Can you help?

We are seeking support and financial assistance for this unique Project.

You donate through the following link

https://australianculturalfund.org.au/projects/becklers-botanical-bounty-of-menindee/

Our Project is creating beautiful and scientifically accurate botanical paintings and pressed botanical specimens of the 120 plant species on the National Herbarium of Victoria list, as collected in 1860 by Dr Hermann Beckler in the vicinity of Menindee (south-east of Broken Hill). 

We have always been aware that our Project has a place in history. It has brought Dr. Beckler's contribution to Australian plant knowledge to the fore. Our collected specimens sit alongside Beckler's in the National Herbarium of Victoria, and each specimen has  a detailed record of habitat, soil conditions, GPS location and so on. This provides current data on plants that exist in the Menindee Lakes/Kinchega National Park area, data that when combined with Beckler's collection, could be very useful for longitudinal studies. It is a great example of how citizen scientists can contribute to scientific knowledge.

Preparations for the exhibition of the Project are well under way, where we will display at least 40 art works at the Art Gallery of Ballarat in February 2018. 

However we hope to develop resources to support the outcomes of the Project in the form of several publications. Your donation will help to fund those resources.

As Beckler’s Botanical Project is self-funded and unincorporated, we have registered with the Australian Cultural Fund https://australianculturalfund.org.au/ which will facilitate crowd funding for us.

For the next month or so, the ACF will accept tax deductible donations on our behalf. If you are interested in this Project and wish to provide some financial support to support the future Project outcomes, please do so through ACF: 

Donate to Beckler's Botanical Bounty campaign


We hope you will be able to contribute to this historical project.

Amy Wells

Amy Wells -- Botanic artist

Zygochloa paradoxa -- Sandhill canegrass

Why did you become involved in the Project?

Amy's specimen and drawing. (Photo copyright: Anne Lawson 2013)

I saw the project as a way of being introduced to doing botanical art in the field. As well it was a way of going to parts of Australia that I haven't been and a chance to look at that landscape in a different way. It was also an opportunity go away with a group of people with similar interests, being able to spend time with experts, looking at how they do things and learning. This is not just artist skills, but lots of other areas, including Australian history.

I have continued to be involved because it is a way of having a break but still keep mentally engaged. It is very different what I would normally do.

What plant are you painting?

It is a Zygochloa paradoxa, also called sandhill canegrass. It has male and female plants. What attracted me to that one was that I saw lots of straight lines. It is a very architectural plant, a very patterned growing habit. They look like mobiles!

The male and female plants look the same; it's the flowers that are are the identifiers. It is easy to tell the difference. Female flowers have stigmas that are like white, feather boas! The male flora have rusty orange canoes for stamens -- and lots of stamens that contrast against the colour of the plant. Under the microscope the female flowers look like lettuce leaves.

It took lots of microscopic work to try to find the seeds. They are small and it was difficult to know if they were ripe. I found jelly blobs instead of seeds. The botanist said jelly blogs qualify as seeds but the artist didn't agree! I have harvested seeds and will let them ripen some more.

What is your process for painting?

They look like mobiles!

I have done my drawings, done my colour swatches and done my microscopic drawings. My composition will depend on whether I can find some seeds. It will be done in watercolour. There is enough cream and green in the microscopic work to be able to do that in watercolour too.

It had been nice to have plugged in with people up here who give permission to go to different places, such as the pipeline. It is good to know that they trust us. We have explored other areas this trip, and that has been good. I have been out to the Park in the early mornings, which has been a magic experience -- the colour, the smell, the light. It is a great way to start the day and not feel so despondent about spending time indoors. I have seen more fauna -- an echidna, live pigs, kangaroos munching on the side of the road.

Margaret Holloway

Margaret Holloway -- botanic artist

Senna artemisioides

Stelligera endecaspinis

I have only managed to get to Menindee in 2011 and 2013. Both times I have found it rewarding in many ways. Firstly, to be involved in such a project which is of historical and botanical interest and also the satisfaction of being able to source the plants and illustrate them. 

