WINTER 2016
37
The oldest image
down in Grafton
Gully with dense
indigenous vegetation increasing in
size at base of gully.
NZ Flax, Phormium
cookianum visible.
Source: Beere 31.
Sir George Grey
Special Collections
Auckland Libraries.
over hundreds of years. It was not
a virgin landscape by any means.
The topography of the Grafton
‘ravine’ protected the vegetation
close to the stream sides because
of the associated springs seeping
up through the volcanic rock that
can still be observed today. A path
was named here in the 1880s as
‘Bishop Selwyn’s Path’.
I concluded from my 2013 study
of the cemetery that the contemporary Symonds Street Cemetery
comprises four character landscapes – Naturalistic, Picturesque,
Ornamental and Recreation/Open
Space. The two most relevant are
next described.
The Naturalistic Landscape
1840 to present
This character evolved from a
landscape dwelt upon by Tangata Whenua (Māori) and then
in 1840-1841 fire was used as a
management tool (by the likes of
Felton Matthew the Government
Surveyor) to clear the landscape
and allow surveyors to peg out the
township blocks. From the 1920s
onwards botanists from Auckland
University College, such as Dr
Lucy Cranwell with modern ecological values and practices (protecting land in Scenic Reserves)
argued successfully for protecting
the private lands all about the
eastern side of Symonds Street
Cemetery that has remained the
focus of Government and City
officials since 1920.
Once bounded with earth ditches and live hedges that protected
from further fire and wandering
animals, the vegetation regenerated rapidly with seedlings from
neighbouring plantations (gums,
pines, wattles) and intermittent
disturbance from accidental fires
about the Grafton Gully footbridge
(built 1884) where wild gorse and
broom became a fire hazard in the
summer months.
The Picturesque Landscape
1840s -1908
This is the preferred landscape
character husbanded through the
1840s with a distinct trajectory
established by Bishop GA Selwyn
who project-managed its cultivation through his Church of
England Cemetery Trustees included Dr Charles Knight – himself
a naturalist and an expert on lichens – George Pierce and Shirley
W. Hill. The pedestrian circulation
pattern and improved enclosures
were placed on the ground by a
team of Royal Engineers of Miners & Sappers lead by Lieut. Major
Daniel Bolton (1796-1860). Oak
trees and conifers began to dominate the landscape centred on
the ravine covered in flax, hebe,
cordyline and tree ferns.
Conclusion
Watkins and Cowell describe the
‘international reach’ of Price’s
books and essays through Europe
and into North America through
Andrew Jackson Downing (18151852) and Frederick Law Olmstead (1822-1903). Symonds Street
Cemetery provides a place that
challenges popular understanding
of the picturesque. I argue we have
the practice of what is sometimes
called ‘the big P’, the Picturesque,
expressed on part of a public cemetery. Go there and imagine and
experience this other world.