Walter Hill (garden curator)

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

Early years

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

Professional life

When his older brother David, then head gardener of the " Balloch Castle" in the Western Dunbartonshire, Walter Hill did an apprenticeship as a gardener. Later he worked at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh and from 1843 at the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew in London.

Soon after his marriage and the birth of his daughter wandered Hill with his family in 1852 on the " Maitland " to Sydney. First he tried there as a gold digger. In 1855 he undertook as a botanist, a trip to the North of Queensland; where the majority of the travel company fell victim to an attack of the Aboriginal. After this incident, Hill took up a position as a curator at the Brisbane City Botanic Gardens.

Hill built the garden on new and divided it into 34 regions, each of which was dedicated to a specific topic. In the spring of 1856 recommended the local newspaper, the " Moreton Bay Courier", the residents of Brisbane to enjoy the new garden, and promenades, and praised Hill that he had achieved so much in such a short time.

End of 1859 Hill worked very diligently to prepare the gardens for the arrival of Sir George Ferguson Bowen, the first Governor of Queensland. The gardens were designed as a dock for the ship, which arrived the governor and his family, and as well as the venue of many ceremonies and festivals.

1861 prepared Hill along with the woman of the governor, Lady Diamantina Bowen, the Christmas celebrations in the gardens in front, where he personally decorated the Christmas trees.

Hill was more interested in economically useful plants. However, he also dealt with ornamental plants. In 1857 he exhibited a native water lily on the "Australian Horticultural and Agricultural Show" in Sydney. He led flowering trees like the Jacaranda or the flame tree, one that still apply in Queensland as a popular garden plants. It is believed that all the Jacaranda trees of Australia emerged from the seeds, the Hill 1864 introduced. The tree in the Brisbane City Botanic Gardens to have in 1903, served as a template for the painting "Under the Jacaranda " by Richard Godfrey Rivers, which hangs in the Queensland Art Gallery. Unfortunately, the tree was uprooted by a storm in 1980 and entered.

As Queensland, formerly part of New South Wales was in 1859 a separate colony, was appointed Walter Hill as chief botanist of the colony. In this capacity, he led several expeditions to the north of the country by, for example, in 1862 the Cape York Peninsula and 1863 on the north east coast to Mossman and Daintree River, where he ascended the Mount Bellenden Ker.

Many of the materials collected by him he sent to herbaria throughout the world, such as the Royal Botanic Gardens in Melbourne or in Kew. Hill wanted to set up a herbarium, but this was denied due to lack of suitable buildings and other facilities in Queensland. After his retirement in 1861 but he left his books to the Queensland Museum, which later became the nucleus of the Queensland Herbarium was.

Also in the acclimatization of exotic plant species to the climate in Queensland Hill played a role gro0e. He led for example, mangoes, papaya, ginger, the tamarind tree, the Curcuma angustifolia, the cotton and mahogany in Queensland one. In particular, he also introduced the sugar cane and pointed in experiments after that the juice of the proposed Queensland specimens could be granulated particularly well. Thus, he created a great new mounting option for agriculture in Queensland. At native plants turn he cultivated the " Queensland nut", which became known as Macadamia soon.

Walter Hill was selected as one of the Commissioners for Queensland, which should, 1862, to arrange the exhibition of agricultural products and other products of the land at the industrial exhibition, a part of the world exhibition London.

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

Home life

On September 16, 1849, married Walter Hill Jane Smith, daughter of John Smith and his wife Jane, née Brunton, at Holy Trinity Church, " Brompton " ( London). On April 25, 1850, born in England, her daughter Ann.

This daughter died on November 1, 1871 in Brisbane with only 21 years, which was a severe blow for the parents. She was buried with special permission of the Governor on the Toowong Cemetery, although this had not yet officially opened. Walter Hill planted a Guinea - Araucaria at her grave and took a number of other plantings in front of the cemetery, although he was not officially commissioned to. Apparently, he wanted to make his daughter's grave especially beautiful.

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

Monument

At Walter Hill Walter Hill Fountain recalls in the Brisbane City Botanic Gardens. The fountain was built in 1867 from a drinking fountain as a central water supply was established in Brisbane. 1972 this fountain was named after Walter Hill.