Ella Munro, Vogue Australia

"My first memories of the Gardens are feeding the ducks with my sister. It was our inner-city oasis and I guess this is why I love it still."

Ella Munro

Monday, August 24, 2009

Vogue Australia's art director Ella Munro, now based in Sydney, has been visiting the Adelaide Botanic Gardens all her life. 

"My first memories of the Gardens are feeding the ducks with my sister," she says, "we would take the old bread from the fridge and plead with our parents to visit.  The Gardens became our extended back yard as we were growing up; we picknicked there; walked in the shade on hot summer days; it was our inner-city oasis and I guess this is why I love it still."

"And it's why I've marked all the stage posts in my life there," she says, "I held my 21st birthday party at the Botanic Gardens restaurant; it was a wonderful atmosphere entering beneath the grand canopy of trees, even though it was the middle of winter and we were freezing in our party frocks."

"Later I was married in the Gardens," she says, "they are so beautifully kept, so close to the city, there could be no where better.  Within a few days of my husband proposing, Mum and I were in the Gardens checking out potential sites," Ella laughs.

"The Gardens are vital to South Australian life," Ella believes, "aside from ther historical value they are an important living community resource."

She commends particularly the new developments and restoration projects centred on the Schomburgk Pavilion precinct.  "These modern touches help keep the Gardens relevant and vibrant for today's and future generations," she says.

Preserving the past, planting the future.