Noel Lothian

Thomas Robert Noel Lothian OBE
Born	(1915-12-25)25 December 1915 Mont Albert, Victoria, Australia
Died	24 September 2004(2004-09-24) (aged 88) Townsville, Queensland, Australia
Resting place	Mount Lofty Botanic Garden, South Australia
Scientific career
Fields	Botany

Thomas Robert Noel Lothian OBE, NDH (NZ), LFRAIPR, JP (25 December 1915 – 24 September 2004) was a long-term director of the Adelaide Botanic Garden and an Australian botanist.

Lothian was born on 25 December 1915 in the Melbourne suburb of Mont Albert. After completing school at Scotch College, Melbourne, he studied at Burnley Horticultural College. He worked in botanical gardens in Melbourne and at the Christchurch Botanic Gardens in New Zealand, then started study at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew in 1938. Lothian was an exchange student at the Munich Botanic Garden when the Second World War broke out, catching the last train out of Germany in 1939. After returning to the United Kingdom to complete studies at Kew Gardens, he joined the Australian Army and as a lieutenant managed army farms supplying food to the troops in central New Guinea. After the war, he gained the National Diploma of Horticulture (NZ), for which he was awarded the Cockayne Gold Medal. He was appointed Senior Lecturer in Horticulture, at Lincoln Agricultural College near Christchurch, New Zealand, where he established the horticultural diploma and degree courses. In late 1947 he was appointed director of the Adelaide Botanic Garden, a position he held for 33 years until 1980. He commenced work there on 1 January 1948. The Gardens had greatly deteriorated during the Depression and Second World War. The Garden was little better than a public park and he threw himself into bringing it back to the position he felt it should have.

Adelaide Botanic Garden scene

Some of the landmark developments at Adelaide Botanic Garden during Lothian's term as Director 1948 to December 1980 include:

• When he arrived at the Botanic Gardens there were virtually no native trees in the garden – all were introduced. He rectified this by establishing an area near the East Lodge of Australian trees and shrubs.
• 1949 Experimental Plantations. Several landowners agreed to set aside small areas of their properties for the use of the Botanic Garden. The first plantation commenced at Giles Corner near Tarlee and within several years plantations were established at Stansbury (1956), Lameroo (1953), Kulpara and Meningie. These plantations demonstrated to local people, species of plants which would grow on natural rainfall and with minimal care in their area, a worthwhile extension of the Botanic Garden's role into country areas. This was at a time, in the 1960s and 1970s when farmers were still clearing the land yet he saw that many farmers wanted to plant trees, particularly near their homesteads.
• 1952 Mt. Lofty Botanic Garden. Land for Mount Lofty Botanic Gardens obtained. 40 hectares of the Backhouse Estate was purchased for the development of this Garden, displaying plants from cool temperate areas. The site has since been expanded and the Garden open to the public in 1977. Alan Correy, a landscape architect from the US, was engaged to prepare a master plan for its development and over several decades saw much of this come into fruition.

  

  Mt Lofty Botanic Garden in winter

• Lothian had the Botanic Park renovated so that it could be used by the public for leisure. Its popularity today and its use for events such as Womadelaide was made possible by his foresight. At one point he decided that they needed to thin out the huge plane trees along the road into Botanic Park. Knowing that the public could be hostile, he notified the media about the plan and the need for it and the cutting down of alternate trees took place without a murmur.
• 1955 Wrote and published The Practical Home Gardener, probably the first book written for the home gardener for the drier SA conditions. The Practical Home Gardener was the first of four books that he wrote. He also wrote many articles for horticultural and scientific publications. 1955 was also the Centenary of the Botanic Garden and Lothian wrote the Centennial Volume of the Botanic Gardens.
• 1959 Schomburgk Range of glasshouses for tropical plants and established the Victoria lily in it. The huge circular leaves of these floating in the water were often shown in the media of the day, sometimes with a small child sitting on them to demonstrate their size. Opened on 24 May 1954 by the then Premier, Sir Thomas Playford, and named in honour of the second director of the Adelaide Botanic Garden. The cost was borne by the Government but there was a generous donation of $2,000 from the Orchid Club of S.A.

