plants

Brothers Charles Collinson Rawson and Edmund Stanfield Rawson purchased the grazing property Abington in the Pioneer Valley, including a portion known as Shamrock Vale in 1867, and nicknamed it Sleepy Hollow, and hence its popular name The Hollow. Two houses, The Hollow and The Nyth were built on the banks of the Pioneer River, the present township of Mirani occupying the home paddock of The Hollow. Here the Rawsons attempted to recreate formal English gardens, including a lawn tennis court, gravel paths with vistas created by shrubberies, exotic vines and trees, a weather station, an attractive English-style fowl-house, and to the side of a fourteen foot wide verandah, a large fernery of split palms which housed a bathroom at one end. On the high bank of the Pioneer River, they planted an extensive fenced vegetable garden and orchard. H.H. Finch Hatton, who visited the homestead in 1878, described it in his book Advance Australia as "the prettiest place on the whole of the Pioneer". Due to this garden's beauty and place in local folklore, the name and inspiration has been included in the Mackay Regional Botanic Gardens, even though the garden and homestead were located some 30 minutes upriver at Mirani. Source: www.mackayregionalbotanicgardens.com.au/about/history_of_...

Jimbour is one of the oldest stations on the Darling Downs and the heritage-listed Jimbour Homestead is perhaps the grandest country home ever constructed in Queensland. The name Jimbour, originally spelled Gimba or Jimba is from an unidentified aboriginal language apparently referring to good grass or sheep. Thomas Bell came to Queensland from Northern Ireland in charge of convicts in around 1829 bringing his family. Thomas initially left the management of Jimbour to Henry Dennis but when Dennis was drowned in a shipwreck in 1847, he took up the management himself. The Bell family ran the property until 1892 and were responsible for the construction of the homestead and other important buildings on the property. Source: www.slq.qld.gov.au/blog/jimbour-station-history-pictures#...

o A bush-house is an Australian term for shade-house, created to grow plants that prefer shady conditions and thrive in warm climates. This shady environment simulates the rainforest understorey. Sometimes called a Fernery or Fern House. o IT IS NOT A GLASSHOUSE or true conservatory. o BHs linked to 19th century interior decoration and the use of potted palms, ferns etc. in "hall and table", and for decorating verandahs o In design terms, this is where garden architecture and horticulture combine! Bush houses were extremely popular in Queensland from the 1880s to 1940s, ranging from Government House (OBG and Fernberg) to suburban cottages and villas, to outback homesteads, in private & public gardens. Source: brisbanebotanictreasures.info/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/...