History
Many people think that W Tree has only been setled since the mid 70's, when Fred Koch had an idea of forming a community of like-minded people and bought 800ha of land. However. read on........................
A Gippsland Grevillea Grower: Leomin Hodge
‘Hodges, Rogers and rabbits' was the descriptor used for decades during the twentieth century to describe the principal inhabitants of the high country districts north of Buchan that centered on W Tree and Gelantipy. Among them were Henry Hodge and his second wife Mary (nee Gubby), who moved from the Meredith district and eventually settled at Murrundella, W Tree during the early 1900s. Henry had three children by his first wife Elizabeth (nee Anderson) and a further fourteen children by Mary. Their tenth child and seventh son was Leomin ‘Leo' Hodge, who was born at Meredith on 29 May 1904.[1]
Leo was educated at the original W Tree State School for four years and left school aged fourteen at the end of eighth grade to work on the family farm. Over the next decade he combined farm work with dingo trapping, including farming at The Basin, East Buchan. His initial efforts to buy this land were thwarted by the Depression but in more prosperous times he acquired the property in the 1950s. A proficient blade shearer, he averaged eighty fleeces a day and travelled as far a field as Mangalore on shearing trips. For a time he worked as a general hand for Mary Neve at Callamondah guest house in Buchan, and there met Joyce Henderson of Wairewa, who he married in 1937. In 1939 they purchased a property at W Tree known as The Cottage, which they later renamed Poorinda: a name taken from the Aboriginal word meaning ‘light'. They started farming with a dairy herd, milking their cows by hand and separating the cream which was sold to local butter factories and this was the family's main source of income until after the Second World War. Leo supplemented dairying with work as a dingo trapper for the Lands Department and also bred pigs, Hereford cattle and Merino sheep: in later years Leo ceased dairying to focus on sheep and cattle grazing.[2]
A lifelong devout Christian, Leo dabbled in painting, songwriting and poetry and with guidance from Bert Prankerd, older brother of Thomas Prankerd (GHJ 24-25), he taught himself the violin. A practical bushman, he extended and renovated the cottage at Poorinda and erected his own dairy, sheds and stock yards. He also made his own saddle and boots and made a playable violin from flat iron. One of his enduring creations is an infant's high chair made from packing cases that has survived thirteen of his descendants spanning three generations.[3]
But it is not for his violin or high chair that Leo Hodge is best remembered. His magnum opus is a living treasure comprising dozens of Australian native plant cultivars that he developed and promoted between 1939 and his death in 1994: his floruit being during the period 1952 to 1968. All bearing the prefix Poorinda, Leo produced an imposing array of more than fifty hybridized Grevillea cultivars. One of Australia's pre-eminent Grevillea hybridists, he was self-taught and did not have any formal or academic training but his modest Poorinda property at W Tree was host to hundreds of visitors, including many noted gardeners, naturalists and plant scientists; among them visitors from the Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne, the National Herbarium of New South Wales, the Saratoga Horticultural Research Foundation (California) and the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (United Kingdom). Other frequent visitors included Bill Cane (GHJ 1-33), Jean Galbraith (GHJ 1-33), Norman Wakefield (GHJ 2-44) and East Gippsland field naturalist Keith Rogers. Noted author - botanist Thistle Y. Harris, greatly assisted Leo with botanical terms and plant names and later urged that the garden at Poorinda be preserved for its heritage value.[4]
Leo had an abiding interest in the Australian bush and through his work as a high country dingo trapper and mountain cattleman, he was well-placed to appreciate the unique splendor of Australian native plants, especially those found in the mountain forests, fern gullies and jungle of the Snowy River country near his W Tree home. He frequently undertook bush expeditions in search of new plants and is generally credited as being the first person to accomplish a thorough exploration of the Snowy River gorges. On treks though the area below the Tulloch Ard gorge in 1950, Leo discovered thickets of Boronia ledifolia ‘Sydney Boronia', which had never previously been recorded anywhere in Victoria and has since only been found in one other Victorian location. He also discovered a previously unknown Westringia, growing from the solid rock of sheer cliffs, which was named Westringia cremnophila, meaning ‘cliff loving'. Another of his discoveries occurred at Sunset Jungle, in the range east of W Tree, where Leo located a wild population of a superior form of Boronia muelleri, which he propagated and is now widely grown and marketed as B. muelleri ‘Sunset Serenade'. [5]
