Williamstown Botanic Gardens- Hobsons Bay City Council
Postcard - Williamstown Botanic Gardens
The original postcards in this series (2013.002 to 2013.018) were generously loaned to Williamstown Botanic Gardens by a private collector for copying. The postcards are evidence of the interest the gardens held as a subject for postcard publishers. The text and images provide a snapshot into fashions, social interests and concerns of the time. The professionally produced images provide a pictorial history of Gardens including changing planting styles, various structures and features of the Gardens eg the aviary, cannons, the fountain, the second Curator’s Lodge and gates. The images offer an opportunity to compare garden vistas with the present day.
This postcard shows the main east-west axial path with a typical Victorian/Edwardian mown grass strip which in turn borders formal shrub beds with herbaceous plantings. The Cordylines which line and avenue in this image were replaced by Mexican Fan Palms (Washingtonia robusta) planted in 1915, which in turn were replaced with the same species in 1987.
Black and White image of main path looking towards the statue of A C Clark. There is a man wearing a boater hat on the right side of the path and a woman and two children on the left side of the path. The path is lined with grass, shrubs and cycads. This image is before the border of the path was planted with palm trees, which was 1915.Front: ‘The Botanic Gardens, Williamstown’. Reverse: Top Centre ‘POST CARD’. Top left hand side ‘This space may be used for Correspondence. / Postage to any Address in Victoria, 1 d; / to other States, 11/2 d.’ Right side and top centre of card in pencil 'C1908' and '$3' [believed to be inserted by the vendor of the card]postcard, gardens, post-card, williamstown-botanic-gardens, hobsons-bay-city-council, garden-path, cycads, 1908, clark
Anglesea and District Historical Society
Orbost & District Historical Society
Williamstown Botanic Gardens- Hobsons Bay City Council