My first home at 35 Condamine St Campbelltown .
The house around 1960.
The back garden in 1982. Sapium sebiferum & Liquidamber styraciflua showing autumn colour.
Back garden, late 1980's ... an urban forest.
1991 - time to head to NZ.
Prunus campanulata in Spring and autumn. Celtis sp also showing leaf colour below
Leaf colour in Acer negundo and Prunus glandulosa, late 1980's.
Blueberry
Acer rubrum in front garden, grown from seed collected at "Everglades" in Leura. Also visible is Picea pungens glauca. Late 1980's
Bantams "free range" in the back garden.
Magnolia in front garden
Acer palmatum "Atropurpureum" in the back garden.
Liquidamber styraciflua
Pistacia chinensis in back garden
The flower of Lagerstroemia indica in the front garden resting on the foliage of a frangipani.
Toxicodendron succedaneum. Reliable brilliant colour.
Rhododendron on the south side of the house, 1981.
Flowering plums on the front footpath. 1979.
Celtis sinensis? 1980. Back garden.
Prunus glandulosa in back garden. Flowers, autumn foliage & edible berries My first sugar maple. Grew well, though foliage would scorch a little on days over 40C. It died when I filled in a leaking pond nearby, much to my distress. I planted another the year I left (1991).
Azalea indica, I think variety "Splendens", 1989.
Toxicodendron & citrus in back garden, 1983.
Sapium sebiferum colouring beautifully. Loquat in foreground. Grevillea robusta, bananas & Erythrina crista-galli. 1977. When a lemon tree died I added macadamias and a lychee to the mix.
Thunderstorms: the most interesting feature of Sydney's climate.
Part of my first potted tree collection, around 1983.
Most of my tree collection not planetd at "Iona" ended up in a Bathurst nursery. A sad day.
A large Ficus in the nearby Hurley Park. (Bunya pine at right).
Above and below: a giant Yucca in my back garden.
A colourful ash at Leumeah railway station - probably Fraxinus pennsylvanicum.
Celtis occidentalis near Cobbity - a beautiful elm like tree.
Pyrus sp in Lindsay St.
Xanthorrhoea glauca? At the Royal National Park near Bundeena.
Snow on the Oberon Plateau, pine plantation in the background. c1990.
The property known as "Iona" in the Tuglow River valley on the Oberon Plateau. I hoped to live there and plant my arboretum. It didn't work out for long, but I did plant a reasonable selection of deciduous trees. A red oak goes in at right and colours well for the later photo at left. Around 1989.
Auburn Botanical Gardens in Sydney. Late 1980's.
Plane trees in the eastern suburbs of Sydney, late 1980's.
Sydney Harbour, late 1980's
Canberra - a great place for trees and autumn colour. Lakeside park at right, elm at left, Pin oaks below. Late 1980's. I enjoyed many trips to the city through my years in Australia and collected seed from some of the trees.
Ulmus parviflora as a street tree.
Tulip display in Bowral.
Milton Park near Bowral on the Souhtern Highlands - 1980's. Fabulous garden, a joy to visit.
"Everglades" at Leura in the Blue Mountains - another place of inspiration (and a seed source).
Mt Tomah Botanic Gardens around 1990.
Govett's Leap near Blackheath around 1990. I lived in Blackheath for a year - loved the mountains but eucalypt forests don't excite me.
"Breenhold" at Mt Wilson around 1980. My first "live" sighting of a sugar maple, at right.
More autumnal beauty at Mt Wilson
Waratah near the village of Bell in the Blue Mountains, late 1980's.
Snow and Liquidamber at Blackheath, around 1990.
Spring at "Linfield Park", Mt Wilson. October 1980. A pink form of Cornus florida (I can't grow it at Ferndale)
Snow Mountains - I liked the heath like vegetation of the summit landscape.
Silver elm and Rhododendrons in a park at Blackheath, 1990.