Leo's interest in native plants was nurtured from a young age by his parents, whose family garden and fernery were host to a range of local native plants but their efforts were modest alongside Leo's own garden at Poorinda, which was planted extensively with 160 Australian native plants, about one hundred of which were local species that he had found on bush treks in the Snowy River area. He first became interested in Grevillea hybrids when some natural crosses appeared as seedlings in his garden. Subsequently he devoted considerable time to the idea of their hybridization with a view to producing improved specimens with brighter or unusual colouring and foliage. In pursuing this interest he drew heavily on the published work of Thistle Y. Harris and was encouraged by his aunt, Mrs. Tom Hodge, who gave him a copy of noted New South Wales nurseryman, George Althofer's catalogue as a source for stock to cross with local plants. Leo did not pursue this work for financial gain but left it to nurserymen to propagate his cultivars on a commercial basis. A pioneering grower who worked together on this with Leo was Bill Cane of Maffra and together they were featured in the December 1958 issue of Your Garden magazine, which described Poorinda as ‘one of the best private native gardens in Australia'.[6]
The first four Poorinda cultivars were produced in 1952, derived from the crossing of Grevillea juniperina with Grevillea victoriae, to produce Grevillea ‘Poorinda Constance', Grevillea ‘Poorinda Leane', Grevillea ‘Poorinda Pink Coral' and Grevillea ‘Poorinda Queen'. Bill Cane has erroneously suggested that Leo Hodge never hand pollinated any of his cultivars and merely selected the most promising of his chance seedlings but Hodge family members can describe in detail how they watched Leo hand pollinate selected plants and cover those particular flowers to ensure they were not contaminated. He also used very fine wire to identify seed pods that he had cross pollinated to ensure that other people were not privy to the specifics of his work in progress. Many of Leo's family and friends are immortalized in the names of his cultivars, including G. ‘Poorinda Constance', which was named after his eldest daughter: other names are more descriptive of specific cultivars, such as G. ‘Poorinda Anticipation', which was so named because it took five, rather than the usual three years, to flower from the time that the seeds were first sown.[7]
It has been suggested by at least one modern day botanist that the parentage of many Poorinda cultivars is uncertain because Leo's ‘record keeping left much to be desired' and there is also an element of confusion in the differing figures cited by writers for the actual number of Poorinda Grevilleas that were produced. Leo took umbrage at such criticisms and hampered by failing eyesight he dictated notes to his wife Joyce, so that his account might be recorded accurately. In notes taken by Joyce around 1978, Leo debunked assertions of poor record-keeping and lamented that ‘Of all those who wrote articles for publication on my cultivars, only one came to me for information'. Leo believed that he was ignored when his plants were being identified and registered and that others assigned incorrect names and parentage to his cultivars, ‘carelessly mixing-up the names of my plants' without reference to him or his plant collection. This was compounded because ‘propagators excommunicated my rights in the plants they sold' and ‘Many were sold just as un-named hybrids which were really my cultivars'. There is little doubt that at least fifty Poorinda Grevilleas were developed and forty-one are registered on the List of Registered Cultivars derived from Australian native flora, maintained by the Australian Cultivar Registration Authority (ACRA) at the Australian National Botanic Gardens.[8]
