The Bill Cane Collection celebrates the work of Maffra local Bill Cane. A passionate nurseryman, Bill was famous for cultivating a range of native Australian plants, many of which are commonly found in gardens across the country.
The Bill Cane Collection has been designed by his family – Bill and Liz Cane, David and Jenny Cane, Anne Elliot (nee Cane), and John and Joy Cane.
The Living Collection includes at least 70 different plant species that provide interest year round.
Amongst the plants featured in these gardens are native plants that Bill Cane had named in his honour, as well as rare and endangered natives he found, hybrids that he, together with others, introduced, various ‘double flowered’ and colour breaks in natives and some of the grafted species that he pioneered.
Bill did not get off to a great start in life.
Orphaned at just eight years of age, both he and his three brothers were made wards of the state. They were sent to live with relatives near Sale, and Bill was enrolled at the state school in Wurruk. At 13, he attained his merit certificate and left school. He was a straight ‘A’ student throughout his schooling years.
Initially, he went to work on a local farm. He was not happy there and after four years decided to make a living on his own, rabbit trapping whilst living with the Thistlewaite family at Little Plain near Valencia Creek.
It could be said that this was the beginning of Bill’s lifetime passion for plants and bees.
After assisting the Thistlewaites to rob bee-trees, Bill decided to become an apiarist. After plenty of hard work and the felling of some 200 trees, he found himself with 100 hives. His first season proved a disaster when he lost all his hives in a bushfire, however, typically never daunted, he set out to start all over again - this time successfully.
It was during this time Bill started to include a study of the native flora into his knowledge of apiculture. He needed to understand which trees produced nectar and which plants provided pollen necessary for breeding. His thirst for this knowledge knew no end. Arming himself with every book possible, undertaking field trips and observations, he soon built-up considerable knowledge of native flora.
Invested in his new venture, it was not long before Bill found himself extremely active in industry circles. Firstly, in Bairnsdale, then later in state and national bodies. He served on the Eastern States Honey Board, where he served as president for many years. He later went on to exhibit honey in London!
In 1947, Bill purchased two acres of land just out of Maffra, where he built a family home, married and had four children. Perched on a hill overlooking the Avon River flats, he named the property “Clearview” and established a native plant nursery on the site.
In March, 1957, Bill along with seven others began the Society for Growing Australian Plants. He was bestowed with an Honorary Life Membership in 1986.
One of Bill’s greatest achievements was the propagation of Eucalypts from cuttings - a task formerly thought impossible. He selected various colour forms of Corymbia (formerly Eucalyptus) ficifolia. It’s well known growing Flowering Gums from seed cannot guarantee the same-coloured flower because of hybridisation. His article describing this achievement was published in 'Your Garden' magazine in 1957. Russian and South African botanists learnt of the achievement and the Russian Consulate contacted Bill for instructions, which was quite an honour.
Maffra Secondary College incorporated the Banksia canei in its school logo, and had the street renamed 'Bill Cane Court' in his honour.
Bill had an uncanny eye for spotting the ‘needle in the haystack’. This could be a single plant growing out of its known habitat, or a colour break, a double flower, a natural hybrid, or even a prostrate form when it should be an upright shrub. Bill had the ability to look at a landscape and only see what wasn’t expected to be there.
Anyone who travelled with him on his numerous field trips around Australia knew that call: “Stop, stop, what was that back there, back up!’
He spent numerous trips around Australia looking for plants that had either never been recorded or had no known sightings for more than 100 years, and were thought to be extinct or on the “rare and endangered list.”
Bill was tenacious to the point of stubborn, especially when he was told that a certain plant couldn’t be propagated from cuttings, or the seed wouldn't germinate. He would take up the challenge head on and eventually work out a method, then happily share it. He was always trying cuttings under mist spray, different potting mediums, heated beds, trying vinegar and honey, new wood, old wood etc.
His work collecting and adding to the known number of Persoonias species, particularly in his later years, is well known, and he was respected amongst botanists as an Persoonias expert.
Dr Jim Willis AM, former Assistant Government Botanist and acting director of the Royal Botanic Gardens (Melbourne) in an article published in the 'Society for Growing Australian Plants', gave an insight into the ever-inquiring mind of Bill.
