As Homo sapiens we can trace our history back in time to our humble beginnings and our emergence in East Africa some 300,000 years ago. Archaeologists believe that sapiens began spreading out of Africa about 70,000 years ago. Remarkably they found their way to the distant continent of Australia about 60,000 years ago. Thus began the incredible story of the First Australians, who developed and refined the longest continuous culture on earth.

​It is believed that the first arrivals probably numbered 1,000 - 2,000 people and the population of Australia is likely to have remained small until 12,000 years ago when the last Ice-age began to end.

As Australia's climate warmed and the population of First Australians grew, they migrated south, exploring new territory and reaching the southern coastline within a few millenia. In the period between 12,000 & 8,000 years ago, the earth continued to warm, sea level eventually rose 120m and the land bridge to Tasmania gradually flooded, isolating the Palawa people of Lutruita (Tasmania). Also, Port Phillip Bay, before this dramatic sea level rise, was a flat grassland and the floodplain of two mighty rivers, the Barwon and the Yarra. They would have meandered as one huge river before flowing into Bass Strait.

As they moved south, the First Australians adapted to an extraordinary variety of climates and landscapes, some very physically demanding, so their cultures and languages diversified, however, they retained one important common goal: to protect and preserve Australia’s unique flora and fauna, the plants and animals that their survival depended upon.

So began thousands of years of experimenting and learning about Australia’s very unusual plants. Their culinary and healing properties. Their value as food for the grazing animals that they hunted. The ecosystems that they supported. The best way to maintain and manage these ecosystems across the immense Australian continent. 

The First Australians were Animists and considered plants and animals to be their equals. They used totemism to create very close and intimate links with Australia’s fauna. Individuals were given a personal totem at birth and this totem animal was loved as if it was part of their extended family. They developed a very detailed knowledge of their totem’s ecological needs and it was their duty to protect both their totem and its habitat.

Animists were the first conservationists and they believed that the natural world wasn’t there just to provide for the needs of humans. They believed it should be protected and nurtured and failure to do so was wrong, and could also result in momentous consequences, like the extinction of species or loss of important habitats.

Yuval Noah Harari in his remarkable book ‘Sapiens, A Brief History of Humankind’, describes animist culture and gives this example;

‘An animist hunter addressing a herd of deer and asking one of them to sacrifice itself. If the hunt is successful the hunter may ask the dead animal to forgive him’.

This gesture shows recognition and deep respect for one life that has been taken to nourish another. ​

Explorer's first impressions of Victoria were of 'open landscapes with widely spaced trees'

​Lieutenant John Murray was the first to sail into Port Phillip Bay and describe the Australian bush on 14th February 1802, after climbing (and naming) Arthurs Seat, on the Mornington Peninsula. From his vantage point he compared it to, “the beauty and experience of Greenwich Park in London.“ (Lady Nelson diary)
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Murray also described;
‘...open woodlands with stout trees of various kinds that were pleasant to walk through because they were well spaced with no thick brush to intercept travellers.’ as well as grass huts and evidence of burning under trees.

The transition was swift and ruthless

In Victoria in 1835, two very different cultures clashed. The First Australians who saw nature as central to their existence and spirituality. The invading culture that saw nature as a commodity given to them by god to exploit for income, wealth and power.

The Port Phillip Association, lead by John Batman and Joseph Gellibrand, had formed in Van Diemen’s Land, and were planning an unlawful and ruthless land grab of 250,000ha, starting on the Bellarine Peninsula, extending through Geelong and on to Melbourne. 

Batman arrived on the Bellarine Peninsula in May 1835 and walked 20km east from Point Henry. He couldn't have been more delighted when he wrote in his diary;

‘the whole (landscape), appeared like land laid out as a farm for some 100 years back.’

Within 9 days a bogus contract had been 'signed' and soon after the first settlers began arriving. 

The burning question - how did they do it? 

Explorer, Major Thomas Mitchel was one of the first to understand why the Australian landscapes were so open when the British colonists first arrived;

‘The native applies fire to the grass at certain seasons, so that a young green crop may subsequently spring up and so attract and enable him to kill or take the kangaroo with nets. In summer, the burning of the long grass also discloses vermin, birds’ nests, etc., on which the females and the children, who chiefly burn the grass, feed. But for this simple process, the Australian woods might have been as thick a jungle, like those of New Zealand or America, instead of open forests.’ (Mitchel, 1839)

Mitchel observed the superficial changes that burning made to the Australian landscape, but he didn't fully appreciated its level of sophistocation.

