Jan's Blog: Wendy Whiteley’s Secret Garden, Lavender Bay, Sydney, 28.05.2011

The romantic-sounding Lavender Bay on Sydney Harbour was actually prosaically named after George Lavender, who was in charge of the prison hulk “The Phoenix” which housed convicts waiting to be transported to Norfolk Island. Worse still, early colonists called this pretty bay Hulk Bay after the convict ship hulks moored here.

George Lavender must have like the spot, as he married Billy Blue’s daughter Susannah, and made his home in the district. And now there is lots of lavender planted here.

Wendy Whiteley OAM (born 1941) is an Australian artist and cultural icon, and one-time wife of the Australian artist Brett Whiteley, who died in 1992.

After Brett’s death, and at considerable personal expense, Wendy started to clean up and landscape a large patch of derelict land adjacent to her home in Lavender Bay, owned by the NSW Rail Corporation. It was choked by weeds and overgrown with lantana, and strewn with old train carriages, abandoned refrigerators, rotting mattresses and broken bottles, and some homeless people sometimes slept there. The Rail Corporation had no interest in doing anything with it, and they raised no objections to her beautifying the area. They even helped by removing the large pieces of junk. Wendy treated the garden like a giant painting, structuring, planting, pruning, moving things around, and letting nature work its own magic.

Over 15 years, it has become a noted Sydney landmark and a well-known tourist destination, with random benches in quiet spots, secluded paths, and a spectacular view to the Sydney Harbour Bridge. A wide variety of birdlife previously unknown to the area has arrived. It has been described as rivalling Claude Monet’s garden. It is affectionately known by locals as "Wendy’s Secret Garden", although the public have always had free access.

Actress daughter Arkie helped her mother in this project, and she planned to hold her second wedding ceremony, to Jim Elliott, in the garden. However, her adrenal gland cancer intervened, and they married in the house overlooking the garden, only a few weeks before Arkie's death in 2001.

I think that Wendy’s house is the one on the left, with the tall chimney, overlooking the garden. Note lavender.

Both Brett and Arkie Whiteley’s ashes are buried in "Wendy’s Secret Garden", but in a location Wendy has not disclosed.

On Australia Day 2009, Wendy Whiteley was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) for "service to the community through the establishment and maintenance of a public garden at Lavender Bay, and as a supporter of the visual arts" (from Wikipedia).