To grow a garden city: the Ballarat Horticultural Society: a study in the formation of a civic image

© 2011 Michael. J. TaffeThis thesis examines the Ballarat Horticultural Society (BHS), the first such organisation established in Ballarat, as a case study of the formation of Ballarat’s image and identity as a garden city and the role of the organisation in the formation of that image. The Society was established in 1859 by a group of thirteen men with the aim of establishing an association for all lovers of horticulture. An analysis of the methods employed to meet their objectives demonstrates how the Society influenced the wider community. This thesis situates the BHS within the wider horticultural movement of Victoria and similar organisations in Britain with interest in gardening and landscape. It also analyses how post gold rush Ballarat has been taken to the world as ‘The Garden City’ in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. In examining The BHS through its community education and professional education, this thesis identifies aspects of the influence of horticultural practice and excellence on the formation of Ballarat’s gardens and gardeners. Ballarat was termed a garden city not solely for its public spaces but for its marriage of public, private and corporate landscaping and the juxtaposition of these into a unified whole. Current historiography in the area studied involves several disciplines but Elliot in England and Aitken in Australia have drawn together threads in the history of horticultural movements while urban and social histories draw other aspects together in local and international comparisons. This thesis analyses the influence of a Horticultural Society on its wider civic community as has not been done previously in Australia. There were many such societies throughout the colonies making a contribution to their communities. G.W. Johnson’s The Cottage Gardener in July 1852 listed seventy quarterly shows in England hosted by such societies. The Australian colonies followed suit as the social, scientific and cultural demands of the era called for. My thesis that Ballarat was a garden city because of the wide involvement of its people in the BHS has also revealed a lack of historical research into service or tertiary industries in the city of the nineteenth century. Similarly there is little statistical information on such industries as nurseries or horticulture in the early twentieth century. The thesis illustrates the impact such industries had on the evolution of a regional centre such as Ballarat, socially and culturally. It was through the founders and leaders in these industries that much of the leadership in the city was drawn. Through their involvement in organisations such as the BHS or BMI and building their businesses they honed the skills that gave Ballarat many of its leaders. With such a background as well as that which they brought from their earlier lives this thesis shows that they built a city with a high regard for landscape