Portrait of Dave Gordon in his 100th year

by Victoria Cooper

Portrait of Dorothy Gordon by Jean Harslett 

Dave & Dorothy Gordon 

on the verandah at "Myall Park"

Dave's herbarium on the top floor 

of the "Myall Park" house

The nursery in its heyday

The Garden owes its beginnings to amateur botanist, David Gordon A.M. (1899 - 2001) who had a life-long love affair with Australian plants.  

The planted area of the Garden occupies approximately 90 hectares of Myall Park Botanic Garden's 132 hectares. Many species planted by Dave are now extremely rare, and in some cases extinct in their natural habitat.  Seeds and cuttings were gathered from all over Australia in the 1950s by Dave, his family and employees, and propagated in the custom-built nursery.

Dave kept detailed garden records, and his herbarium of over 5000 specimens has been a valuable resource used by botanists from as far afield as London's Kew Gardens.

The 1950s and early '60s were the heyday for Dave and his garden - with the help of gardeners and nursery men he planned his dream and made it come true. His wife Dorothy was an excellent artist, and Dave delighted in her botanical paintings. Family holidays became plant-hunting expeditions -  everything at Myall Park rotated around the garden.

Dave envisaged creating new plants by hybridising certain desirable species, and on three different occasions he was rewarded by the discovery of new seedlings in his grevillea section. He named them after his daughters, G. 'Robyn Gordon', G. 'Sandra Gordon' and G. 'Merinda Gordon'. The first two have become best sellers in the Australian nursery industry, thanks to Dave's generosity in giving away cuttings without thought of payment.

Times change. Robyn died in 1969, and Dorothy in 1985. In addition, the wool boom years gave way to some of the toughest times known in the Queensland pastoral industry.  

Dave's enthusiasm for his garden kept him going. The plants took their chances with nature, and the fittest survived. Visiting plant lovers continued to bring him treasures, and one of his greatest interests in later years was in waterlilies. Dave and other local land holders are given credit for saving the rare pink 'Undulla lily', Nymphaea gigantea var. neorosea, from extinction.

In 1988, determined to ensure his Garden's future, Dave invited a group of his family and friends to form a committee. This developed into the non-profit company, Myall Park Botanic Garden Ltd with aims modelled closely on Dave's love of Australian flora. 

This enthusiastic group of volunteer directors now runs the Garden with assistance from a generous Friends committee, plus occasional grant funding and sponsorship.