Historical information

The Gardens were a popular venue for Sunday School picnics for many years. She was aged approximately when the photo was taken and her head can just be seen in the middle of the photo. Alice Weatherhead (Cochran) lived firstly in Newport and then Railway Cres Williamstown. She attended the Newport Baptist Church and the Domestic Arts School. At the time of writing the letter she was 91 years of age. She worked at the aircraft factory in Champion Road, Newport making the rear fuselage for Beaufort Bombers. Her father, Tom Cochran, belonged to the Williamstown Horticultural Society.

Significance

Alice’s photos and written memories encapsulate the intangible heritage of the Williamstown Botanic Gardens.
She recalls: playing in the Gardens; using them as her as a place for solace and thinking; while riding to the beach from Newport; walking in crocodile file past the Gardens from her school to the swimming baths, the ‘air of mystery as you walked through those wonderful wrought iron gates’; a place of courtship with the boy she later married. She wrote about seeing a purple flowering plant in a circular bed that was ‘spectacular and inspired me to grow it in my garden’.

Physical description

Black and white image of people sitting and standing together for the group photo. There are large trees in the background; a young boy standing with his hands behind his back at the back row to the left. There are two crosses (in pen) above the heads of two women in the back row on the left side.

Inscriptions & markings

On the reverse of the image: Mother and G. M. L. / marked x x / Newport Baptist S.S. / Picnic Williamstown Gardens / Grace Logan / [address is written but not to be published] / No29