Having grown up on the Wimmera plains, I find the landscape, and in particular, the big sky very relaxing and liberating.

The first painting I did was of Senna artemisioides a shrub with yellow flowers and profuse seed pods.

Senna artemisioides, painting by Margaret Holloway

The colours reflect the surrounding  colours, particularly the soil. I still have not completed it as I intend to put a bee in it. The flowers are buzz pollinated by the local bees.  

This year I painted Stelligera endecaspinis, a small saltbush which was growing on a mud flat in an exposed harsh area. 

Stelligera endecaspinis -- Painting by Margaret Holloway

It is a nondescript plant that you would normally walk straight past, but when you view it through a magnifying glass or a microscope you realize how it manages to cope with the conditions.  

Both specimens were collected from Kinchega National Park.

Margaret Holloway

Lyn Gras

Lyn Gras -- botanic artist

Pycnosorus pleiocephalus -- Billy Button

Why were you interested in being involved with the Beckler Project?

I am interested in Burke and Wills because I have an ancestor who was involved in early exploration of inland Australia and northern South Australia, at about the same time -- around 1850. That interest in exploration, because of my family, sparked the enthusiasm to become involved. It fitted in with my love of botanical art.

Lyn's work area

I am also interested because I live in the alpine area of Victoria, and like to illustrate the plants of that area. I thought it would be a great contrast, and wanted to be involved in something so worthwhile. I am really enthusiastic because I have been working on plants of the same genus that I have been working on at home.

What are you painting?

I am painting a billy button Pycnosorus pleiocephalus.

It is a beautiful plant because it has round yellow balls as flower heads on short stalks. Beautiful little round balls! The Alpine Billy Button from Mt Buller I have painted has longer stalks and much bigger flowers.

Pycnosorus pleiocephalus
(Photo copyright: Anne Lawson 2013)

It's a small perennial with one to ten stalks, each with a yellow button on the end. It has small leaves that get smaller further up the stem. This species is special too because it has an extra flower 'bulge' out of some of the flower heads. It is the only one that does that.

The extra flower 'bulge', a distinctive feature of this plant.
(Photo copyright: Anne Lawson, 2013)

It is a member of the daisy family Asteraceae. The round ball is a compound flower consisting of multiple tiny, yellow flowers. I dissected the flower head, looked at it under the microscope and I am now drawing the little parts that comprise the flower -- the florets, bracts, anthers, and even the hairs on the leaves.

Out in Kinchega National Park there are beautiful drifts of these flowers amongst other daisies, salt bush and prickly acacia.

How will you paint it?

I will do a watercolour painting of the whole plant and graphite pencil drawings of what I have seen down the microscope.

Will it take me long to do? Yes! About 4 to 6 weeks to complete.

The mature seeds (Photo copyright: Anne Lawson, 2013)

Sunset in Kinchega National Park

(Photo copyright: Anne Lawson, 2012)

(Photo copyright: Anne Lawson, 2012)

Menindee

Menindee is the town where we go to paint. It is situated on the Darling River  and the chain of lakes known as the Menindee Lakes. It is also right on the edge of Kinchega National Park.

Carvings near the Tourist Information Centre
(Photo copyright: Anne Lawson, 2013)

We go there because the Burke and Wills Expedition spent time there in 1860.

However, the area has a long Aboriginal history. Fossil finds show that Aborigines lived here 27,000 years ago. The Barkinji or Paakantji people still have a strong connection to their land. (There are varied spellings of the name)

Details of the fabulous carvings.
(Photo copyright: Anne Lawson, 2013)

Major Mitchell came through the area in 1835 and  named it "Laidley's Ponds". When Burke, Wills, Beckler and the rest of the expedition arrived in 1860, Menindee was at the edge of white settlement.

The new plaque outside the Maidens Hotel (Photo copyright: Anne Lawson, 2013)

Map of the journey, from the plaque (Photo copyright: Anne Lawson, 2013)

It is a small country town, with about 1000 people. That number swells with visitors. They visit Kinchega or go fishing in the lakes or on the river. Some are following the Burke and Wills trail; some have come from Lake Mungo. The bird life is wonderful and, as we know, the wild flowers are fabulous.

