Basildon
Standard APRIL
25, 1959
MISS
MARGARET HENDRY came from Australia to England to learn about landscaping.
She planned to stay two years, but she thinks over four years will
have passed before she sails for home.
Miss
Hendry, an assistant landscape architect employed by Basildon
Development Corporation, lives in Long Riding. She studied at Durham
University
and is now gaining experience with the Development Corporation.
She plans to return within the next 15 months-by way of America,
she hopes,
so she can study landscaping methods there. Although she misses
the Australian sunshine, she appreciates the lush fields of England.
The
New Town, with its fine houses, is a good idea, she says. The
landscaping is a far better idea than suburban schemes of fences
and hedges, which
clutter up the foreground. The thing she will miss most when
she arrives back home will be the beauty of the English countryside,
the fine buildings
and the quality of tradition.
She
has found England a “friendly
place”. She has been fortunate
throughout and people have tried to help.
About
her own country, she says "There are great opportunities for people
in Australia." However, people going out are inclined to overlook
the housing question, and there are certain fields of work which
have greater openings than others. There are not so many social
amenities
there, but for people with energy and enthusiasm, there are tremendous
openings. MISS Hendry has known families who returned to England
after emigrating to Australia, and then went back to Australia
again after
realising what they had left behind. AUSTRALIANS, she says, incline
more toward the American way of life than the English, but they
have a tremendous
loyalty to the Crown.
Canberra
Woman State President of BPW Clubs
by
Norma Allen
Courier Thursday September 13/ 1973
A
Canberra woman was last week elected president of the NSW division
of Business and Professional Women's Clubs. She is Miss Margaret
Hendry, of Reid, the only woman landscape architect employed by the
National Capital Development Commission, who was elected
at the conference
of clubs in Sydney.
Miss
Hendry said she was honoured and delighted with her election. As
president she hopes to visit all 36 clubs in the State.
"One of the first clubs I will visit is Cessnock, where the regional meeting
in November will take particular note of de-centralisation and its effects on
the area", Miss Hendry said.
"A similar meeting will be held at Wagga and later there will be another
in Sydney. Our organisation is concerned primarily with the status of women and
their part in industry, commerce and business. We are actively concerned in the
issues that affect women's employment, their pay and their professional lives
generally".
Miss Hendry said Business and Professional Women's Clubs were looked upon as
a talent bank.
"Clubs contain women from all walks of life. These members are valuable
sounding- boards' for opinions and ideas and are most valuable in the area of
research.
"Any project we under take must be researched thoroughly before we can submit
any kind of suggestion to the appropriate people. We have members from
so many professions that research is a matter of tapping their knowledge".
Among
subjects clubs research are death duties on bequests to stepchildren and the
bequests of superannuation funds to dependants of single superannuants..
Business and Professional Women's Clubs have been responsible for the
lowering of explosive content of fireworks and correcting many social
injustices.
B
and P clubs were not fund-raisers, per se, Miss Hendry said.
"We set aside money for scholarships. Each club has an autonomous target
and allots the money as it sees fit. Some scholarships go to Aboriginal girls,
some to girls from one-parent families. Some are for the transition period between
primary and high school and some for tertiary education. It's up to each club
to decide".
Miss Hendry said she had found the club useful in her own professional life.
"I
have found confidence in belonging to a significant movement and
this helps when you meet people and in public
speaking". She has been with the National Capital Development
Commission for 10 years, following five years' study at Durham University,
England, four
years planning a British new town and two years with the Victorian
Housing Commission.
As
a landscape architect, she helps plan the appearance of Belconnen,
Gungahlin and the Cotter area. "We work as a group and, because
it is a brand new city, our ideas are pooled and we are breaking
new ground with every aspect of our work. One particular project
has been the Gungahlin Cemetery - it's dedicated
ground and therefore some enormous questions have to be asked about
its purpose and function. It's not a matter of drawing a fence around
an open space and saying,
'There's our new cemetery'."
Cessnock
Newspaper
unknown
publication and date
Miss
Margaret Hendry, newly elected President of the New South Wales Division
of BPW is one of only five women landscape architects in Australia.
She
is the only female to hold this position on the National Capital Development
Commission, the statutory body responsible for the planning of Canberra.
Such projects as the National Council of Women's pioneer women's memorial
in Commonwealth Park, unveiled by Lady Hasluck in September 1972: the
Cotter Dam recreational reserve; the new Gungahlin Cemetery; Belconnen
Town Centre; and shopping centres, parks and school landscaping in
various parts of the capital are projects which Miss Hendry has wholly
or partly designed.
She
is a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Landscape Architects
and last May was elected a Fellow of the Institute of Landscape Architects
(England). During almost 5 years of work and study outside Australia,
Miss Hendry qualified in Landscaping at Kings College Durham
University.
She also worked in the English “New Town Development” of
Basildon as a landscape assistant; traveled widely in Europe,
studying housing development, particularly the provision of play
areas for children;
and returned to Australia in 1961 via the United States where
she attended a course at the University of California.
