The Oxford companion to Australian gardens Edited by Richard Aitken and Michael Looker Published in 2002 by Oxford University Press, 697 pages, hard cover Price $A120.00 plus $A12 postage within Australia [up to 3 kg], overseas postage please request a quote ISBN 0195536444 or ISBN 9780195536447

The first book of its kind to focus exclusively on Australia, includes more than 1500 alphabetically arranged entries covering gardens and garden making broadly viewed to embrace architecture, art, botany, horticulture, landscape architecture, literature and town planning. Many of Australia's leading writers have contributed - elegant distillations of knowledge and wisdom, many of essay length, range from Rupert Hamer on politics and Joan Law-Smith on spirituality to Rodger Elliot on Australian flora and James Broadbent on tyre swans.

It includes more than 750 biographical entries and another 350 entries that trace the history of significant Australian gardens. The entries are complemented by more than 300 carefully chosen illustrations that capture the essence of Australian gardens and flora from the earliest European paintings and engravings to recent interpretation by such artists as Howard Arkley and Fiona Hall. The exquisite engraved alphabetical headpieces, published here for the first time since 1880, were designed by Edward LaTrobe Bateman for the first printed catalogues of the Melbourne Public Library.

About the editors

Richard Aitken is a Melbourne based architect and historian. Since 1978 he has been in private practice and has prepared conservation plans for many of Australia's most significant historic gardens. For a decade he was Gardens Projects Officer with the National Trust of Australia (Victoria) and was a founding member of the Australian Garden History Society, serving as a member of its National Management Committee and as editor of the Society's journal, Australian Garden History.

Dr. Michael Looker has been Director of the Trust for Nature (Victoria) since 2000. He trained in horticulture at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew after graduating with a B.Sc. (Biological Sciences) from La Trobe University. He worked at the National Herbarium of Victoria on his return form the UK and was Superintendent of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Melbourne from 1986 to 1990. From 1991 he lectured in environmental horticulture at Burnley College, University of Melbourne.

Table of contents

• Foreword
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• List of contributors
• Note to the reader
• A note concerning the illuminated headpieces
• Entries A to Z
• Illustration acknowledgments
• Index of gardens
• Index of names