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Walling, Edna (1896-1973)

Also known as
Walling, Edna (1895-1973)
Walling, Edna Margaret (1895-1973)
Occupation
conservationist; horticulturist; landscape designer
Persistent Identifier
http://nla.gov.au/nla.party-618675

Biographies

Australian Women's Register

Edna Walling is best known for her garden designs. She is also remembered for her photographs, gardening and landscape books, magazine articles, and the creation of Bickleigh Vale, a village of English-style cottages. Her garden designs vary greatly and include city and country cottage gardens in which stone paths and low walls, carefully cut and well placed, are key elements.

The Walling family lived in the village of Bickleigh, Devon, before migrating to New Zealand, and then to Australia in 1914. In Bickleigh, Edna Walling's father William had trained his daughter in woodwork and honed her skills in perspective and scale. Father and daughter also enjoyed walking together through the English countryside. Walling's future garden designs were to reflect elements of this countryside, and of the various English gardens they visited.

After completing a course in horticulture at Burnley College in 1917, Walling commenced work as a jobbing gardener. In 1921 she purchased three acres of land at Mooroolbark and built her first home from local and second hand materials. This home was named Sonning after Gertrude Jekyll's Deanery Garden of the same name, which she had visited in England.

In 1922 Walling purchased a further 18 acres of land adjacent to Sonning. The houses she built became the village of Bickleigh Vale. Between the 1920s and 1960s Walling's commissions included designing the lily pond for Coombe Cottage, Dame Nellie Melba's residence in Coldstream, Vic.; Durrol for Mrs Stanley Allen, Mount Macedon, Vic.; and the Cruden Farm garden for Mrs Keith Murdoch (now Dame Elisabeth), Langwarrin, Vic. She also undertook commissions in Hobart, Tasmania, and designed villages at Port Pirie, South Australia (never completed) and Mount Kembla, New South Wales, for Broken Hill Associated Smelters Pty Ltd.

During this period Walling wrote four books: Gardens in Australia (1943), Cottage and Garden in Australia (1947), A Gardener's Log (1948) and The Australian Roadside (1952). She wrote articles for The Australian Women's Mirror, The Australian Home Builder and The Australian Home Beautiful. In a letter held by the State Library of Victoria's Edna Walling Collection (La Trobe Australian Manuscripts), Walling declines an invitation to join the Australian Society of Authors by saying:

Walling's ABC Radio talks include On Making a Garden (1941), Improving the Farm and Curing Erosion and The Farmers' Friends (1951). In 1967, Walling moved to a cottage - 'Bendles' - at Buderim, Queensland. She died there in 1973.

View the full record at Australian Women's Register

Libraries Australia

Born Dec. 4 1895. Cf. The vision of Edna Walling : garden plans 1920-1951 / Trisha Dixon and Jennie Churchill. Hawthorn, Vic : Bloomings Books, 1998.

View the full record at Libraries Australia

Australian Dictionary of Biography Online

WALLING, EDNA MARGARET (1895-1973), garden designer, was born on 4 December 1895 at York, England, second daughter of William Walling, furniture dealer's clerk, and his wife Harriet Margaret, née Goff. Edna attended school at the Convent of Notre Dame, Plymouth, Devon. She later recalled her fondness for the English countryside which she had enjoyed exploring with her father. He also steered her towards the practical arts. Arriving in New Zealand in 1912 with her family, she worked for a short time as a maid on a property in the country and began a nursing course at Christchurch. About 1914 the Wallings moved to Melbourne where William became warehouse director with Toledo-Berkel Pty Ltd.

View the full record at Australian Dictionary of Biography Online

Related people and organisations

Australian Women's Register

Australian Dictionary of Biography Online

Resources

Selected resources (22)