A comprehensive review of the effects of Aboriginal burning on biota was done by Bowman in 1998. In his review he shone a clearer light on its importance;

'Fire is a powerful tool that Aborigines used systematically and purposeflly over the landscape. There is little doubt that Aborigtianl burning was skillful and central to the maintenance of the landscapes colonised by Europeans in the 19th century.'

Though, it had many other benefits to them, such as preventing devastating wildfires, which according to studies of charcoal deposits in swamps, were very rare before modern settlement. (Gell, Stuart & Smith, 1993) 

The First Australians used fire to keep many of the hilltops open. This enabled communication over long distances using an advanced system of smoke signals. Open hilltops also enhanced personal safety and clan security, by providing 360 degree views of their territory. They could keep an eye on who was coming and going and if they were friend or foe. In William Buckley's memoir, he describes how neighbouring clans would come into camp seeking justice or revenge for a percieved wrongdoing that could result in injury or death.

Burning was used to prepare future camping sites, provided vermin control (Eg. mosquitos), and to enable convenient travel, potentially over long distances, along the many songlines that criss-crossed Australia. 

Woodland & forest belts alternating with grasslands/pantrylands 

Bill Gammage in 'The Biggest Estate on Earth,' (2011), refers to early reports of grassland burning. He suggests that the First Australians aimed to create belts of grasslands alternating with woodlands or forests. These landscapes were ideal for both hunting and havesting plant foods.

The open woodlands were shaded hunting grounds that were often dominated by eucalypts and the Drooping Sheoak, Allocasuarina verticillata, which was highly valued by the First Australians in the southeastern states. One standout value of the sheoak to them (and to us) was its very low flammability. Its foliage chars and doesn't burn and its litter supresses grass growth. To read more about the Drooping Sheoak's cultural importance and it's uses click here.

The grasslands between belts of trees were important pantry lands that supplied desirable energy-rich root vegetables and selected grass seeds used for baking. On Victorian Volcanic Plains, 20% of the 550 species of plants were harvested for food and 50% of the food plants were thought to be root vegetables, which were conveniently available all year-round to harvest from the grasslands, providing an underground pantry. (Gott, 1993)

An important and common root vegetable was the yam-daisy (Microseris walteri). Major Mitchel describes a view from the Grampiens (Gariwerd) 'as a vast extent of open-downs, quite yellow with the flowers of the native yam, whose root, small as it is, constitutes the food of the native women and children, and we observed them digging in the ground for roots.'
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George Augustus Robinson, the Protector of Aborigines from 1849 described women havesting yams on the basalt plains, 'spread over the plain as far as I could see them, collecting roots, each had a load as much as she could carry.'

These grasslands also provide a variety of medicinal herbs, used for treating common injuries and ailments. ​

Vegetation on the Bellarine Peninsula before 1835
- a landscape managed by the Bengalat clan of the Wadawurrung

Louis Lane, an archaeologist who studied the Wadawurrung of the Geelong region summed up their lifestyle;

‘They developed a sophisticated and disciplined society that utilised every element of their surroundings while practicing conservation strategies on their clans-land. Their yearly calendar was marked by the flowering of different trees and shrubs and the movement of birds.’ (Lane, 1988)

The Bengalat had a permanent camp in Boronggook (Drysdale), near Lake Lorne, which they called Balla:we:in (origin of Bellarine). It was a place with ample fresh water, fed by permanent springs of clear ice-cold water that ran into deep ponds. These ponds were shaded by ancient River Red Gums and protected from weather extremes by dense windbreaks of vegetation. In Lane’s archaeological studies of McLeod’s Waterhole, she described it as;
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‘A paradise for hunter and forager as well as bird and beast. Even after a long dry summer, there was abundant water for ‘Swan, duck, dabchick, water-hens, cranes and pelicans. The surrounding ridges were thickly covered with vegetation.’ (Lane, 1988)

A visit to the country

It was the holiday weekend of November 2021 and I was returning through familiar territory in central Victoria, visiting the town where my parents had started a new life in their mid-sixties. They had severed their very deep roots in Melbourne to start a new business in a country town. That was over fifty years ago, so my visit today involved a walk to their graveside and murmuring a few words to them and remembering their life's struggles and achievements.

Their graveside was looking neglected, so I wandered off to a roadside grassland and picked a generous bunch of Sticky Everlasting Daisies, their beautiful orange flowers guaranteed to chase away my feelings of sadness, and hold their colour for a few months.