  

  Victoria Lily in the Schomburgk Range glasshouse, Adelaide Botanic Garden

• He created a four year horticulture training course of trainees who worked at the Gardens. For years this was the only training course available in Adelaide.
• Went on extensive plant collecting trips in the 1950s and 1960s to the arid parts of Australia including remote areas such as Chambers Pillar, the Musgrave Ranges, and Giles Weather Station across the state border in Western Australia.
• 1965 Wittunga Botanic Garden. Mr. Ashby gave his property "Wittunga" to the State of South Australia to form a botanic garden displaying primarily Australian and South African flora at Blackwood. Wittunga was officially opened in 1975. The garden of Beechwood, a large property in the Adelaide hills was also given to the Botanic Gardens Board. The grounds of Government House were also the responsibility of the Gardens because Sir Mark Oliphant, when he became Governor, said, "I want Noel Lothian to look after the Gardens".
• Mid 1960s he initiated an advisory service at the Gardens, and, as a forerunner to today's gardening programs, was on the ABC radio for 25 years and ABC TV for 10 years. He was also a judge for the Sunday Mail Garden Competition for 25 years. Through these he was widely known and respected. He was also active on the WEA Council for many years.
• He visited all parts of South Australia giving advice to local councils, the public and other institutions and businesses. For many years he traveled to Leigh Creek, working with the mayor and his friend, Tom Robbins, to advise on planting trees in the town – he was saddened when this town was demolished and relocated to a new site so that the old site could be mined. Lothian also worked with ETSA in advising on perimeter plantings around its substations in Adelaide, many of which are located on very prominent corner positions. He worked closely also with the Highways Department and the Engineering & Water Supply Department in beautifying through tree planting of roads and highways, reservoirs and sewerage works.
• 1966 S.A. State Herbarium. Finally housed in a building specifically designed for the purpose – since demolished for the National Wine Centre. He established the Index Seminum, a seed exchange system, exchanging and sending seed to collectors, herbaria and gardens throughout Australia and overseas.

Lothian in 1968 holding the 2nd edition of his book, The Practical Home Gardener

• 1970 Horticultural Garden. The garden was designed by landscape architect, Doug Field.
• 1974 Administration Building. The second and final section of this building completed, and research staff and advisory staff shifted in. This building has also since been demolished to make way for the National Wine Centre.
• 1974 Display Garden (Italianate Garden). What had been the Dahlia Garden was redesigned as a Display Garden by landscape architect G. Jones.
• 1977 Class Ground. This area was redesigned by horticultural botanist Dr Brian Morley, who succeeded Lothian as Director in 1980.
• 1978 Friends of the Botanic Gardens of Adelaide. Inaugural meeting February 1978, inaugural President – Dr Colin Robjohns. This was the first "Friends" group in Australia and served as the model on which many other "friends" groups have since been established, including The Friends of The Australian Arid Lands Botanic Garden at Port Augusta.
• 1979–80 Pavilion in the Italianate Garden refurbished.
• Noel Lothian retired in December 1980.

While Director of the Botanic Garden, he was a prominent member of the Royal Society and chairman of its offshoot, the Field Naturalists Society for several years. In 1961 he was awarded an OBE for services to horticulture, and in 1975 the Veitch Medal of the Royal Horticultural Society. In 1988 Noel was installed as the President of the Kew Guild in London which brings together past and present workers at the Kew Gardens.

