This is a draft

This book is a compilation of letters which passed between Mr Ken Warnes, a farmer of Owen, South Australia and Mr David Gordon, a farmer of Glenmorgan, Queensland. The correspondence started in 1969, when Dave Gordon wrote to Ken. Dave had started collecting native plants in 1940, and had heard of an enthusiastic young farmer in South Australia who was interested in Eremophila, these being a recent interest of Dave’s also.

At the time eremophilas were not well known and there was almost zero understanding of their horticultural potential. Through their common interest, their correspondence grew into a friendship and, between them, they had an enormous influence on bringing Eremophila into more general cultivation.

These letters are historically significant. They tell a story not only of the development of native plants in general, and Eremophila in particular, as horticultural subjects, but also of the lives of farmers across that period – drought, flood, uncertainty and the challenges of transport, as well as the celebration of good years when they came.

The book comprises 167 pages and can be viewed online below.
 

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