Australia’s $5 note includes an image of a eucalypt, first found by an Illawarra gardener. Photo: Supplied.
You probably need to have excellent eyesight or be a very serious nerd, but there on the original Australian $5 note (soon no doubt to be phased out because of inflation, as nothing will ever again be for sale for under $5) is a curious detail relating to Illawarra.
And, possibly, a few nerds might recognise that on that $5 note is depicted the fruit of Eucalyptus luehmanniana (yellow top mallee ash) beside an image of old mate Sir Joseph Banks.
This species of eucalypt was first formally described in 1878 by Ferdinand von Mueller in Fragmenta phytographiae Australiae when he helpfully wrote: “’In terra tabulari arenoso-rupestri circiter 2000′ alta, milliaria octo Anglica septentrionem versus a pago Bulli, inter glaream ferrugineam rarissima; W Kirton.”
But that is no problem at all for everyone in the Illawarra still reads Latin and so knows exactly what Ferdy was trying to say: “‘On a rocky, sandy tableland about 2000’ high, eight English miles north of the village of Bulli, among very rare rusty gravel; W [William] Kirton.”
William Kirton had been born at Denton in Lincolnshire in 1822 and grew up to be an expert gardener. He arrived in the colony of NSW as an assisted immigrant on 25 May 1849 aboard the Agenoria.
Settling at first in the Goulburn district, there in 1851 he married Eliza McGuinness, born at Clara in County Offaly in 1832 and who died in 1886 at Thirroul (then still known as Robbinsville).
The couple produced 10 kids, one of whom, John Stephen Kirton, went on to become the wealthy proprietor of the Excelsior Coal Mine at Thirroul and also Mayor of Bulli Shire.
But as early as 1857 even old Billy Kirton was wealthy enough to donate £1 to the Illawarra Agricultural Society. At its show held in that same year, Kirton won best maize in cob, best oats, best carrots, best pumpkin, best dry peas, best broad beans, best white turnips and also the best collection of garden seeds.
Without doubt Kirton was a very superior kind of gardener. His skills also made him something of a very serious amateur botanist, keen to explore what native vegetation Illawarra had to offer and to what use it could be put. Nonetheless, as late as 1872 Kirton was still simply being listed in various published directories as “Gardener of North Bulli”.
The flowers and fruit of Eucalyptus luehmanniana. Photo: Supplied.
But it was Kirton who was the first known European to collect Eucalyptus luehmanniana – a rare and until then undescribed eucalypt of eastern Australia. It grows in high rainfall areas on poor rocky soils and is today listed as a threatened species and described as “an attractive eucalypt with large thick greyish green leaves”.
The species was named by Ferdinand von Mueller in honour of Johann George Luehmann who eventually became Government Botanist of Victoria.
The specimen collected by William Kirton was reported in an instalment of Mueller’s classifications published in The Sydney Morning Herald (26 July, 1879) as follows: “The species, which is an alpine one, and known only from Illawarra, has been recently described in the Fragmenta Phytographiae Australia, and appears to be very rare. The flowers and seed-vessels are large in comparison with the size of the tree, and the bark is of a lead colour, whilst the capsules are sometimes six-celled.”
Few may have noticed this surprising connection with the Illawarra on the banknote but even though von Mueller did not name the specimen provided after Kirton himself, Mueller eventually honoured him by naming Elaeocarpus kirtonii (pigeonberry ash) after samples of the tree collected at Bulli in 1885.
The wonderful Leon Fuller, in the magnificent third edition of his Wollongong’s Native Trees (2011) explains that this rainforest tree “does not occur on the escarpment further north than Thirroul”.
William Kirton’s headstone in Corrimal Cemetery. Photo: Supplied.
Nonetheless, despite being largely forgotten today, old Billy Kirton seems to have had an enjoyable and interesting life before he died in Robbinsville in 1894, particularly if the following reported little shindig held in 1888 is anything to go by.
“On December 6 Mr William Kirton, botanist, entertained a few of his friends at a garden party at his residence, Robbinsville, Illawarra. The party was handsomely entertained in the gardens surrounding the picturesque cottage of the host, which is overhung by the mighty cliff of the Bulli mountain.
“Great interest was taken in inspecting the numerous and strange variety of trees, shrubs, plants, and flowers. A magnificent jacaranda, supposed to be the finest tree of the species in the colony came in for the lion’s share of admiration, as it was literally covered from top to bottom (upward of 20ft) with lovely drooping purple blossoms.”
“The party also visited the wine cellars, where some 300 gallons of different kinds of wine, manufactured by Mr Kirton, are in stock. Here Illawarra white wine, red wine, apricot wine, and cordials of various kinds were tasted; and from the high praise bestowed upon the vintage by the visitors the quality must have been excellent.”
The great tragedy of my life, however, is that in the early 2000s, one of Kirton’s grapevines was still growing in the backyard of 102 Philip Street Thirroul and I was too stupid to take a cutting when being shown it.