There is an information centre and inside is a little art gallery. When we were there it had an exhibition of Annette Minchin's stunning textile art. And you have to see the 4 wheel drive wheelbarrow!

The Tourist Information Centre
(Photo copyright: Anne Lawson, 2013)

Wheelbarrow with all the options!
(Photo copyright: Anne Lawson, 2013)

It is a welcoming town, definitely worth a visit if you are wandering up that way. If you come next October (2014) drop into the Civic Centre and say "Hello". 

Becklers Botanical Bounty on the ABC

During our recent time in Menindee Mali, Margaret and Andrew were interviewed for an ABC Rural Radio programme. Follow the link to hear them talking more about the Project.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-10-02/rural-sach-beckler-botanical-artists-0210/4993878

A plant from Beckler's list -- Centaurium spicatum

My name is Roslyn Glow and am one of the original members of the Beckler's Botanical Bounty Project. The name of one of the plants I have collected has a fascinating, but convoluted, history. 

Centaurium spicatum (L.) Fritsch ex Janch.

This plant is a small annual (sometimes biannual) herb, from 2 to 30 cms high.  Reportedly it can have pink, red or yellow flowers, but I have seen and collected only the pink flowered specimen.

http://florabase.dec.wa.gov.au/browse/profile/6541

It is listed as Centaurium spicatum (L.) Fritsch ex Janch in the list of plants collected near Menindee by Beckler in October 1860, and in the current plant list of Kinchega National Park.

The species was first collected by Robert Brown. He was the naturalist on the Investigator, and sailed with Matthew Flinders from 1801 to 1805. On board was his friend and artist, Ferdinand Bauer. The type specimen of C. spicatum was collected in Western Australia during the 42 days of collection there in 1801.  

The plant was first published in 1810, being one of 2000 species named in Prodromus florae Novae Hollandia, half of Brown’s collections of 4000 specimens from the voyage.  It was hoped that this work would be illustrated, but it was not. Ferdinand Bauer made a prodigious number of drawings on this expedition. These remain archived, but not indexed, so it is not known if he illustrated this plant.

In 1917, this plant was reclassified by George Claridge Druce, who considered that Erythracea was an illegitimate synonym of Centaurium.  The plant then became Centaurium australe.

In 1928 Karel Domin reclassified it to Erythraea, as E.  spicata.

In 1996 the plant was restored to Centaurium, as C. australis (L.) Fritsch ex Janch.

In 2004 the Centaurium genus was revised by Mansion. Using chromosome analysis he differentiated the Australian species Schenkia australis  from others (S. spicata).  This name is accepted in the Australian Plant Census, but the previous name Centaurium spicatum, is still used in several Australian herbariums, including the State Herbarium of Victoria. 

Schenkia australisis is endemic to Australia.  It is common in all states, except Tasmania, where it is rare.  

C. spicatum, growing on the banks of the Menindee Lakes.
(Photograph copyright Roslyn Glow)

Some sources suggest that this plant is an environmental weed, and indeed it may be in some locations, but there is also the possibility that it has been confused with Centaurium erythraea, among whose common names is European Centaury.

Lake edge where C. spicatum was collected
(Photograph copyright of Roslyn Glow)

Where did Beckler's Botanical Bounty come from.... and why do we do it?

To many people our project, Beckler's Botanical Bounty, is exciting, but they often ask where the idea for the project came from. Bev Wood has contributed this post to explain.

The Burke and Wills 150^th Anniversary celebrations brought together many people with a keen interest in the Victorian exploring expedition (VEE).  The complex story and its many facets continues to create interest, investigation and study.   It brings so many aspects of life, art and science into play such as surveying, botany, zoology, the weather, the stars, health, anthropology, art, survival, food, money, politics and relationships.

