Fridays Fences

My fence this week is a little different. My great grandfather, E.B. Heyne came to Australia in 1851 and worked at the Melbourne Botanical Gardens as a botanist and head plantsman. He was appointed  secretary to Ferninand von Mueller who was responsible for setting up the botanical gardens and accompanied him on his botanical expeditions.  E.B. Heyne moved to Adelaide in 1868 and established himself as a botanist, seedsman, horticulturalist, writer and one of the first nurserymen in the state. He continued to discover and record plant species in South Australia.. He was instrumental in the establishment of wine grape growing in the fledgling colony and he also wrote the state's first gardening book.   He married in 1870 and he and his wife bought a house in Norwood adjacent to his wife's parents property where he set up a nursery and opened a seed shop in the city. 

 This cottage was one of several also on the property. Later his son, C.F. Heyne, also a nurseryman lived in this cottage and here my mother was born. He and his family then moved to the Adelaide Hills where he had a market garden. In 1931 he established a nursery in Norwood which is still owned by the family today. Later, in 1956, my mother moved into the cottage  with my father, brother and me. The cottage remained in the family until my mother died in 2003 when it was sold and renovated by its new owners.

The cottage still looks as it did then, although a veranda was added to the front at some stage. It has a heritage listing which means that the facade cannot be altered. It still has a slate roof and a picket fence, although the inside has been modernised. I'm not sure who the little girl is - possibly my mother or one of here sisters.

Liz Needle