By Taylah Eastwell
Future generations will have the chance to step foot into a garden lovers paradise, with Olinda’s Cloudehill Gardens set to be preserved under the careful management of the Diggers Foundation.
Cloudehill Garden creators, Jeremy and Valerie Francis, recently guaranteed the garden’s future by signing a contract for its eventual transfer to the foundation.
Mr Francis will continue to manage the garden as he has for almost 30 years, and will still be involved in overseeing its ongoing development.
“Very little at the garden will change apart from the eventual ownership and long-term preservation, which is pleasing for both Jeremy and I and the many thousands of garden visitors who relish its beauty,” CEO of the Diggers Foundation, Clive Blazey said.
Mr Francis’s friendship developed with Mr Blazey in 2014, when the Diggers Club set up a garden shop at Cloudehill Gardens, with the pair both sharing concern over the preservation of Australia’s leading gardens.
The gardening friends are both thrilled Cloudehill will remain open to the public for generations of garden visitors to enjoy.
The seeds of the Diggers Foundation were sown nearly 40 years ago, when the Blazey family acquired Heronswood as their family home and the headquarters of the fledgling Diggers Club.
“When you are lucky enough to be a custodian of a place like Heronswood or Cloudehill, you realise that precious historic houses and gardens should never be traded like real estate, but should be preserved for all to enjoy,” Mr Blazey said.
Cloudehill will be the third garden that the Diggers Foundation will own, giving access to three of Australia’s finest gardens to Diggers Club members for free and other public visitors for a small fee to assist with upkeep.
“Because the preservation of Australia’s finest historic gardens gets no funding support from Government, the Diggers Foundation has emerged as a focused garden charity, in a similar tradition to the Royal Horticultural Society in the UK,” Mr Blazey said.
The Diggers Club now has over 80,000 members Australia wide and is best known for its campaigns against GMO seeds and its success in rescuing heirloom seeds. Profits from the Diggers Club now go to the Foundation and are combined with public donations and bequests to continue their work in preserving historic gardens and heirloom seeds.