It was on my return that I noticed some children’s graves. They were in an old and forgotten part of the cemetery that now looked more like a native grassland, with a cheerful display of white (Creamy Candles), Yellow (Bulbine Lilies) and mauve flowers (Chocolate Lilies). In over 30 years of exploring Victorian grasslands, I had never seen so many Chocolate Lilies in one condensed location, the moist morning air imbibed with their delicious scent.
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One child’s grave was covered with Chocolate Lilies and it drew my attention. Though very weathered, its inscription was still readable, free of the pale green lichen that seemed to be consuming the other headstones around it.

This unfortunate boy had been born in the same year as my father, who had lived to the ripe old age of 93. The tragedy of this boy’s untimely death unsettled me, sending a shiver up my spine. I became acutely aware of the fragility of life, particularly in those early colonial years, and how 'fluky' it was that I was alive today.

I thought; what if my father had had his life tragically cut short, and what had happened all those years ago to young James?
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The voice of a young girl

Mummy told me never to go there on my own, but little Jamie was calling. He was lying there all alone and the morning was so cold and foggy. My heart was pounding in my chest, but I said out loud, “you ghosts don’t scare me! I’m Maggie and I’m very brave!” Jamie always said I was the brave one.

Jamie and me were playing hopscotch outside our house on the dusty street. We had the squares all marked out with a stick like I know, and we had our special shiny, flat stones in our hands. I was throwing my lucky stone into square 4, so I didn’t see the man on his cart. I heard him though, yelling like he was crazy, “Oh God!!! Get out of the bloody way,” but that was too late for Jamie.

Now he’s lying there and he needs me to be brave. Some of the headstones along the path are taller than me, but headstones don’t scare me. I know I’m safe when I see the archangel Gabriel looking down with his pretty smile. Mummy always said god’s angels look after us, but they must have been looking the other way when that man lost control of his horse and cart and hit Jamie.
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“Hi Jamie, I picked some beautiful wild flowers from the field for you. They’re white and yellow, your favourite colours, and I found these star shaped purple ones that smell like chocolate. I know you love these ones, cos they make you think of Christmas.
I miss you so much Jamie.”

The voice of a middle-age man

When I rounded the corner and saw those kids playing on the road, I screamed out to warn them. My damnation of a horse had got spooked by a swooping magpie, and it took off so fast I almost fell backwards off my cart. Oh, I’ll never, ever forget that sickening thud and the deafening silence that followed, until the small girl started crying, whimpering like an injured animal.

I try to be a good man and I love kids; I have four children of my own. Now I look at them as they sleep and I cry; I cry because I’ve done such a terrible thing to another family, I cry because I can imagine their loss and their pain, I cry because I can’t sleep at night. When I’m alone I cry, because I constantly relive that unspeakable moment. I crave some blessed relief.

It’s a year after the accident. I passed the girl at the cemetery gate and she smiled at me. Her kind smile felt like a lifeline, a bright welcoming light at the end of my dark tunnel. Every week I would see her when I brought wild flowers to the grave and every week she would look away, her loss too fresh, her painful memories too vivid. Today she seemed to understand my deep sadness for her and her family.
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I’ve always believed that children possess a simple, honest wisdom. So, if she has found it in her heart to forgive me, perhaps it’s time that I began to forgive myself. The sad, regretful person that I’ve become can soon begin to smile again and be grateful for all the joy in my life. Wonderfully, the wild flowers in my hands were brighter and more beautiful after her moment of absolution.

Some background on the Doggett family in the Museums Victoria photo above. Written by Suzette Hartwell

The father holding the reins is Thomas Doggett and his wife is Helen Doggett (known as Nell). They were my paternal great-great grandparents and Helen lived until I was a young teenager, still in the family home in Nicolson street Footscray. We all called her Granny Doggett, a beautiful woman who knew all the family history. Her and Thomas eventually had ten children. 

The little girl standing with the coat is Ada, known as Peenie, born 1904. The little girl that Thomas is holding is Florence (Tootsie) born 1906. The baby that Helen is holding is my paternal grandmother Nellie, born 1909. Sadly she only lived till I was five years old and she was a stunningly beautiful woman who could have been a model. Her son was Jimmy Hartwell, my father. 

The family history tells us the little girls standing by the fence would not get out of the way for the photographer!