Australian Women's Register

  1. The Australian roadside
    Walling, Edna
    [1952]
    Published: Oxford University Press, Melbourne
  2. Country roads : the Australian roadside
    Walling, Edna
    [1985]
    Published: Pioneer Design Studio, Lilydale, Vic.
  3. Gardens in Australia: their design and care
    Walling, Edna
    [1943]
    Published: Oxford University Press, Melbourne
  4. Walling, Edna Margaret (1895-1973)
    Watts, Peter
    [2006]
    Published: Australian National University
  5. The Markdale Experience
  6. On the trail of Australian wildflowers
    Walling, Edna
    [c1984]
    Published: Mulini Press, Canberra
  7. The Edna Walling book of Australian garden design
    Barrett, Margaret (edited by)
    [1980]
    Published: Anne O'Donovan, Richmond, Vic.
  8. Edna Walling's year
    [1990]
    Published: Anne O'Donovan, South Yarra, Vic.
  9. The garden magic of Edna Walling
    Barrett, Margaret (edited by)
    [1988]
    Published: Anne O'Donovan, South Yarra, Vic.
  10. Letters to garden lovers
    Walling, Edna
    [2000]
    Published: New Holland, Frenchs Forest, NSW
  11. The vision of Edna Walling : garden plans 1920-1951
    Dixon, Trisha and Churchill, Jennie
    [1998]
    Published: Bloomings Books, Hawthorn, Vic.
  12. The Edna Walling Website
    Australian Broadcasting Commission, Cinemedia, State Library of Victoria
    [2001]
    Published: Tantamount Productions
  13. Edna Walling, Landscape Designer
    Gardening Australia
    [2000]
    Published: Australian Broadcasting Commission
  14. Gardens in Time : In the Footsteps of Edna Walling
    Dixon, Trisha and Churchill, Jennie
    [1988]
    Published: Angus & Robertson, North Ryde NSW
  15. Mooroolbark village given heritage protection
    Boulton, Martin
    [2004]
  16. A gardener's log
    Barrett, Margaret (edited by)
    [1985]
    Published: Anne O'Donovan, Hawthorn, Vic.
  17. Papers of Edna Walling
    [Original ms., typescript and printed : c. 1940 - c. 1970]
    Papers, mostly comprising typescripts of published articles.
    0.53 m
    State Library of Victoria, Australian Manuscripts Collection
    MS 13048
  18. Papers of Edna Walling
    [letters, press cuttings, photographs, slides : 1962 - 1970]
    Letters, 1962-1970, to Mervyn T. Davis and Daphne Pearson; press cuttings concerning landscape designer Edna Walling; and photographs and slides of Edna Walling and garden designs, 1966.
    0.01 m
    State Library of Victoria, Australian Manuscripts Collection
    MS 10408
  19. Exchange of correspondence and accounts
    [correspondence, accounts : 5 Feb. 1937 - 14 Aug. 1937]
    Exchange of correspondence and accounts between Edna Walling, William Waters, William Train and Co. Pty. Ltd. and Theodore Beggs, 5 February - 14 August 1937, relating to a garden designed by Edna Walling and built by William Waters for the Beggs' property "Eurambeen" at Beaufort.
    0.01 m, 23 pages
    State Library of Victoria, Australian Manuscripts Collection
    MS 10725
  20. University of Melbourne. Photograph Collection
    [1940 - 1972]
    Four black and white photographs taken over the Melbourne Teachers' College (1988 Building), showing adjacent building works. May 1972; two looking towards the Education Resource Centre and Science Education Building, and one looking along the concourse in front of the E.R.C. and Science Education Building to the old Teachers' College building, May 1972. Twelve colour photographs of various parts of the University grounds. Black and white photograph of Ormond College (Visual Aids), n.d. Copy of photograph of two men walking in a garden, labelled on back: "Notes on Reerse of original. 1. The old Garden before re-designing by Edna Walling in 1948; 2. Photo taken by Dr. Euan Littlejohn in 1939.
    0.02 m
    The University of Melbourne Archives
    98/106
  21. Records of Cuming Smith & Company Limited
    [1938 - 1960]
    1. Ink and wash sketch by Edna Walling of Plan for the Garden of Mrs. M.A. Cuming, Kooyong Rd. Toorak n.d. [1938] 39x76.5 cm., mount 61x81 cm. 2. Sketches and final tracings of alterations and additions to residence, 29 Stonnington Place Toorak for Mr. and Mrs. M.A. Cuming 1960; design by John Cuming, drawings prepared by Mackay & Potter, Hawthorn. 10 large, tracings, 6 smaller sketches. 3. M.A. Cuming: Cash box without key from office 65 William Street.
    The University of Melbourne Archives
    96/73
  22. Papers of Jean Galbraith
    [Original ms., typescript, printed, press cuttings : 1900 - 1990]
    Papers 1900-1990. Includes correspondence and writings of Jean Galbraith such as stories, verse and magazine articles, many concerning nature and its preservation; drafts of A gardener's year and miscellaneous diaries, notebooks and exercise books.
    State Library of Victoria, Australian Manuscripts Collection
    MS 12637

Australian Dictionary of Biography Online

  1. 'Walling, Edna Margaret (1895 - 1973)' - Australian Dictionary of Biography
    Peter Watts
    [2002]
    Published: Melbourne University Press
    Series: Volume 16
    pp 474-475.

Resources About Edna Walling (1)

  1. More greenery than colour a portrait of Edna Walling
    [Sound : 1988]

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  1. Website: Australian Women's Archives Project
    www.womenaustralia.info
    Matching pages:
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  2. Website: Australian Women in War
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  3. Website: Putting skirts on the sacred benches : women candidates for the New South Wales Parliament
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  1. Galbraith, Jean.
    ... Walling, Edna (1896 - 1973) ...
  2. Spunner, Suzanne.
    ... Walling, Edna (1896 - 1973) ...

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