Walter Hill (botanist)

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Walter Hill

Walter Hill (born December 31, 1819 in Scotsdyke , Scotland , † February 4, 1904 in Eight Mile Plains, Queensland ) was a British - Australian botanist . Its botanical author abbreviation is " W. Hill ".

Early years

Walter Hill was born in Scotsdyke in Dumfriesshire in the south of Scotland as the second son of David Hill and his wife Elizabeth , b. Beattie , born.

Working life

Walter Hill did an apprenticeship as a gardener with his older brother David , who was then chief gardener at "Balloch Castle" in western Dunbartonshire . He later worked at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh and from 1843 at the Royal Botanic Gardens in Kew near London .

Soon after his marriage and the birth of his daughter, Hill emigrated to Sydney with his family in 1852 on the Maitland . At first he tried his hand at gold digging there . In 1855 he went on a trip to northern Queensland as a botanist; there most of the tour company fell victim to an attack by the Aborigines . After that incident, Hill took a position as a curator at the Brisbane City Botanic Gardens .

Hill rebuilt the garden and divided it into 34 areas, each with a specific theme. In the spring of 1856, the local newspaper, the Moreton Bay Courier, recommended that Brisbane residents enjoy the new garden and walks, and praised Hill for achieving so much in such a short time.

In late 1859, Hill worked hard to prepare the gardens for the arrival of Sir George Ferguson Bowen , the first Governor of Queensland. The gardens were intended as a landing stage for the ship that the governor and his family traveled on, as well as the venue for many ceremonies and celebrations.

In 1861 Hill, along with the governor's wife, Lady Diamantina Bowen , prepared the Christmas festivities in the gardens, personally decorating the Christmas trees.

Hill was more interested in economically viable crops. Nevertheless, he also dealt with ornamental plants . In 1857 he exhibited a native water lily at the "Australian Horticultural and Agricultural Show" in Sydney. He introduced flowering trees like the jacaranda or the flame tree , which are still popular garden plants in Queensland today. All of Australia's jacaranda trees are believed to have originated from the seed that Hill introduced in 1864. The tree in the Brisbane City Botanic Gardens is said to have served as the template for Richard Godfrey Rivers ' painting "Under the Jacaranda" , which hangs in the Queensland Art Gallery , in 1903 . Unfortunately, the tree was uprooted by a storm in 1980 and died.

When Queensland, which was formerly part of New South Wales , became its own colony in 1859, Walter Hill was appointed chief botanist of the colony. In this capacity he carried out several expeditions to the north of the country, for example in 1862 to the Cape York Peninsula and in 1863 to the northeast coast to Mossmann and the Daintree River , where he climbed Mount Bellenden Ker .

He sent many of the materials he collected to herbariums around the world, for example the Royal Botanic Gardens in Melbourne or the one in Kew. Hill also wanted to set up a herbarium in Queensland, which he was denied due to the lack of suitable buildings and other facilities. After his retirement in 1861, however, he left his books to the Queensland Museum , which later became the nucleus of the Queensland Herbarium .

Hill also played a major role in the acclimatization of exotic plant species to the Queensland climate. For example, he introduced the mango , papaya , ginger , tamarind tree , Curcuma angustifolia , cotton and mahogany in Queensland. In particular, he also introduced sugar cane and demonstrated in experiments that the juice of the specimens grown in Queensland was particularly easy to granulate. In doing so, he created a great new cropping opportunity for Queensland agriculture. On the other hand, he cultivated the “Queensland nut” on native plants, which soon became known as macadamia .

Walter Hill was selected as one of the Queensland commissioners to arrange the display of agricultural products and other items from the country at the Industrial Exhibition, part of the London 1862 World's Fair .

Hill often fell out with his superiors. After another dispute over the maintenance of the gardens, he was forced to retire. In retirement, however, he continued his experiments with fruit trees.

Family life

On September 16, 1849, Walter Hill married Jane Smith , the daughter of John Smith and his wife Jane , b. Brunton , in the Holy Trinity Church in “Brompton” ( London ). On April 25, 1850, their daughter Ann was born in England .