“I first met Bill Cane in the 1940s, at the National Herbarium of Victoria where he was an occasional country visitor, always bringing some plant of interest for inspection," Dr Willis told the Society.
"He once mentioned that he'd seen specimens of Hairy Boronia (Boronia pilosa) ten feet in height near Bengworden, south-east of Bairnsdale. Intimating that we knew this heathland species only as a low bush up to knee-height, it was tactfully suggested that perhaps he was confusing it with some other taller plant at Bengworden, but Bill stuck to his guns.
"A few weeks later, herbarium staff were amazed to see, through their library windows, what appeared to be an uprooted tree moving slowly of its own accord across the Domain lawns. In truth, it was tiny Bill Cane carrying, and quite obscured by, an enormous ten-foot specimen of undoubted Boronia pilosa, thereby proving his point! How he ever manoeuvred it into a Melbourne tram remains a mystery.
"Bill delighted in refuting popular tradition that this or that plant could not be cultivated. Few gardeners have essayed to grow native cherries (Exocarpos spp.) because of their part-parasitic habits; yet I have a magnificent Cherry 40 ft tall that began as a tiny seedling, in Bill's 'Clearview' nursery at Maffra.
"Throughout eastern Victoria, Bill Cane was constantly on the lookout for ornamental native plants to enhance the garden. Those having unusual forms, - variegated foliage, deviant flower colours, superior blooms etc, were introduced into his nursery from cuttings, and he also collected much seed for propagation. In his wanderings among the mountains, Bill made several new records for Victoria (e.g. Eriostemon virgatus at Mt. Kaye) and extensions to the known range of other plants.
"Twenty years ago, it was my pleasure to name a remarkable and undescribed Banksia species in honour of this enthusiastic, tough and nuggety, lovable plantsman; the formal description of Banksia canei appeared in Melbourne Herbarium’s journal Muelleria Vol 1, pp 118 –120." (July 1967).
Bill Cane was heavily involved and actively contributed many of his ‘finds’ to arboretums around Australia. Following a terminal health diagnosis, Bill spent the rest of his time ensuring that as many of his rare native plants were freely distributed to botanical gardens and native plant enthusiasts’ private collections.
These included the National Botanical Gardens at Black Mountain in Canberra, the Burrendong Botanic Gardens and Arboretum at Wellington in New South Wales, the Royal Botanical Gardens in Cranbourne, Victoria, the Peter Francis, Points Arboretum at Coleraine in Western Victoria and the Ken Stuckey Arboretum, Millicent, South Australia.
He also actively fought to have areas set aside for significant native flora.
Great examples locally of these include those at Heyfield, Glenmaggie and the 2,100 hectare reserve at Providence Ponds (between Stratford and Bairnsdale).
One of Bill’s most endearing qualities was that although he had a native plant nursery, he gave away far more than he ever sold. He could always be heard saying... “have you ever tried... here take one and let me know how it goes!"
Bill was forever taking luminaries in the native plant world on field trips, and many used to stay at the family home in Maffra. These would include authors, PhD students, research scientists, plant specialists mapping distribution of certain species, nurserymen and avid collectors of rare and endangered native plants seeking information.
Bill worked with Leo Hodge (Poorinda hybrids) formally of W Tree, Victoria and nearly all of the Poorinda hybrids were released via his Clearview nursery. He would select and test each of the plants that Leo gave him before making them available to the trade.
He introduced numerous hybrids himself, mostly under the name “Clearview”. Another well-known in the grevillea hybrid world is Dave Gordon - one of the most popular grevilleas, Grevillea Robyn Gordon was originally propagated from cuttings for Dave Gordon.
National Herbarium
Bill convinced botanists to separate Roundleaf Box (E. baueriana) from Red Box (E. polyanthemos) as he had believed them to be two distinctly different species.
Shire councils
Bill convinced many shire councils to use native plants in their streetscapes. For example, the avenues either side of Yarram, there are various colour forms of Corymbia ficifolia which are still used as stock for cuttings and grafting to get pure colours, such has been the amount of hybridisation that has occurred over the years. Other examples include the huge avenues of E. sideroxylon in Maffra, and perhaps the first avenue of spectacular Grevillea robusta in Victoria.
Some of the plants Bill Cane introduced to cultivation are listed below: