The Frenchman’s Garden

Two hundred and fifty kilometres north-west as the crow flies of the mining township of Mount Isa, on the border of the Northern Territory and Queensland, undulates the cool, green-tinged waters of the Lawn Hill Creek.2 Spring fed, and with 200 kilometres of savannah country to traverse before it reaches the mangroves of the Culf of Carpentaria, it forms an oasis on the edge of the sandstone Constance Range. There are thousands of square kilometres of impassable limestone country to the west, and the wide expanses of the black soil plains of the Gulf savannah to the east. This is where the Frenchman, Albert De L'estang built a botanic garden, communicating with botanists all over the world. But he had a secret. In fact, he had more than one. This project formed part of my Master of Arts thesis from UTS, in 1999.