PUBLICATIONS - RESOURCES - WHAT'S ON - STAR  - PUBLIC ART - MEMBERS - ABOUT US RESEARCH  - LINKS HOME
Australian Women's Art Register
View Melbourne Public Art  by Women 

Margaret Baskerville   Ola Cohn  Ailsa O'Connor  Inge King   Toolangi Rainforest     Edna Walling      Lisa Young 

   Edna Walling - Australia's  Greatest Landscape Designer.
Although she was born  4 Dec. 1896  Yorkshire, England she was raised in the  village of Bickleigh in Devon England,  Edna Walling went with her parents to New Zealand and then to Melbourne Australia when she was 19. She graduated from Burnley Horticultural college 1918 Here she became a beacon of enlightened environmental design of houses and gardens. She was widely published  and influenced more than one generation of  home garden designers. She bought  some 20 acres or so of land near Lillydale  close to Melbourne and developed an environmentally sensitive enclave there for like  minded people who she knew and she designed many of the gardens and houses  - she lived her for 46 years then went to live in  the warmer  Buderim, Queensland.  Died: 8 Aug. 1973. Australia
Noted for her rustic settings blending with the local terrain and use of native vegetation. She incorporated this  with the use of  dry stone walls and crazy paving.

Where to find Edna Walling Gardens to  view  on the web :
[we cannot verify that the claims made on  these web sites are true.]
SHERBROOKE : Historic Garden PHOTOGRAPHS  OF IT  HERE   " 'Mawarra' remain as they were when she designed them in 1927 - 1932."  However I have found a reference to the exact location:
 "Mawarra" and "The Croft" at numbers 6 & 8 Sherbrooke Rd, Sherbrooke. ...'Mawarra' features 3.5 acres of magnificent gardens designed by the famous Edna Walling's .. her  finest garden ...

MARKDALE GARDEN - NSW- recent colour photographs of this garden   redesigned in 1949 by Edna Walling - more photos Here Open Gardens Scheme 
CAMPASPE HOUSE -  Edna Walling designed gardens and surrounding natural bushland. near Woodend  - Wedding receptions
Folly Farm B&B  with an  Edna Walling garden -  Olinda, Dandenongs -  photo of the gardens.

Beleura an Italianate Mansion Mornngton, Garden by Edna Wallng being restored?  see ABC garden program  Beleura is open for reserved tours only. Phone: 03 5975 2027.

Lorne Victoria, Edna Walling built a holiday cottage here- which burnt down 1950,  and the she gave the land to the Bird Observers Club -This was a steep plot and 16 acres. At "East Point" . I  dont know the location yet...email  me please if you know


 Bickleigh Vale at Moorolbark Melbourne

The main road through Bickleigh Vale 2005 
this is the widest road 

Many houses are obscured by leafy gardens. 
No electric wires are visible and there are no footpaths

"Glencairn"

"Glencairn"

"The Barn"
Edna Walling lived here from 1951 to 1967 

Garden seat of local ti-tree wood in the Art & Crafts Style

Mail box at the Barn 2005

At the Barn, a grass roller of  iron and scythe 
from about the 1930s?
      LINKS TO  WEB SITES ABOUT EDNA WALLING

            Biography Highlights    - succinct  career history.

         Constructive Women's Archive : ARCHITECTURE AND DESIGN ARCHIVE -
         list  and descriptions of book available about Edna Walling - Sydney
            RMIT Architecture  Web site - Modern Melbourne 1950-1970 - passing mentions.

         ABC Web site -

photographs and articles about  her  as Designer, Writer, Photographer and Person  - Bickleigh Vale photos
Some books that look interesting:
 The Edna Walling book of Australian garden design  by Edna Walling

"A Gardener's Log 1948":  A selection of her weekly articles in  the Australian Home Beautiful to aid the creation of restful gardens
"Edna Walling and Her Gardens "- photos and plans .... Discusses her life and her designs in  detail..modern photos
"Cottage and Garden in Australia" 1947. one-colour  photos and plans -
suggesting how to build or renovate your country cottage and garden simply and tastefully.
Many photos of the houses at Bickleigh Vale, which of course she designed and built.
Shows the effect of the Arts and Crafts movement on her designs.
"The Vision of Edna Walling: Garden Plans 1920-1951" by Trisha Dixon, Jennie Churchill 1998
"A Gardener's Log", Macmillan, 1969, First published 1948,
"Edna Walling and her gardens"  by Peter Watts
"On the Trail of Australian Wildflowers", Mulini Press,     Canberra.
"The Australian Roadside", Oxford University Press, 1952.
"Letters to Garden Lovers", New Holland Publishers, 2000.
"Gardens in Time: In the Footsteps of   Edna Walling",  Dixon, Trisha and Churchill, Jennie,
"The Edna Walling Book of Australian Garden   Design",   Barrett, Margaret (Ed.)
"The Edna Walling Book of Australian Garden Design".     O'Donovan, Anne:
"A Gardener's Warning",   Fielden, Lorna
"Edna Walling's Folly Farm: Genesis Of A HistoricGarden",    Wehner, Volkhard:
"Kindred Spirits: A Botanical Correspondence",  Latreille, Anne:
"The Australian Home Beautiful: From Hills Hoist to High Rise",      Oliver, J, P
"Gardens in Bloom: Jocelyn Brown and Her Sydney  Gardens of the '30s and '40s",
"This Australia: Gardenscape: Mawarra, an Edna Walling   Garden",     Patrick, John.
"Millie Gibson Blooms Again",      Reeves, Simon,
"Olive Mellor", "Australian Garden History",
"The Natural Garden: Ellis Stones: His Life and Work",       Latreille, Anne:,
 "Australian Women Photographers  1840-1960",   Hall, Barbara, and Mather, Jenni, 1986.


Names of Other Places with a large component of Edna Wallings work
  • Ardgartan - near Hamilton
  • Boortkoi -Hexham
  • Eurambeen -Beaufort
  • Wooleen - Benalla

PUBLICATIONS - RESOURCES - WHAT'S ON - STAR  - PUBLIC ART - MEMBERS - ABOUT US RESEARCH  - LINKS HOME

All content of this web site copyright © Women's Art Register 2003, 2004.  2005 2006