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Busselton, Western Australia

Busselton-jetty.jpg Bloomingwriter's blogger, jodi DeLong, issued a challenge to the gardening blogging community to show where they are on the world's stage. Well, here I am in beautiful Busselton, Western Australia.

Busselton is a coastal town 220km south of WA's capital city Perth. With a mere 24,000 residents it's not exactly your bustling metropolis. But it does cater for most things and if we can't get it here, then Bunbury, a short 52kms north, makes up the difference.

For climate and gardening conditions, Busselton is second to none. Even with Austin's 18 garden bloggers they still fall far short of our blog per capita ratio of 1:24000 (Austin's is more like 1:83000) which proves that we are far more into gardening than this US city would let on.

Basically, Busselton is built on a flood plain 2m above sea level. The hills that surround it provide the necessary water for many of our low-lying wetlands and is diverted away from the town through a flood-mitigation program. Much of the water runoff also leeches into the soil and refills our vast Yarragadee Aquifier. This aquifer is the source of all our water consumption.

The town's history was born through the shipping of timber from Geographe Bay. While the bay is a safe harbour it's very shallow and required the building of an almost 2km long jetty. Shipping ceased soon after Cyclone Alby tore through the region in the early 1970's and the jetty has now become a tourist attraction and the source of much contention to who will foot the bill for maintenance.

Chookie from Chookie's Backyard asked about info relating to our founding 'amateur botanist' Georgianna Molloy. While there's much written about this great pioneer you will get a very different story about her from many people who live in Busselton. Whereas she should have been honoured for her gardening work she is reasonably vilified for introducing the arum lily to our moist wetlands. All because she thought they looked wonderful in her English garden back home.

Gardening in Busselton is not as easy as it seems though. Sandy soils that leech nutrients faster than a greyhound on race day and soil alkalinity from the ocean's salt, take their toll. But once the soil's been built up with rich humus there's not a lot that won't grow in this environment. Hot summers reaching into the mid 30's C and mild winters with minimum's still above 0° C ensure gardeners don't give up easily.





Posted by Stuart on February 11, 2008 6:28 AM | | Check to Subscribe to this Comment:


Comments

Great job, Stuart! I hadn't heard of Georgiana Molloy before Chookie mentioned her...isn't it funny how people now, with the advantage of hindsight, criticize someone from 150 years ago? I've done up a link on my site for all the 'projects' completed, upper lefthand corner; already six people have done this, and so far your continent is leading in participants!

Posted by: jodi | February 11, 2008 9:59 AM

Stuart, Stuart, Stuart. That's a valiant effort to claim garden-blogging superiority for your city. I will concede that Busselton has perhaps the most ambitious garden blogger in the world. Austin does not concede in terms of number, which, by the way, is up to 20 now.

Great post on your hometown, which sounds quite nice. My only notions of Australia have been formed by my dad's rapturous visit to Sydney two years ago (he was ready to move there, I do believe) and the movies "Mad Max," "Muriel's Wedding" (Porpoise Spit!), and the hilarious "Priscilla, Queen of the Desert." Oh yeah, and "Finding Nemo." Thanks for giving me a more balanced perspective.

We Americans feel a kinship with Australians, despite our distance. I'd love to visit your country one day.

Posted by: Pam/Digging | February 11, 2008 11:19 AM

jodi - great to see that Aus is leading the way again. It's been avery interesting challenge and I've reading the few that I've found. I will check back to followup on the ones I haven't.

Pam - likewise. I too would like to visit the US, and Canada and Europe and NZ and...one day!

Posted by: Stuart | February 11, 2008 12:56 PM

Stuart, I like Jodi's idea. This is an interesting look at your home town.
I'd say you've done a lot toward bringing recognition to it by your valiant efforts with Blotanical. There are certainly quite a few gardeners world wide who now know where Brusselton is :)

Posted by: kerri | February 12, 2008 4:13 AM

I'm going to have to delay visiting more blogs on this world tour of jodi's.

Looks like I'm going to be spending quite a bit of time rummaging through your site before I can leave. I'm fairly new to blogging and have a lot of reading to catch up on.

I'm glad I finally made it here. I just wish I could do it in person. I've wanted to go to Australia since my wife showed me the rough Opals she picked up there when she visited over 30 years ago. OH I have to give jodi credit too - she's suggeted your site a number of times.

Posted by: wiseacre | February 12, 2008 5:30 AM

Wouldn't it be great if we could just zip to one another's locales as easily as we can connect via Internet? Australia is one of my must-visit places, and not just because I love Wolf Blass....and Jim Jim....and Black Opal Shiraz...

Posted by: jodi | February 12, 2008 8:23 AM

Ooh, I didn't know about the arum lilies! I have one in my front yard, which I have not attempted to remove yet.

Did you see the tsunami when it reached Busselton?

Posted by: Chookie | February 14, 2008 8:52 PM

Chookie - no, we were actually in Rockingham just south of Perth at a beach there when it finally reached the coast of WA. We were very puzzled by the extremely high tide though. Some people were pulled out to sea while crossing the sand bank to Penguin Island. Very scary stuff and we, unlike the hundreds of thousands that died that day across the globe, were very fortunate and blessed.

Posted by: Stuart | February 14, 2008 9:40 PM

I enjoyed the tour of Brusselton.

Posted by: Lisa at Greenbow | February 16, 2008 8:46 PM

Sounds like a great place to garden and a beautiful place to live!
Stop in for a wintery visit in New England.
Carol
www.terranovadesign.blogspot.com

Posted by: cabs | February 17, 2008 2:59 AM

Thanks for such a wonderful glimpse of your part of the world, Stuart! I'm enjoying reading everyone's "assignments" very much -- it's fascinating to acknowledge the many differences in our terrains and environments, and yet, so many similarities in our love of things that grow. :)

Posted by: Nancy Bond | March 2, 2008 10:15 AM

G,day Stuart,
We have bought a property in Capel & will be moving from Victoria in about 6 months. This is all because I gave my daughter away in marriage on the beach in Mandurah last November then stayed in Busso for 4 days & travelled all around while we were there.
Just fell in love with the whole South West & cannot wait to get back!
The home we bought is on a large block & the back yard is just crying out for some great bird attracting natives & an organic vegie patch.
I would love to know which banksias, grevilleas,callistemons etc would do well, & what I would have to do to the soil to ensure good fruit & vegies?
Meanwhile know anyone who wants to rent for 6 months?

Cheers Dave


Posted by: dave | March 9, 2008 8:14 AM

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