Lothian installed as the President of the Kew Guild in London, May 1988

Another of Lothian's achievements was the expansion of the National Parks system in South Australia. He was appointed a member of the National Parks Commission and then became chairman during the late 1960s, a period of unparalleled growth in the number and area of parks. Key members of the Commission were the previous Chair, Professor Sir John Cleland, Warren Bonython, Vern McLaren, Basil Newland, Dr Peter Crowcroft, director of the South Australian Museum and Cecil Rix, Chairman of the Land Board in the Lands Department which was responsible for Crown Land. Together Noel and Cecil appraised unallocated Crown Lands to determine their significance for indigenous flora and fauna. Many of these areas were then placed under the reserve system. From 1962 to 1972 the number of parks grew fivefold from 19 to 99, and the area grew 15-fold from 230,000 hectares to over 3.5 million hectares. They laid the basis for today's extensive park system. Lothian was a councilor and member of the executive of the Royal Agricultural and Horticultural Society since 1948. The RAHS organised the Royal Adelaide Show at Wayville every spring and Lothian was a frequent exhibitor along with the Botanic Garden. He was also member of the Council of the University of Adelaide for some years. He was a long-standing member of the International Dendrology Society, Australian Vice-President and a very active member. He was also a member of the Bacchus Club and the Cheese Club. But perhaps the Club he enjoyed most was Rostrum Club No 3. He was a member of that club for more than 50 years.

Botanical collections

Specimens collected by Lothian are held by many herbaria in Australasia, including the State Herbarium of South Australia, the Australian Tropical Herbarium at James Cook University, the National Herbarium of Victoria – Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria, the Australian National Herbarium, and the Auckland War Memorial Museum Herbarium.

Legacy

He is the namesake of the Noel Lothian Hall, a function space in the western end of the State Herbarium of South Australia, Adelaide Botanic Garden that opened on 16 June 2005. The function space and herbarium themselves are located in a refurbished tram barn.

Personal

Lothian was born Thomas Robert Noel Lothian, and because he was born on Christmas Day in 1915, he was known as Noel. He was the eldest of 3 brothers and two sisters. His father, Thomas Lothian, established Lothian Publishing in Melbourne, which probably instilled in Noel his love of books. The father of his first wife, Ngaio, was also in the book trade, working at Whitcombe and Tombs in Christchurch.

Lothian married Ngaio Chaffey from Christchurch, New Zealand in 1940. They had three children, Tony (1942) and twins Andrew and Janet (1947). Lothian and Ngaio separated and subsequently divorced in 1970 and in 1973 he married Vivian Mack.

Lothian's family: from left, his wife, Ngaio, Andrew and Janet (twins), Noel, Tony. Biddy the dog in front

Over his long life Lothian displayed many of the characteristics of his Scottish ancestry – tenacity, bluntness, perseverance and almost a delight in being politically incorrect. And although being a somewhat dour soul, he had a great sense of humour and enjoyed a good laugh. He was committed to the long haul, not for him the fly-by-nighters: when he set his sights on something he didn't give up or get distracted, witness the 25 years developing the Mt Lofty Botanic Garden from 1952 to its opening in 1977.

Wayne Thomas wrote: "Few people are intelligent enough, or hard-working enough, to leave this world in a better place than they found it. Noel was very special – his dedication to this state will ensure he is always remembered"

His friend, Ed McAllister AO, said in his eulogy: Noel was straightforward, uncomplicated, told it like it was, single-minded at times, gregarious, a loyal friend, supportive of his staff and had a great zest for life. He also had a great sense of time and place. He was aware and proud of his achievements, but never arrogant about them. He was also a man of great vision and able to take the long view. This garden in which we stand today attests to that...Noel had an encyclopaedic knowledge of plants, particularly his favourite bulbous plants. He had a wide knowledge of Australian plants as well as a vast knowledge of plants from temperate parts of the world. Some of this knowledge was gained from his experiences in Botanic Gardens, but a lot was gained from his extensive travels...He once told me that when he came to Adelaide, there were two kinds of people in Adelaide, those who knew we had a Botanic Garden and those who did not. By the time he retired, there were still two kinds of people in Adelaide, those who visited the Gardens and those who did not, but everyone knew there was a Botanic Garden...Noel loved his work and dedicated himself to it. I remember on one occasion when he came striding into work one morning, shortly after I was appointed to the Gardens in 1979. He said "are you enjoying yourself, Ed?", to which I, of course replied, "Yes Mr Lothian". His response was "Good, otherwise, you shouldn't be here". A simple philosophy, but one which he believed in and which is very true.

Lothian died on 24 September 2004 in Townsville, Queensland. On 8 October 2004 his ashes were scattered at the cool temperate botanical gardens at Mount Lofty that he had been integral in establishing.