Cultivating Identity: The Gardens at Gracemere

Abstract

The gardens at Gracemere homestead established by the Archer family in the mid nineteenth century represent an extant example of historical subtropical gardens in Queensland. They are, for this reason, highly significant gardens within the Queensland context. However, this paper sets out to describe and appreciate their form, not within this context, but as a unique statement of identity. The gardens at Gracemere can in one sense be seen as embodying a dialogue with the past – they are at this level a cultural artefact created consciously in emulation of the Archer family home, Tolderodden, in Norway, and consciously or unconsciously as an expression of nineteenth century European middle class notions of the genteel domestic garden. This proposition rests on notions theorized in the literature on landscape and memory/landscape and identity; that identity – personal, class, national – is often inextricably bound up with nostalgic memories or histories of a homeland landscape.