The Burke and Wills Historical Society (http://www.burkeandwills.org/) came into being in 2003, when 35 enthousiasts met in Cloncurry to discuss their mutual interests.  The other organisations with a particular interest in developing interpretation of the VEE are the Royal Society of Victoria (who organised the VEE in the first place) (http://www.burkeandwills.org/) and the State Library of Victoria (keeper of most of the records) (http://burkeandwills.slv.vic.gov.au/).

Menindie was the small settlement on the Darling River (in south-west New South Wales) where Burke and Wills slept in a bed for the last time, before taking off overland for Coopers’ Creek.    Burke was impatient, the expedition was already behind time.  He halved the expedition and left the Supply Party behind at Menindie (October 19, 1860) with most of the expeditions supplies (food, drugs, camping equipment, camels and horses, and so on).

This group subsequently moved to camp on Pamameroo Creek about 10km away.  It took them a long time (three months) to re-organise themselves and follow Burke, by which time it was the height of summer and a severe drought.

Although Dr Beckler was a German Medical Doctor, he had been appointed in Melbourne as one of the VEE Expedition Officers (Scientific Observers’ Botanical Observer).  Unhappy with Burke’s leadership, he resigned at Menindie in the middle of October 1860.  Burke asked him to remain with the Supply Party to take care of the stores and the remaining animals until a replacement could be found.

In the three months he was in the area with the Supply Party (until January 26^th, 1861) he undertook two expeditions.  One was the round trip rescue of two men from death at Duroadoo on the way to Coopers’ Creek.  The second was the exploration of the nearby Scrope’s Range where he collected hundreds of new plants (taxa) which had not been seen before.   He was passionate about identifying and collecting plants and sent hundreds of them back to Dr Ferdinand Mueller, Director of the National Herbarium of Victoria in Melbourne. 

There these plants remain stored in dried, pressed and catalogued form – a very important national treasure which belongs to us all.  Beckler also completed some landscape drawings and paintings in the general area, and collected 120 new specimens of plants around Menindie itself, which I will refer to as Beckler’s List.  This is where our group known as Beckler’s Botanical Bounty comes in.

In 2009, the well known Melbourne Botanical Artist and teacher - Mali Moir (http://malimoir.com.au/ arranged an excursion to the National Herbarium of Victoria for the Botanical Illustrators group at the Royal Botanical Gardens.   As one of the students - Bev Wood - was keen to see some of the plants from the 1860 collections associated with the VEE, this was kindly arranged by the Collections Manager – Dr Pina Milne.         . 

Some of the VEE plants were on display for our visit.   Afterwards, we (Mali Moir and Bev Wood) determined that we would try to join the 2010 Burke and Wills 150^th celebrations in Menindie with an interest in “growing” our experience in botanical illustration up there somehow. 

In searching for more purpose other than the painting of the local wild flowers, Mali was made aware of Dr Hermann Beckler’s role in the VEE by Museum Victoria curator John Kean, who advised ‘look at Beckler, he’s your man’.

Dr Beckler collected his plants over the Spring period and our group of botanical artists started the first of our week long annual Spring visits to Menindee in the year 2010.    We search for any of the 120 plants on Becklers List in the area of Menindee, we collect and illustrate them, and we press a specimen each for the National Herbarium of Victoria in Melbourne (http://www.rbg.vic.gov.au/science/information-and-resources/national-herbarium-of-victoria/botany-of-the-burke-and-wills-expe) and the Herbarium of New South Wales in Sydney. 

On these expeditions we have been joined by some local Menindee people, along with botanists, historians, geologists and film makers.  We need their assistance as it is a real challenge for us “City slickers” to bumble around the bush to find each plant again, let alone illustrate and press them and find a week and more in our busy lives every year to do it!!  

Yet we have undertaken such a privileged endeavour for four years now, and we just love it.  As it has for thousands of other Australians, the story of the VEE continues to fascinate us and we now feel confident that we are contributing to its legacy in a very tangible way. 

