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Playing in gardens

by National Library of Australia Commons

The photographs of gardens selected for this set have been chosen to represent spaces that are both created and enjoyed. Early pioneers quickly set about establishing gardens to provide themselves with something in their new environment that reminded them of the homes they had left behind. From those early beginnings, gardeners down the ages have enjoyed a sense of achievement in imposing their own order on the landscape and creating a haven suited to their needs and those of their families. Spring, in particular, is the time when people of all ages enjoying spending time in gardens in a variety of ways.

21 photos · 655 views

Veg. [i.e. vegetable] garden, Min [i.e. Madge Elliott], me [Cyril Ritchard], Monty and Pip, 1943

[Madge Elliott having a drink in a garden]

Woman wearing a large hat sitting on a garden bench, The Grange, Brighton Beach, Victoria, ca. 1942 / Sarah Chinnery

Deirdre Maddocks playing in a garden, [2]

Group of people seated on lawn eating food, Castlecrag, Sydney, New South Wales, [1]

Three children playing in a tree in the garden at Lanyon, Canberra, 1922 / W. A. S. Dunlop

Marion Mahony Griffin and Walter Burley Griffin gardening in the backyard of "Pholiota", Heidelberg, Victoria, 1918

[Afternoon garden tea party at home of Robert Morse and Frances A. Withycombe, Hurstville, Sydney]

Two men seated in a garden with a spider, Australia, ca. 1900

Seven women in a garden, Gundagai, New South Wales / Charles Gabriel

[Frances A. Withycombe holding her second born child in a domestic garden with unidentified woman restraining one of two other children, ca. 1902]

Lawn, lower Botanic Gardens, Sydney, ca. 1880

Children receiving a garden lesson at Springfield Public School, Goulburn, New South Wales, approximately 1916

A group of school children with garden tools, Arbor Day, Montacute, South Australia, ca. 1912

Helen White arranges potted shrubs in front of the homestead with gardener Joe at Burren Burren Station, near Collarenebri, New South Wales, 1951 / Francis Reiss

Lindsay Park house and gardens, Angaston, South Australia, September 1946 / Alfred Amos

Garden bed of flowers and water tank at Pine Range, Australian Capital Territory, ca. 1935

A gardener mowing the homestead lawns at Pulletop Station, New South Wales, ca. 1885 / Charles Bayliss

Three children and a white cat in the garden of a thatched house, Australia, ca. 1886 / Charles Kerry

Two women on veranda of rendered cottage with shingle roof and front garden, Hill End, New South Wales, ca.1872

Students at Drouin State School, Victoria tend the school's garden