Bought by Gordon in 1864, it was to be his home to share with his wife Margaret Park. But never fear, apart from that small anchor to put things into perspective, this is not meant to be a dry history lesson!
I can remember going to Dingley Dell as a child and that it was always fun but this was overshadowed by my Mother's very real fear of snakes. And she had good reason too. The cottage is surrounded by scrubby bushland, the sort beloved by snakes for its wonderful hiding places.
In the last decade or so, much attention in Australia has been given to making everything very indigenous which mainly refers to the erasing of European influences on landscapes. English gardens and tree scapes are particularly in the cross hairs and this is a pity because it is pointless to pretend that the English settlers did not have a very large influence on what was, after all an English colony.
You can see in the photos above and below that the house and gardens have a very European feel. But then, quite charmingly, there are distinctly Australian touches. Only a sense of the history of the house and its owners saves Dingley Dell from being returned to the Australian style.
Even in this very hot climate, the daffodils bravely blossom and their yellows join the wattles and eucalyptus flowers.
No verandahs would have meant that this very small, un-double glazed and un-insulated cottage would have been murderously hot in the Australian summer and cold as ice in the winter. Winters in this part of the country, whilst not being cold enough to snow, certainly feel as though they could. The locals refer to the wind as being 'lazy'. This is a pure Australianism which means that the wind is too idle to go around people - it goes right through! Apt if you have ever felt it!
Yet with all of the English style to the garden, the ubiquitous Australian water tank is present and correct. This small tank was all the water that was available for the house and the garden. And how full it was depended on rainfall from the roof through the year. This was also the only defence against bushfires - in a time before the fire service. That is scary because as you can see, this isn't a large tank at all. English garden plants require much more water than do their Australian cousins so having plants 'from home' was a huge luxury actually. A lawn was just an unpardonable extravagance.
Here are some Australian natives blooming in the garden - and a small critter visiting in a wattle tree.
Banksia and Eucalypts produce very distinctive flowers. Lovely and more muted that the European flora. The very long and thin leaves are particularly well adapted to the conditions in the arid south.
Below a daisy bravely holding its own. Its water needs are far larger than the natives so it has to earn its spot in the garden with pretty flowers.
To be fair, as you can see in the two photos above, the Australian flora offers beautiful diversity and colours every bit as nice as anything else. I guess that the choices just come down to a bit of homesickness and wanting to see familiarity. The daffodils may have been the only sign that the season was changing too. With few if any deciduous trees to indicate the end of summer and then nothing really to show that spring was coming, daffodils and other bulbs are good indicators.
Above is the scrubland beloved of the local snake population. This thick undergrowth is teeming with life and later on, when it has dried out in the summer, it will burn too! This photo was taken in the spring time. Remember the size of the lone water tank - that water would not have had a chance here in a serious fire.
Dingley Dell is lovely and worth turning off the main road to explore. But, once again, it is car territory. Remotely located, it is impossible to reach without a car and there are no public transport links at all. Because it is 30 minutes drive from Mount Gambier, it is not an option for walking or biking either.
Photos and words by Debbie von Grabler-Crozier 2009, 2014
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