Clement Hodgkinson, 1818 - 1893, was born in England, and became a notable Australian naturalist, explorer and surveyor. He is best remembered as a landscape designer of many of Melbourne's spectacular parks and gardens. He rose to the position of Victorian Assistant Commissioner of Crown Lands and Survey, and head of the Victorian Lands Department for the period 1861-1874.
Exploration in New South Wales
The New South Wales colonial government hired Clement Hodgkinson, a young engineer and surveyor from England, to survey and explore north-eastern New South Wales through to Moreton Bay. The exploration ocurred from 1840 to 1842 and was the first major expedition since John Oxley in the 1820s. In March 1841 Clement Hodgkinson explored the upper reaches of the Nambucca and Bellinger Rivers, including being the first European to make contact with the local Aborigines. The Macleay, Clarence, Hastings , Richmond and Tweed River valleys were explored, as well as around Port Macquarie, Brisbane and Moreton Bay.
On his return to England he published an account of his explorations, Australia, from Port Macquarie to Moreton Bay (1845), on the natural history of the area, and his observations of aboriginal tribal life.
Hodgkinson provides a highly evocative description of the rainforest:
- "... the peculiar appearance of the brush is principally caused by the countless species of creepers, wild vines, and parasitical plants of singular conformation, which, interlaced and intertwined in inextricable confusion, bind and weave together the trees almost to their summits, and hang in rich and elegant flowering festoons from the highest branches. The luxuriant and vigorous character of the brush, on alluvial land, in the northern part of the territory of New South Wales, cannot be surpassed in any tropical region. When this brushland is cleared, and cultivated, its fertility seems inexhaustible ..."
As a perceptive observer of aboriginal life and culture, Hodgkinson concluded the chapter on the aborigines with some observations on attempts to civilise them.
- "indeed I think that all endeavours to make them adopt more settled habits will be useless, for what great inducement does the monotonous and toilsome existence of the labouring classes in civilized communities offer, to make the savage abandon his independent and careless life, diversified by the exciting occupations of hunting, fighting, and dancing." (p. 242)
He described the Bellinger River valley as 'The brush contained the finest cedar and rosewood I have ever seen.' But it was also noted that the local tribes fiecely fought against encroachment by explorers and timber cutters, attacking their camps. When Hodgkinson returned to the valley he was accompanied by members of the Yarrahappinni group in an effort to explain his 'innocent' intentions to the locals.
Landscape Design of Melbourne's Gardens
Hodgkinson must have appreciated his first stint exploring Australia. In the 1850s he again journeyed from England to the young colony of Victoria. In 1854 his wife, Amelia Diana Hunt, gave birth to a son. A year later his first wife was dead at the age of 26. In 1857 he married Anne Smart and they subsequently had several children, although not without the sadness of the death of a child.
Appointed as District Surveyor for Victoria in 1855. As part of his surveying duties, the township of Warrandyte was laid out in 1856. In 1857-1858 he was the Surveyor General of Victoria.
St Vincent Gardens in Albert Park, now a nationally significant park, is an example of nineteenth century residential development around a landscaped square which Hodgkinson initially designed in 1857 and developed in 1864-1870.
In 1860 responsibility for the government reserves was exercised by Clement Hodgkinson, the new administrative head of the Lands Department, who took a detailed interest in the planning and development of the city parks, including Fitzroy Gardens. This started an extensive period of landscape design of Melbourne's parks and gardens including:
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Queen Victoria provided the grant of land in 1865 for the Edinburgh gardens , in North Fitzroy, which were subsequently laid out by Clement Hodgkinson
- Designed the Treasury Gardens in 1867 as a pattern of diagonally crossing paths lined with trees. Willow trees were planted around an ornamental pond.
- Awarded the task of designing the St Kilda recreational reserve, known today as Alma Park in 1867.
- The Carlton Gardens, now a World Heritage Site, were redesigned for the Melbourne International Exhibition in 1880 by the states leading landscape designers and horticulturalists including Clement Hodgkinson, William Sangster, Nicholas Bickford, and John Guilfoyle .
- Other notable parks include Princes Park in Maryborough , which was a combined effort by a trio of important landscape designers in Victoria, Clement Hodgkinson, William Guilfoyle and Hugh Linaker.
Managing Victoria's Forests
During Hodgkinson's final years as Victorian Assistant-Commissioner of Crown Lands and Survey he established a programme of reservation, regulation, administration and education to control the use of Victoria's forests. The Central Forest Board was established to oversee the entire system on 6 March 1874, with Hodgkinson on the board. On 11 March 1874 Clement Hodgkinson retired from public service. In 1883 he briefly came out of retirement to sit on a new Committee of Management to inspect the City Gardens he had done so much to create.
Royal Society of Victoria
Hodgkinson was involved in the Royal Society of Victoria, which discussed and advised the colonial government on scientific issues. One of his papers discussed at the Philosophical Institute held at the Museum of Natural History was titled On the favourable geological and chemical nature of the principal rocks and soils of Victoria, in reference to the production of ordinary cereals and wine. Other papers presented included on Hydrometry, and the Geology of the Upper Murray area.
He was Vice-President of the Philosophical Institute of Victoria in 1856 and again in 1858, and Council Member of the Royal Society of Victoria in 1859-1860.
Tributes
Clement Hodgkinson died in 1893.
Hodgkinsonia ovatiflora, commonly referred to as Hodgkinsonia or Golden ash was named after Clement Hodgkinson. The species is found from the Hastings River, NSW to Mackay, Qld. It grows in Subtropical, dry and littoral rainforest, and also open forest.
In 1858 John Hardy named Olinda creek after Alice Olinda Hodgkinson, the daughter of Clement Hodgkinson. Subsequently the suburb of Olinda was named after the creek.
External links
Last updated: 05-14-2005 22:28:59
