| Beaumaris Conservation Society Inc. will email a .jpg file of the original of the letter below to interested persons on request.. |
| 63 Durrant Street, Brighton, S.5., VIC. September 7th., 1953. |
| Mrs. E. Hosking, President, Beaumaris Tree Preservation Society, “Coronet Hill”, Coronet Grove, Beaumaris, S.10., VIC. |
| Dear Mrs. Hosking, Your society is to be congratulated in its endeavours to conserve good examples of the fast-disappearing native tree growth at Beaumaris. Efforts, in collaboration with the Native Plants Preservation Society, to secure for posterity a sample of the local wildflower country is also highly commendable. As a professional botanist, I have visited the great sand-plains of Western Australia which are world- renowned for their unique native flowers – orchids, heaths, banksias, grevilleas, honey-myrtles and many others in rich diversity. No part of Victoria more closely resembled these colourful Western heathlands that the sandy east side of Port Phillip Bay, where a great wealth of showy flowers once extended from the Heads all the way round to Melbourne. Barely a vestige now remains, but on the Dunlop Estate at Beaumaris one may still see a limited display of heaths, wattles, wedding-bush, love creeper, bush-peas, lilies and various orchids, unspoiled as yet by encroaching weeds. So that these may be available to another generation, the need for a close reserve is urgent. I understand that
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| Dunlop Rubber Ltd. is agreeable to sell a selected portion of the Beaumaris Estate (near Reserve Rd.), and I would be happy to make recommendations for a site containing the best wildflowers. If your society could raise some of the purchase money, Sandringham City Council may be willing to pay the balance? In any case, the most satisfactory arrangement would be for the Council to accept landlord responsibilities, and the area would need to be surrounded by rabbit-proof fencing. Municipal authorities in other parts of the State have co-operated splendidly with the Native Plants Preservation Society, e.g. Seymour Shire Council which enclosed 3 acres of bushland at Talla rook – now a “show place” -, Barrabool Shire’s reserves along the Great Ocean Road near Anglesea, and a remarkable survival of orchids recently enclosed by Flinders Shire near Dromana. It would be tragic if the last chance to save anything worthwhile of our vanishing Bayside flowers were allowed to pass without the utmost effort by those of us who have the fascinating indigenous flora of Australia at heart. |