Despite the considerable number of Poorinda cultivars that have been registered only a few of them are now commercially available, as most have been superseded by superior selections. The most enduring Poorinda cultivar and the one generally regarded by gardening experts as ‘the most outstanding cultivar in the Poorinda range' is Grevillea ‘Poorinda Royal Mantle', also known simply as ‘Royal Mantle': a popular Royal Mantle seedling is marketed as G. ‘Jolly Swagman'. Bred at W Tree by Leo during 1967-1968, G. ‘Poorinda Royal Mantle' is a cross between G. laurifolia, from the Blue Mountains and G. Omeo (G. willisii), an Eastern Victorian species. A vigorous ground cover, which will span an area up to nine square meters, Royal Mantle has deep red flowers in a one-sided toothbrush-like raceme, that are very attractive to nectar seeking birds. Popular television gardening personality Don Burke promoted Royal Mantle as being, in his opinion, one of the best Australian Grevilleas ever produced; describing it as ‘the most successful ground cover'.[9]
Although noted mainly for his Grevillea cultivars, Leo also experimented with and produced cultivars from a number of other genera, including Crowea ‘Poorinda Ecstasy', Philotheca ‘Poorinda' (originally named Eriostemon ‘Poorinda'), Westringia ‘Poorinda Pavane' and Prostanthera ‘Poorinda Ballerina': the most popular of the twelve Poorinda Prostanthera cultivars, it is still widely cultivated in Australia and is sold in North America and Europe. [10]
In 1971, aged sixty-seven, Leo sold his property at W Tree and moved to a smaller holding at Mount Lookout Road near Bairnsdale, which he also named Poorinda. In preparation for his relocation, Leo aerial layered a large number of plants and once they were growing he planted them in hollowed-out tree trunks with a piece of tin or flat-iron attached to the base. Each specimen was planted about twenty centimeters deep and upon arrival at Mount Lookout Road the metal base was removed and the tree trunk plant pots were embedded in the ground, enabling Leo to start his new garden with established plants.[11]
It was fortunate that Leo saved these specimens at the time of his removal, as subsequent owners of the property failed to appreciate the unique heritage of the original Poorinda gardens. Initially renamed Trendale, then later renamed Ontos, in a few short years most of the garden was lost. A heavy snowfall in September 1974 damaged many of the remaining plants and those that survived were chain sawed and burnt in December 1974 because ‘they were taller than the house and a bushfire risk'. The Poorinda cottage too succumbed, when it was razed by fire on 22 September 1999. Despite the ravages of fire and human destruction, not all traces of Poorinda have been erased at W Tree, where nature's lasting tribute is evident in self-sown Poorinda rainforest species along the adjacent roadside.[12]
In 1977, whilst living at Mount Lookout Road, Leo selected a seedling from Grevillea ‘Poorinda Constance', which was eventually registered as Grevillea ‘Bairnsdale' and promoted by the Bairnsdale Horticultural Society to mark its 100th anniversary Spring show in 1989. Grown for eight years by the then secretary of the Society, Mrs. Pat Stewart, in her garden at Draysey Downs, the cultivar is more floriferous than G. ‘Poorinda Constance' and looks very much like a small version of G. Victoriae: generally flowering in the Bairnsdale District from August to December.[13]
In 1983, aged seventy-nine, Leo moved to Corryong for family support and after the death of his wife Joyce in 1992 he resided in the Upper Murray Nursing Home, where he died at the age of ninety on 19 July 1994. At his funeral service the Reverend Clive Cook described Leo as, ‘... a man who has left an impact on the lives of his family and his name and achievements on the pages of Australian botanical history'. And Leo Hodge had achieved that and more, for his Poorinda native Australian plant cultivars flourish across Australia: living tribute to a Gippsland Grevillea grower, whose reward was not monetary but was found ‘in the contemplation of the beauty he has created'.[14]
[1] Roma E.M. Seehusen, Hodge Memorandum: From the Hodge Family Records, The Author, Bairnsdale, 1983, pp. 107-110; and interview with Connie Carlyle (nee Hodge), 24 May 2005.
[2] Ibid, pp. 185-187 & Carlyle interview.
[3] Carlyle interview and interview with Jock Coates, 4 May 2005.
[4] Seehusen, Hodge Memorandum, p. 279; Interview with Viola Mee (nee Hodge), 12 April 2005 & Carlyle interview: the Poorinda Visitors Book is held by Connie Carlyle; Keith C. Rogers, Across Mountain and Plain, Bairnsdale Field Naturalists Club, Bairnsdale, 1980; Joan Webb, Thistle Y. Harris, Surrey Beatty & Sons P/L, Sydney, 1998.
