The Shire of Berwick offices at Pakenham were opened on Thursday, June 6, 1912, by the Minister of Public Works, Mr W. Edgar. The building was located corner of Main Street and John Street. I have written about the building here. As you can see from the photo below, there were two fine Palm Trees in the garden on the Main Street frontage.
The Palm Tree blog
This is a blog is a tribute to Palm Trees, because I like them as Grandma had one in her garden at Cora Lynn and I have fond memories of both Grandma and her garden (see the Introduction post). It is an eclectic social history, rather than anything botanical or scientific. Heather Arnold.
Friday, July 31, 2026
The Palm Trees outside the Shire Offices in Pakenham
Monday, June 15, 2026
Palm Trees for Palmerston Avenue, Dromana
In November 1928 the following two articles were published about a proposal to plant a Palm Tree avenue in Dromana. The articles are essentially the same, but have a slightly different opening sentence.
Palm Avenue for Dromana - Messrs A. C. Yandell and Spencer Jackson have each provided 500 palms for planting in Palmerston avenue, Dromana's fine three-chain road. The Dromana Progress Association is designing the lay-out of the road for the council's approval, and the palms will be planted early next year. Eventually they will lead from Pt. Nepean road to the entrance to Arthur's Seat. (1)Messrs. A. C. Yandell and Spencer Jackson have each provided 500 Phoenix Canariensis palms for planting in Palmerston avenue. The Dromana Progress Association is now designing the lay out of the road for the council's approval, and the palms will be planted early next year, and will eventually lead through from Point Nepean road right to the entrance to Mt. Arthur's Seat. (2)
A.C. Yandell was Augustus Charles Wenmouth Yandell. He died on July 14, 1929 and this short obituary was published in The Argus -
Saturday, June 13, 2026
Palm Trees in Coburg, Victoria
From a report of a Coburg City Council meeting - Beautifying Streets - From in Mr. A. W. Morris, offering to plant and maintain two palm trees in front of his property in Murray street, provided the council will supply the trees—Referred to the curator.
From a report of a Coburg City Council meeting - Consideration was given to a communication from the North-East Coburg Progress Association requesting that trees or palms be planted in Anzac avenue. It was decided that small flowering guns or eucalypts should be planted. The curator reported that as the nature strips were only 8 feet wide there would not be sufficient room for palms to expand.
(Brunswick and Coburg Gazette, October 23, 1931, see here)
(Brunswick and Coburg Courier, July 7, 1933, see here)
Beautifying Coburg Streets. Following a report from the Curator relative to tree planting, Coburg Council intends to enter upon a scheme of replacement where tree guards are not required. Palms are to be planted in streets where the nature strips are suitable for such planting. The Curator will be asked to prepare a list of streets in which the planting of trees could proceeded with without the necessity of using guards. Planting in privates streets will also be undertaken.
(Brunswick Guardian, June 8, 1934, see here)
Ornamental Palms For Coburg - Mr. A. T. Latham, secretary of the Victorian Society for the Protection of Animals, has presented Coburg Council with a large number of ornamental palms for street plantations and city beautification.
(Sun News-Pictorial, August 25, 1934, see here)
Tree Planting at Coburg. Coburg council received a report from the curator that 1000 palms had been planted on the wide parkins in various streets and in the reserves. Already 2000 street trees and palms, as well as a number of shrubs, had been planted in the season.
(The Age, September 21, 1934, see here)
Footnote
(1) The Herald, September 29, 1937, see here.
Monday, June 8, 2026
Benevolent Asylum Palms are moved from North Melbourne to Cheltenham
The Melbourne Benevolent Asylum opened in November 1851 in North Melbourne in the block bordered by Abbotsford, Elm, Curzon and Miller Streets. The objectives of the Institution were to relieve the aged, infirm, disabled or destitute, of all creeds and nations, and to minister to them the comforts of religion. By the 1880s there was a movement to relocate the building from its inner city location to a more rural site. In 1904, 154 acres of land was purchased at Cheltenham; the foundation stone of the new building was laid in 1909 and the inmates began the move to Cheltenham in March 1911. In 1970 the building was renamed the Kingston Centre.
The North Melbourne building was demolished and the grounds cleared for housing; however the palm trees were removed to the new building at Cheltenham. The Weekly Times published these two photographs in July 1911.
Tuesday, May 19, 2026
Melbourne Hebrew Congregation Synagogue Palm Tree
The Melbourne Hebrew Congregation Synagogue in Toorak Road, South Yarra, on corner of Arnold Street, replaced their earlier Synagogue in Bourke Street, Melbourne (I have written about this here) The Toorak Road Synagogue, is a grand building with seating for 1,200 and a towering copper dome and was consecrated on May 25, 1930. (1) It was designed by architect Nahum Barnet (1855-1931). (2)
Of interest to me, as this is a blog all about Palm Trees, is the palm planted on the Toorak road frontage of the property. When was it planted? It doesn't appear in the image from the newspaper report of the opening, see below, which may have just been the angle it was taken. However, looking at Sands, McDougall Directory (3) it appears to have been a vacant block when it was acquired by the Congregation, around 1927 (4), so I am sure the palm was planted after the building was erected.
Saturday, April 18, 2026
Removal of Palm Trees at Sloss Street Reserve Melbourne
The Tree-felling Orgy. St. Kilda-road Defacement. A Regrettable Misunderstanding.
The most regrettable part of the whole business is that the position has been misunderstood, even by members of the parks and gardens committee, and there is a strong feeling that the City Council was actually misled by the diplomatically worded memorandum which accompanied the recommendation concerning the "beautification" plan for this reserve.
The bareness of the reserve, now that the trees have been removed, is sufficient to make anyone, even only remotely threatened with a sense of beauty blink. Instead of lovely trees and stately palms there is a nerve-shattering vista of a conglomeration of structures which would easily earn special awards in an ugly buildings competition. There they stand on Crown land in the municipality of South Melbourne, in all their drab unattractiveness without a tree to decently shield their naked ugliness. And the parks and gardens committee calls this "beautification." No wonder the City Council will demand the replanting of trees and palms at to-day's meeting.
Silence is the strongest weapon of the curator of the City Council's parks and gardens (Mr. J. Smith) in refuting the arguments of his critics, but yesterday he said that all he wanted was time. That requirement is just what cannot be conceded to him. The Centenary celebrations will be commenced in a very few weeks from now, and what ever is to be done to remedy this regrettable disfigurement at such a time of the famous St. Kilda-road avenue must be done quickly. (2)
The Palm Tree in the Parliament House Gardens Melbourne
This Giant Palm Tree which had a girth of 11 feet, was uprooted and cut up for removal from Parliament House gardens yesterday. The gardens will be remodelled.
Source
- The Sun News-Pictorial, September 12, 1933, see here
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