This daughter died on November 1, 1871 in Brisbane at the age of only 21, which was a severe blow to the parents. She was buried in Toowong Cemetery with special permission from the governor, although it was not yet officially opened. Walter Hill planted a New Guinea araucaria near her grave and also did a number of other plantings in the cemetery, although he was not officially commissioned to do so. Apparently he just wanted to make his daughter's grave particularly beautiful.

Until Hills retired, the family lived in the Curator's House at Brisbane City Botanic Gardens. In the 1890s, this house was washed away by a flood and replaced by a new house, which now houses a café for visitors to the gardens.

After his retirement in 1881, Walter Hill built a new house called Canobie Lea on Eight Mile Plains. The name was reminiscent of a village near Hills birthplace in Scotland. Jane Hill died in 1888 and Walter Hill died in this house on February 4, 1904. He was buried in the graves of his daughter and wife in Toowong Cemetery. After his daughter and wife died earlier, Walter Hill's niece, Mrs. Mary Hamilton (daughter of older brother David Hall), appears to have inherited the property. She and her husband renovated the house and replaced the original shingle roof with a tin roof. Mary Hamilton died in 1921 and the property was sold in 1931.

monument

The Walter Hill Fountain in the Brisbane City Botanic Gardens is reminiscent of Walter Hill . The fountain was created from a drinking fountain in 1867 when a central water supply was established in Brisbane. In 1972 this fountain was named after Walter Hill.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ W. Hill . Author Query, International Plant Name Index (IPNI) . Retrieved May 6, 2013
  2. ↑ a b Hill, Walter (1820-1904) . Biography. Council of Heads of Australasian Herbaria (CHAH). Australian National Herbarium . Retrieved May 6, 2013
  3. ^ Ross McKinnon: Hill, Walter (1819-1904) . Australian Dictionary of Biography . Retrieved May 6, 2013
  4. ↑ The Murder of Mr Strange and Others . Moreton Bay Courier, April 14, 1855 . Retrieved May 6, 2013
  5. ↑ Domestic Intellegence - Brisbane Botanic Gardens . Moreton Bay Courier, August 23, 1856 . Retrieved May 6, 2013
  6. ^ Arrival & Reception of His Excellency Sir GF Bowen, First Governor of Queensland . Moreton Bay Courier, December 13, 1859 . Retrieved May 6, 2013
  7. ↑ Local Intellegence . Moreton Bay Courier, January 5, 1861 . Retrieved May 6, 2013
  8. ^ New South Wales . Moreton Bay Courier, March 5, 1857 . Retrieved May 6, 2013
  9. ↑ Brian Williams: Mauving Story of Blooming Tree . Brisbane Courier Mail Online, October 17, 2007 . Retrieved May 6, 2013
  10. ^ R. Godfrey Rivers: Under the Jacaranda . 1903. Qagoma - Queensland Heritage . Retrieved May 6, 2013
  11. ^ Maryborough . Moreton Bay Courier, November 26, 1859 . Retrieved May 6, 2013
  12. ^ Cotton from the Botanical Gardens . Moreton Bay Courier, December 22, 1859 . Retrieved May 6, 2013
  13. ↑ Sorghum saccharatum - the New Chinese Sugar-Cane . Moreton Bay Courier, May 15, 1858 . Retrieved May 6, 2013
  14. ↑ Local Intellegence . Moreton Bay Courier, October 16, 1860 . Retrieved May 6, 2013
  15. ^ To the Editor of the Moreton Bay Courier . Moreton Bay Courier, March 15, 1860 . Retrieved May 6, 2013
  16. ↑ a b Inscription on Ann Hill's headstone in Toowong Cemetery in Brisbane.
  17. ^ Website of Toowong Cemetery in Brisbane (English) ( Memento of September 14, 2009 in the Internet Archive ). Retrieved May 6, 2013.
  18. ^ Hill, Ann - Hill, Walter - Hill Jane. Grave Location Search. Brisbane City Council Online Services, accessed May 6, 2013.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Hill, Walter
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Australian botanist
DATE OF BIRTH December 31, 1819
PLACE OF BIRTH Scotsdyke , Scotland , United Kingdom
DATE OF DEATH February 4, 1904
Place of death Eight Mile Plains, Queensland, Australia