Stephen Ryan, well known curator of Dicksonia Rare Plants in Mount Macedon, previous host of Gardening Australia, author, radio commentator heard on 3CR and ABC, will be speaking on Sunday 13th July at 2:00 pm, at the Auditorium in the RBGV Cranbourne, on his campaign for a life-size bronze sculpture of internationally renowned Australian botanical artist, naturalist, writer and explorer Ellis Rowan.

The statue will be located at Mt Macedon and sculptor Jennifer Mann has been commissioned by the Mount Macedon and District Horticultural Society (MMDHS, President Stephen Ryan) to prepare and undertake this project as a global movement for more statues of notable women in Australia continues.

This extraordinary woman was born in Melbourne in 1848 and passed away at Mt. Macedon in the family home in 1922. She travelled over vast tracts of Australia from Western Australia to Northern Queensland, also traversing the Torres Straits, New Guinea, North America, and India to name but a few. She negotiated places a white woman had yet to been seen in and for the most part did it solo. She painted over 3000 works mainly in watercolour and predominantly of flowers, birds and occasionally insects and butterflies. Baron Ferdinand von Mueller (Government Botanist of Victoria, Director of Melbourne Botanic Gardens) supported her work from an early age and assisted her in the identification of new plant species. She was probably the best-known Australian woman of her time worldwide and the National Library in Canberra holds about 1000 of her works, thought to be the largest collection by any artist held in a single institution anywhere in the world.

For more information:  https://cranbournefriends.tidyhq.com/public/schedule/events/73487-botanic-illustrator-ellis-rowan-statue-proposed-talk-by-stephen-ryan