Life on the West Island - Three million trees

Canberra likes to think itself as the “Bush Capital” of the West Island. It certainly has a lot of native bushland in its vicinity, such as the Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve, the bush around Black Mountain and the slopes of Mount Ainslie. But at the time that the decision was made in 1911 to move the national capital to Canberra, it was described by Dr John Gray as an open, wind-swept, largely treeless site. The area had mostly been cleared for sheep and cattle grazing, with just a few trees retained for shade, leaving the site ready for the planning genius of Walter and Marion Burley Griffin to create a modern and vibrant city.

Much of the success of this venture can be ascribed to a much less well–known figure, Thomas Charles George Weston (“Charles Weston”), a horticulturalist born in Middlesex, who migrated to the Australian colonies aged 30. The Australian Dictionary of Biography (ADB) reports on his early life on the West Island:

In 1896 he migrated to New South Wales; two years later he was appointed gardener-in-charge at Admiralty House, North Sydney. On 20 April 1898 he married English-born Minimia Cockshott at St Andrew's Anglican Church, Summer Hill. In 1908 he went to Federal Government House, Sydney, as head gardener; four years later he became superintendent of the State Nursery, Campbelltown. In May 1913 he was made officer-in-charge of afforestation, Canberra.

The subsequent story of George Weston and his impact on the new national capital is revealed in a recently published biography by well-known writer Robert Macklin: The Man who Planted Canberra: Charles Weston & His Three Million Trees. The ADB records the task facing Weston and how he took a systematic approach to his work:

At a remote rural location, infertile, windy and rabbit infested, Weston's task was to create an urban landscape consonant with the capital city to be built at Canberra. He was also expected to establish a local forestry industry. Weston set down on paper his four objectives: to establish a first-class nursery, to raise stocks of plants likely to prove suitable, to reserve all local hilltops and improve their tree cover, and to seek out and procure useful seeds. Fully aware of contemporary interest in the soil, he appreciated the opportunity—'which amounts almost to a duty'—of 'wresting a little more from nature's inexhaustible storehouse' to 'add materially to human comfort and enjoyment'.

Macklin records how Weston rapidly established a small experimental nursery and then a large plant propagation workshop. He travelled widely, observing many areas of native plants and collecting a vast array of seeds. At the time, there was little available scientific knowledge about horticulture suitable to the area, with most local established gardens featuring exotic conifers and deciduous trees. Despite this limited base, Weston sought to expand the number of species that might grow in Canberra and carried out extensive, scientifically-planned trials. In particular, Weston became an expert in the cultivation of a wide range of eucalypts.

In a detailed research paper, Dr John Gray explained how Weston began an afforestation programme which eventually led to the planting of over three million trees:

Weston turned his attention to measures to rehabilitate degraded hill areas. Between 1915 and 1924 he treated over 1 000 hectares of public land. Some of this work was successful commercially and Mt Stromlo, in particular, became the first step in the establishment of a major pine plantation industry. Weston took the first steps in the conservation of the Australian Capital Territory’s rural landscape. He laid down a set of conditions to achieve control over the lopping of vegetation for fodder and the killing of trees by ring-barking. In addition, he issued trees free-of-charge to landholders.

With the Government’s decision in early 1921 to transfer the Commonwealth Parliament to Canberra, Weston turned his attention to creating a landscape for the growing city on the treeless plains. Over the next six years, with dense plantings of indigenous and exotic trees and shrubs, he created a special landscape character for the streets, avenues and parklands of the emerging city. His work, which was influenced particularly by new “garden city” thinking at that time in Australia, achieved strong seasonal colour effects and provided protection from the bitter cold and hot dusty winds. The planting in the vicinity of Old Parliament House and Government House, and in the inner suburbs of Braddon and Reid, are fine examples of his work.

Charles Weston’s successful “greening” of Canberra in its foundation days made an unparalleled contribution to the achievement of a unique national capital. The Weston legacy is the creation of Canberra as a “city in the landscape .”

Macklin’s interest in Weston was sparked when he discovered the research by Dr Gray and realised that Weston’s role in the creation and beautification of the new national capital had largely been overlooked in the praise heaped on the Griffins. Although his name is remembered through the title of the suburb of Weston Creek and the lakeside reserve Weston Park, most residents and visitors are unaware that many of Canberra’s characteristic mature and majestic trees were in fact planted by George Weston and his staff at least a century ago.

Macklin found that Charles Weston was a humble man who lived for eight years in a little, two-room hut where it took him three years to get a stove and a similar time to get his windows stopped-up.

Because he’d been deprived of an education, Weston and his English-born wife Minimia were determined that their children would get a good education. So, she spent many years with them in Macquarie Street, Sydney, while they were schooled, only later coming to Canberra.

Macklin’s book sets the record straight on this modest but high-achieving horticulturalist, who did so much to make the West Island’s national capital the beautiful green city it is today, enriched with many millions of trees.