Tom Doggett started the successful ‘Wagga’ bike shop in the Footscray shopping area. He and his brother Albert designed and made the bikes. My great Uncle Tom, who never married, taught himself Italian so that he could better converse with the majority of customers of that linage who lived in Footscray at the time.

Designing for wildlife - have we got our priorities right?

The motivation for planting a garden is often to attract a wide variety of birds, reptiles and insects. To create a small ecosystem that provides for most of their needs. We can then enjoy watching and interacting with our garden's wild residents and visitors.

However, I do feel uneasy when I admit that when I’m planning a native garden, I first think of my needs; how I want the garden to look and be maintained.
i'll think about the aesthetics... 

• Will the grey foliage on this group of plants 'pop' next to glossy green leaves of that group of plants?
• Does the flower colour on these two shrubs clash or will they complement each other?
• The vertical leaves of these tussock grasses will look great next to a group of local correas
• Will I still be able to see the beautiful trunk of that feature tree in a few years when these shrubs grow?

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...then some practicalities come to mind

• Will the garden be convenient and safe to maintain?
• Are those thorny stems/leaves going to be a hazard when we’re weeding?
• Will this plant grow too large and shade a north facing window?
• Is this garden likely to be a fire hazard near the west/north wall of the house?

In my defence, I think these are predictable (and sensible) humancentric planning issues for a gardener, whether they live in the city or on a country estate.

What if wildlife became the paying clients?
​- we'd have to put their needs first, before our own

​Sadly, it isn’t until all the human needs are considered that the needs of the local wildlife shuffle forward, heads bowed, caps in hand. Up to this point, the garden layout and plant selection has been all about my likes, dislikes and fears and not very much about the needs of wildlife.
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What if we flipped this planning process on its head and put the needs of the birds, butterflies and native bees first and our human needs second? What would the garden look like, would it look much different?

A friend suggested that a wildlife-designed garden would be prickly, untidy and overgrown. This is largely true because nature is random and 'messy', and often consists of a mix of emerging plants, dead plants and woody shrubs & trees that in the home garden would 'desperately need a prune'. Perhaps the prickly plants could find a home in a less visited, back corner of the garden. That's also a quieter and more desirable place for wildlife.

Also, the forest/woodland floor is usually a 'trip hazzard' with fallen branches, logs, tussock grasses and native herbs strewn about. That sounds too hazzardous for a home garden.

Laying the ground rules

Starting with their basic needs, designing for wildlife should provide safe places for them to live, hide and feed at all levels in the garden. At the ground level these refuges are usually logs, large rocks or piles of cobble sized rocks, twiggy fallen branches for perching, fallen limbs, tussocky plants, native herbs some groundcovers and leaf litter.

​Mm! that's sounding very like the trip hazzard I described as undesirable earlier! Perhaps that would be an acceptable feature to include in parts of a home garden.

Ideally the plants would mostly be local to the area and include small indigenous flowering herbs and groundcovers that form a natural carpet over the soil surface. I’m pretty sure my clients would go ‘wild’ about the local indigenous plants because they’re the plants that they have evolved with and know the best. Also, the tussocky plants like perennial grasses - Kangaroo Grass, tussock trasses, wallaby grasses, mat-rushes, flax lillies, and Kangaroo paws would look sensational in same species clumps.

Logs and rocks - the practicalities

The logs and rocks are much easier to add at the beginning because there are no plants that may be damaged, though I have done it much later when the plants were already established, because that’s when a trailer load of big logs from a Council roadside clean-up became  available.
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These can become ‘feature-pieces’ and they provide wonderful perches for small birds, sun-baking habitat for skinks and safe refuges for moths, butterflies, bees and dragonflies, particularly when the temperature warms up and they’re looking for cool, moist, shaded areas of the garden. 

And we’re off the ground
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​As we move up into the shrub layers, flower colour becomes more of an important feature to passing wildlife, particularly if each species of shrub is planted in same-species groups/clumps. When the flowers of the same species are blooming 'en masse', it becomes a ‘must-check-this-out’ feature to passing birds and insects.
 
Mass planting isn’t always possible in small urban gardens. It can be a trade-off between creating diversity with a mixture of single plants and the visual impact of a few species mass planted. In larger gardens mass plantings are a stunning feature for wildlife as well as for human visitors.

Plant families 
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A key design feature for 'my wildlife clients' will be a mixture of plant families. Here are a 16 families that make wonderful food and habitat plants, keeping in mind that a variety of flower shapes & colours, edible leaves & berries will be a big drawcard.