In the bush with repeated visits, we are learning heaps about the context of Botanical Illustration.  We are learning about where particular plants grow, the effect of drought and other weather conditions, and the use of the plants by the indigenous people.   We are learning to illustrate the grasses, seeds, flowers, herbs, feathers, sticks and stones and bones gathered from the bush and the rivers and creeks by our own hands. 

It gives us a real sense of connection to the specimens and the story of the VEE.  But best of all it gives us a chance to be in "country” and explore our own land and its naturally growing plants in a very intimate way.

We are often asked what we are going to do with our paintings and drawings (about 40 to date), and we are looking for an opportunity to exhibit them all at once.  In the meantime, it is our personal and collective journeys in this wide brown land and the intimate observation of some of its plants in their own environment which really counts the most.

Beverley Wood

August 2013

Beckler's Botanical Bounty 2010

The last couple of posts have been about the Burke and Wills Expedition and Hermann Beckler, the surgeon and naturalist of the expedition. When this blog was begun Mali Moir wrote about the Beckler's Botanical Project in October 2010. I am reposting some of that. 
Her passion comes shining through!



Our aim was to collect the same species of plants that Beckler collected in the same location. As botanical artists we proceeded to paint/illustrate some of the species we found.
As the fields were in spectacular bloom it was a challenge for us to choose which one we wanted to paint, and which ones were the same as Beckler's list.

We stopped at one site and noticed large patches of blue haze. This turned out to be hundreds of Wahlenbergia, the native bluebell! We were hooked and there we stayed for 3 hours discovering more and more -- the more we looked the more we found. Many daisies, salt bushes and blue bushes in full splendid colour.

Not the hazy blue Wahlenbergia, but it is the amazing habitat round Menindee

We spent 5 days in Menindee, 2 days searching, collecting and identifying, 3 days painting and illustrating.

We found 15 plants we are now painting. Out of a list of 120 we plan to return next October to continue the project.

Collecting plants for scientific research is of course very important. Illustration is a valuable tool in this research in particular as we painted these plants while they were fresh with colour.

Sunset
(photo: copyright Anne Lawson)

Botanical art is very detailed and very accurate for the purpose of scientific identification. It also invokes awareness and educates the general public to the importance of science and research through its sheer beauty.

"Artists make science visible" I have lived by this philosophy for nearly 20 years now. Without artists and art the world would be a much darker and duller place.


It is our vision to fill in some of the gaps by illustrating the plants on Beckler's list. The importance of this project is immense. 

We aim to put our work on exhibition sometime in the future.

.......... Mali

Beckler's Botanical Bounty continues!

 While this blog has not been very active, our group certainly has been! We went back to Menindee in 2012, collecting and painting more specimens. 

The old shearing shed in Kinchega National Park, Menindee

To remind us what this project is all about I am republishing some of Mali Moir's comments about the project.

Our project trip is called: Beckler's Botanical Bounty - The Flora of Menindee; 150th commemorative collection.

We are a group of botanical artists from Melbourne and Bendigo.

The inspiration for the trip came about through the 150th celebration of the Burke & Wills Expedition. It was originally suggested by Dr. Beverly Woods, who attends my botanical art class at Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne, that we go to Menindee to paint the wildflowers.

As I am a scientific illustrator I searched for scientific relevance and decided to research the roll of Dr. Hermann Beckler on the Burke and Wills trip. He was the medical doctor and botanical collector for the expedition. When the party split Dr. Beckler stayed on in Menindee for 3 months making many collections. The National Herbarium have on their record that he collected 120 taxa.

I thought, as we were collecting for our paintings, we could also collect for the National Herbarium of Victoria in Melbourne. As we were to be collecting in New South Wales, it would be a courtesy to   forward a duplicate voucher to the NSW Herbarium at the same time.

Our aim was to collect the same species of plants that Beckler collected in the same location. 

And so, in October 2010, the first group of ten artists and two botanists went to spend about a week in Menindee, and the Project had begun.

Mali at work in the shearers' quarters, Kinchega

We want to show you the paintings we are creating, the incredible flora we are finding and the adventures we are having in the stunning Big Sky country of outback NSW. They will be coming up in the following posts.