The Mannerim Memorial Indigenous Garden, Design and Plants
The garden was specifically designed to utilise Indigenous plants while symbolically honouring the soliders. Our own indigenous "Running Postman" flowers red, like the poppies of Flanders. Twelve tall, strong Blackwood trees, one for each of the local soldiers who paid the ultimate sacrifice, are surrounded by swathes of Weeping Grass, Plume Grass, Chocolate and Bulbine Lilies, like family at a funeral.
The plants were provided by our local Indigenous Nursery which is a joint initiative between Bellarine Landcare Group and Bellarine Secondary College. Click on each of the plants below to find out more about the species.
Acacia Implexa
Microlaena stipoides
Clematis microphylla
Banksia marginata
Hibbertia sericea
Bossiaea cinereal
Kennedia prostrata
Austrodanthonia caespitosa
Dichelachne crinita
Themeda triandra
Chloris truncata
Bulbine bulbosa
Dichopogon strictus
Brunonia australis
Wahlenbergia communis
Poa labillardierei
Caesia calliantha
Asperula conferta
The wooden flagpole, which stands on the central axis of the Mannerim Memorial Indigenous Gardens, was kindly donated by the Queenscliff RSL.
It had stood at the old premises of the RSL since the 1920s, and was and continued to be used when their new building was built. Thanks to Colin Cairns from the Queenscliff RSL, when it was replaced by a new metal flagpole, this original wooden one was donated and now stands proudly at the Mannerim Memorial.
The Lone Pine in our Mannerim Memorial Indigenous Garden is from a seed taken from the Lone Pine at the Australian War Memorial. It was presented to the Garden through the work of Seargent Grant Langmaid of the Bellarine Police. This pine, along with a couple of sprigs of rosemary for remembrance, are the only plants in the Garden not indigenous to the Bellarine.
The initiators of the restoration, and the current committee, set a policy that no other non-indigenous plants will be planted. Adhering to this policy is supported by the local community, was part of the conditions of the grants from local, state, and federal governments, and is important to the integrity of the Memorial Garden.
This page is still under construction, please check back in a few weeks.