Best and Honest Seeds: How South Australia’s Early Colonists Grew Plants for Fun and Profit

Ancient wisdom informs First Nations' caretaking of country. Indigenous survival has always depended on finding water, food, and shelter in harsh and challenging landscapes. Aboriginal traditions of looking after country have been carefully constructed over tens of thousands of years, with rules based on observation, knowledge-sharing, and a large degree of cooperation.  Early white settlers also faced survival challenges, but their strategies were very different. For a start, colonial expansion was based on clearing space through felling and fencing, not living with the environment as it was.  

The newcomers were accustomed to cultivating gardens, parks, and farms rather than hunting, foraging and controlled burning of bushland. Most foods were not gathered but home-grown or imported. Seeds and plant cuttings were carried with them from Britain or acquired at ports along the way, laying the foundations for local food production. Nurseries soon sprang up, providing settlers with vegetables, plants, gardening tools and expertise.

As food production became more reliable, horticultural shows became a regular occurrence.  Experiments with fruit and vegetables produced some excellent results. The cultivation of flowers increased, and native flora became a recognised category. But competition across all sections could be fierce. Deep and bitter rivalries were sparked as home gardeners and horticulturalists vied for prestige and economic opportunity.

Join us as we explore some of the plants, people and politics that helped shape South Australia's first decades of European settlement. .

Image: J.B. Hack's farm at Echunga Springs, watercolour. SLSA: PRG 50/34/2