Your challenge for a diverse garden:
Choose 7 shrub species, each from a different plant family, when you go shopping at your local indigenous or native nursery.
This will maximise the food and habitat for birds and insects:

Below are listed 16 plant families (& 28 genera shown in bold).
Which 7 shrub species will best suit your garden's soil, position and native wildlife?
(For example: your planting list for a sandy loam soil might include a suitable species from each of these 7 genera - acacia, daisy, grevillea, saltbush, teatree (leptospermum), goodenia and eremophila). These can be mass planted in groups of the same species in a large garden or as individuals in a small garden. 
  

• Acacias (Mimosa family) - pollen-rich flowers used by a variety of native bees. High production of pollen & nectar is alluring to many insects
• Banksias, grevilleas, hakeas (Protea family) - brush-flowers produce nectar for a long season. Many species are useful for both birds and insects because of dense flowers loaded with nectar and pollen. The prickly hakeas like the Bushy Needlewood, H. decussata will be particularly safe & popular for small birds at nesting time
• Boobiallas, Eremophilas (Figwort family) - medium to tall dense shrubs, white flowers (boobiallas) & violet & pink flowers (Eremophilas) that are attractive to small insects. Also fleshy, less flammable green & grey leaves and edible berries for birds
• Callistemons, leptospermums, melaleucas, kunzeas, thryptomenes (Myrtle family) - bright flowers rich in nectar, with a variety of forms from dense to open
• Correas, boronias (Citrus family) - bell shaped (correas), nectar rich, scented (boronias), flowers favoured by small honeyeaters, native bees, butterflies and moths
• Daisies. (Asteraceae family) - Hardy, small shrubs with bright colourful flowers, that attract a wide variety of insects 
• Goodenia (Goodenia family) - hardy small shrub with bright yellow flowers, over a long period, that attract butterflies and Blue-banded Bees
• Heaths & Beard Heaths (Erica family) - hardy small shrubs with nectar rich bell-shaped flowers attract Honeyeaters. Beard Heaths can grow to 3m and attract a wide variety of insect pollinators
• Hop-bushes (Soapberry/Maple family) - small to medium drought hardy shrubs that produce a small, colourful papery hop-like fruit that attracts various insects 
• Indigoferas/Daviesia/Pultenaea (Pea family) - pretty, small shrubs that support other plants by adding nitrogen to the soil. 
• Kangaroo apples (Tomato family) - A short lived fruiting shrub that is food for fruit eating birds like silvereyes and rosellas
• Sweet Bursaria (Pittosporum family) – white flowers at Christmas attract small insects and insect-eating birds
• Saltbushes (Goosefoot family) - Groundcovers and bushy, dense, often sprawling shrubs, ideal for wrens all year and fruit eating birds in spring
• Tree Violet (Violet family) - Yellow, bell-shaped violet scented flowers attract insect and fruit eating birds in late summer
• Westringias, Mint-bushes. (Mint family) - reliable in harsh, dry conditions with long-flowering food source for bees, beetles & birds
• Grasstrees (Flax & Aloe family) - insects, birds, and ground-dwelling mammals use them for food and shelter.​ ​

Tall trees

Though trees and understorey provide critical food and habitat in larger ecosystems, they can dominate small gardens, competing for light and soil moisture. It will save future frustration if you factor in the potential spread of rootsystems of the larger plants you may be considering. 

A helpful rule of thumb to estimate the spread of invasive roots is - a plant's height x 1.5. So, a 10m tall eucalypt will have 'aggressive' roots at least 15m from its trunk, in all directions and particularly where you water. 

Plants that grow under tall natives, therefore need to be tolerant of shade and be adaptable to extremely dry soil conditions. Saltbushes, correas, westringias and eremophilas will often do well in these conditions, particularly of they are watered for the first 12 months to establish them through the dryer months. 
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Lets talk about compromise

As much as I would like to follow the design brief of my wildlife clients to the letter, the human needs for safety, convenience and aesthetics will always be strong motivators,

A garden designed for wildlife will doubtless begin as an artificial space created for pleasure, contemplation and shelter, but in time and with studied neglect, it will likely achieve some wild, natural elements that are suited to a larger variety of birds, reptiles and insects.

​Though wildlife will always contribute greatly to these  design elements, gardens will continue to be a reflection of their human creators. They are a wonderful way to connect with nature, maintain our mental health, and provide motivation to get outside into the fresh air and challenge our bodies in ways that a gymnasium never will.