WALLING, Edna Margaret (1895-1973) .jpg)
Edna Wallings's Plan for Mrs Carson's Garden. Mossgiel,
circa 1935. (courtesy of the State Library oif Victoria.)
Garden and landscape designer, author and photographer, Edna Walling was responsible for a formal garden design for
Mossgiel, remnants of which are still visible. She also supervised some of the tree plantings around Warrinn and is alleged to have ‘very firmly’ instructed the grounds staff on how to ‘stamp in’ the plantings.
Pegasus in 1940 refers to a
‘general scheme for the beautification of the School... prepared with the help of Miss Walling’ .
Edna Walling was born at York, England, attending school at the Convent of Notre Dame, Plymouth , Devon before emigrating with her parents, firstly to New Zealand in 1912 and then, probably aboard the ship Wimmera II, to Melbourne in July, 1915. She studied Horticulture at Burnley, graduating in 1917. Afterwards, she sought commissioned work and created a career in garden design. Her reputation grew through the 1920s, partially as a result of her writing in Australian Home Beautiful but mainly, as a result of her garden design work for many notable families in Melbourne and Geelong. She almost invariably produced a water colour plan of proposed work and the Carson Plan for Mossgiel held by the State Library of Victoria is one of these. By the 1940s she had become the leading exponent of garden design in Australia, publishing four popular and successful books.
Sources: Peter Watts, ‘Walling Edna Margaret’, Australian Dictionary of Biography, Vol 16 Melb: MUP pp 474-475; Pegasus July 1940 p 17.