[5] Alan Fairley, A field guide to the National Parks of Victoria, Rigby Publishers, 1982, p. 256; Norman Wakefield, ‘Snowy River Gorge', The Victorian Naturalist, August 1957, pp. 49-50; Carlyle interview and http://www.anbg.gov.au/acra/descriptions%20(04 May 20050.
[6] Wakefield, ‘Snowy River Gorge', p. 50; Leo Hodge, ‘Two Hybrids of Native Plants', The Victorian Naturalist, Vol. 69, No. 12, April 1953, p. 158; Seehusen, Hodge Memorandum, P. 279; Interview with Connie Carlyle, 24 May 2005; Your Garden, Vol. 11, No. 12, December 1958, pp. 3-7.
[7] Pauline Tully, ‘The Poorinda Grevilleas', Australian Plants, Vol. 9, No. 73 (December 1977), pp. 213-5; John W. Wrigley, Banksias, Waratahs and Grevilleas, Collins Publishers, Sydney, 1989, pp. 301-310; Email from John Walter, SGAP Historian, 19 May 2005, for Bill Cane's comments on Leo Hodge; Connie Hodge & Viola Mee interviews for Hodge's method of hand pollination.
[8] John Wrigley, http://nativeplants-canberra.asn.au/ (15 March 2005), for Hodge's record keeping; Tully, ‘The Poorinda Grevilleas', lists forty-two ‘Poorinda' Grevilleas; Wrigley, Banksias, Waratahs and Grevilleas, lists fifty-one ‘Poorinda' Grevilleas; Angus Stewart, Gardening on the Wild Side, Sydney, ABC Books, 1999, cites ‘over forty-five' ‘Poorinda' Grevilleas; and Thistle Y. Harris, Gardening with Australian Plants, Thomas Nelson, West Melbourne, 1977, lists twenty-four ‘Poorinda' Grevilleas; Email correspondence from Frank Zich (Australian National Botanic Gardens) to Author, dated 23 March 2005, re ‘Poorinda' cultivars registered with ACRA; Interview with Connie Carlyle, for notes dictated by Leo Hodge to his wife Joyce, c.1978.
[9] ACRA Registration No. ACC090; Stewart, Gardening on the Wild Side, p. 181; Wrigley, Banksias, Waratahs and Grevilleas, p. 309; John Wrigley, http://nativeplants-canberra.asn.au/ (15 March 2005); http://www.burkesbackyard.com.au/ (25 April 2005).
[10] Seehusen, Hodge Memorandum, p. 279; Stewart, Gardening on the Wild Side, p. 181; Zich email; ACRA Registration Numbers: Crowea ‘Poorinda Ecstasy' (ACRA #ACC043); Eriostemon ‘Poorinda' (ACRA #ACC289); Westringia ‘Poorinda Pavane' (ACRA #ACC088); Google lists more than 100 websites describing or marketing Prostanthera ‘Poorinda Ballerina' (searched 11 June 2005).
[11] Pauline Tully, ‘The Poorinda Grevilleas', p. 214.
[12] Interviews with Fred Koch, 18 May 2005 and Garry Gatter, 26 May 2005.
[13] www.anbg.gov.au/acra/descriptions/acc371.html (25 March 2005); Bairnsdale Advertiser, 5 February 1990.
[14]Leo Hodge Obituary, East Gippsland News, 14 September 1994, p. 11 & Corryong Courier, 1994; Tully, ‘The Poorinda Grevilleas', p. 215.
ACKNOWEDGEMENTS
The author thanks all those who assisted with information and interviews for this article but special thanks are due to Leo Hodge's eldest daughter Connie Carlyle for her ongoing interest and assistance with information, including the loan of family documents and photographs.
The land where the house stood is now owned by Jessie Delaney, Ian Delaney and Julia Williams, and was the venue for the 2009 W Tree Spirit of Place Festival on the 4th April 2009.