(Source: State Library of Victoria)