Camperdown Botanic Gardens designed by William Guilfoyle., autor denisbin

Guilfoyle was Curator of the Melbourne Botanic Gardens and designed a number of private and public botanic gardens in the Western Districts of Victoria. He was known for his lawns, unusual trees, drought resistant plants and picturesque features in the gardens such as ponds, fountains, wells, gazebos, sun dials etc. Camperdown. Like Noorat, Camperdown is overshadowed by a volcanic cone, Mt Leura, which ensures fertile volcanic soils suitable for dairying are found in the surrounding countryside. Camperdown has become the major regional town. It was once surrounded by some of the great pastoral properties of Victoria, most of which had grand mansions erected on them befitting the great wealth and status of the early pastoralists including: Purrumbete (the Manifold brothers, 11,000 acres) on the main highway to Geelong; Talindert (also a Manifold property, 6,000 acres) nearer to Mt Leura; West Cloven Hills ( Nicholas Cole 22,000 acres); Meningoort ( Peter McArthur, 13,000 acres); Keilambete ( John Thomson, 26,000 acres- remember the Thomson Memorial Presbyterian church in Terang?); Gala ( John & Thomas Brown, 31,500 acres); Larra ( James Kinross - the buildings are National Heritage listed); Titanga ( James Wilson and partners, 14,000 acres;) and Mount Elephant (Chirnside family of Werribee Park –more than 12,000 acres). Of all of these families it was the Manifolds of Purrumbete and Talindert who provided significant social and civic leadership to Camperdown. Thus the Main Street is Manifold Street and when Princess Alexandra visited Camperdown in 1959 she stayed at Talindert. But by then Talindert, like all the large pastoral estates, had been broken up for closer settlement around the turn of the 20th century. It was a grand house with a small acreage of around 1,700 acres. Purrumbete historic mansion recently sold in February 2013 with just 420 acres. Manifolds have served on the town and district councils, including as President of the Shire etc. It was the Manifold family who paid for the unusual clock tower in the Main Street as a memorial for their son Thomas Manifold who was killed in a hunting accident in 1896. £1,000 was given to the shire council for its erection in 1897. The tower is 103 feet high (31.4 metres) and the clock chimes regularly. The Manifolds also gave financial support to the hospital, the road to the top of Mt Leura and the extensions to the high school. Rather than large sheep properties Camperdown is now surrounded by small dairy farms or beef cattle properties. The first Camperdown settlement was actually at Timboon where the old Timboon Inn, erected around 1855 still stands. A couple of shepherds lived here and a primitive bush store opened. But the ground was too swampy and so the site was moved closer to Mt Leura. Timboon was on the leasehold of the Manifold brothers of Purrumbete but in 1852 the government resumed land from the Manifolds and surveyed a town and some small acreage blocks near Mt Leura. Camperdown was named in 1854 by Governor LaTrobe when on a hunting trip with Niel Black of Glenormiston. Houses began to appear in 1857 and by 1859 it was a small town with a hotel, stores, wool agent etc. The storekeeper at Timboon moved into Camperdown in 1860 as the town began to grow. In 1858 the first Courthouse was opened with a Police Station following in 1859 and a Post office and telegraph service in 1862. As early as 1871 a local newspaper was established for the town and an early school was built in 1858. The bluestone school was erected in 1886. It was schoolchildren who planted the English Elms in the Main Street in 1876. The railway from Geelong reached the town in 1883 with much fanfare. The old Courthouse in polychromatic brickwork built in 1887 is now the museum, Information Centre and shop for souvenirs etc. The Camperdown Botanic Gardens deserved special mention. Not only were they designed by our friend William Guilfoyle but they provide a wonderful lookout over the two local volcanic lakes, Bullen Merri and Gnotuk. The two lakes although very close to each other are at different altitudes. Both are maars, or water filled volcanic cones with a surrounding volcanic scoria rim. Bullen Merri is actually two maars that have coalesced. Bullen Merri is about 60 metres deep and Gnotuk about 20 metres deep. Both lakes are the same height above sea level but with a 40-metre difference in their surface heights. Lake Bullen Merri inspired well-known colonial artist Eugene von Guerard to paint it in 1858. Look for copies on the internet. Guilfoyle’s Botanic Gardens are special because they used to contain a statue of the Scottish poet and folk hero Robbie Burns but this has now been placed indoors for safekeeping. The base remains! The gardens have some unusual plants (a typical Guilfoyle trademark) including Himalayan Oak, African Holly tree (Cassine crocea also known as Elaeodendron croceum or Saffron Wood from South Africa), and an extremely rare Quercus leucotrichophora(Blackjack Oak from India) just east of the Robbie Burns statue base. The Gardens also have many fine European Linden trees. Mount Leura is yet another volcanic cone affording vistas over the hedge-divided countryside. Mount Leura was an active volcano about 20,000 years ago. The reserve here was donated by the Manifold brothers. Nearby Mount Sugarloaf is a perfectly symmetric scoria cone and very much photographed because of that. The circular sheep tracks add to its interest! Both Sugarloaf and Leura are about 311 metres tall the same height as Mt Noorat. There is a deep crater separating Sugarloaf and Leura. It is estimated that Mt Leura formed in about 20 years of constant lava eruptions from a central vent which immediately cooled into scoria pocked with air holes from where gases escaped. The highest maar or volcanic cone in Western Victoria is Mount Elephant near Derrinallum at 393 metres.