Miss
Hendry has lectured and published papers on her profession for a
variety
of organisations - the ANZAAS Congress held in Melbourne in 1967, and
for universities,
colleges, pre - school bodies, horticultural and garden clubs, institutes
of parks and recreation and many women's organisations.
She
has been a member of BPW for nine years, and has held a number
of offices in the Canberra club. She was elected 1st Vice President
of the Division at the New South Wales Division
Conference held in Newcastle in 1969. Miss Hendry will be in Cessnock
for the Regional Meeting and with her newly elected divisional council
has convened that council's first meeting to be
held here over the weekend.
Charm an asset in business
Canberra
News Monday July 23/ 1973
Miss
Margaret Hendry, landscape architect with the NCDC, doesn't believe
a woman has to be
tough, abrasive or "one of the boys" to succeed
in business. She questions, in fact, that this is the image of the
successful professional woman. Indira Ghandi, Prime Minister of
India sprang immediately to her mind as a successful woman who
does not fit this description.
With
the Business and Professional Women's Clubs, of which she is an executive
member, there are many
successful women, none of whom are the aggressive,
marching type. As well as intelligence they have a great deal of
charm and dignity Miss Hendry said.
As
one of only five female landscape architects in Australia - and the
only one in Canberra
- Miss Hendry fits the description
of a successful
career woman, succeeding in a male-dominated profession. She is
active in a number of professionally and community groups, concerned
about women's issues and the status of women. But she
also projects a great
deal of the “grace, dignity and charm” she feels
is characteristic of a successful woman.
To succeed professionally a woman must be forceful and have a
clear idea of what her goals are. But a gracious manner and good
relations
with staff
and other people are just as important as intelligence when it
comes to winning respect, Miss Hendry said. Concerned as she is
with the status of women, she feels the approach taken by some
female “liberationists" has considerably damaged women's
image.
“Germaine Greer. for example, had a valuable contribution to make
and made some good points in her book, `The Female Eunuch', but some aspects
of her case were not thoroughly researched and by her manner she makes
her point at the expense of women's dignity", Miss Hendry said.
She also feels the women's lib debate has done all injustice to those
women who have taken time off from their careers to give full time to raising
their young children.
From speaking to groups of pre-school parents Miss Hendry said she knows
these women feel slighted. She said they are made to feel that their work
is unimportant, when in fact it is very important.
"It is vital for children in their formative years to establish the right
relationships and this is what those women are trying to ensure. The
role of mother is part of the wholeness of womanhood”, she said.
An Artist Out of Doors. She shapes the land.
Canberra
Times Thursday October 29 1964
A PRIVATE garden, city square, or large community park-all are a challenge
to a landscape designer.
And to Mrs Margaret Hendry, a designer working with a government department
in Canberra, this is one reason why landscape architecture is so exciting.
"There are unlimited possibilities in this work," she
said yesterday.
"It is interesting and creative, a challenge - and you contribute something
worthwhile to the community. For women garden enthusiasts, and
those who just like working out of doors, there is nothing better than landscape
work. It offers
great scope for women..."
Born and educated in Melbourne, Miss Hendry trained first at
the Burnley Horticultural College in Victoria and, after
graduating,
joined the staff
for two years. In
1955, she went to England to study landscape architecture.
She spent a year at Durham University in the industrial area
of
Newcastle on-Tyne. The students worked on projects associated
with local conditions, such as areas laid waste by extractive
industries, and air
pollution problems.
For the next four years Miss Hendry studied under Miss Sylvia Crowe,
a notable landscape architect who was a consultant to the development
corporation of Basildon, a new town in Essex, designed to take the
population over-spill from London's East End.
At the end of this period Miss Hendry completed the final examinations
for associateship to The Institute of Landscape Architects of Great
Britain. While at Durham University she developed an interest in
children’s
playgrounds in high density residential areas, where the aim is to
give children a place where they can play safely and constructively
with elemental
things like water, stones, earth and wood.
“Some
simply wonderful playgrounds have been designed in Europe, America
and England.” Miss Hendry said. “Professor Sorenson’s
Adventure playground in Copenhagen is an excellent example. “here,
city children can make cubbies and forts with natural materials
just as Australian children do in the bush. “These special
playgrounds do not have mechanical equipment such as swings and
slides; everything
is elemental and constructive, and a warden keep watch unobstrusively.
Miss
Hendry returned to Australia via America, where she studied the
problems of high density areas in Harlem and did a short landscaping
course at the University of California at Berkeley. Miss
Hendry came to Canberra last year and hopes to remain for many
years
to watch its growth. There are very few members of the Institute
of Landscape Architects of Great Britain in Australia. They are
currently seeking to
form a professional
organization of landscape architects.
Miss Margaret Hendry, grace,
charm, dignity.
Unknown
newspaper and publication date
"Women
today are better educated than ever. 'They have the opportunity
to plan -
both their career and their families. For too long women have
had the home journal image and now all attention is being focused
on the vocal reformists. The majority of women living full, rich.
Well-balanced lives fits somewhere in between and this unpublicised
majority is most representative
of successful womanhood", Miss Hendry said.
"Social
change is not just a matter of revolution. It's also a process of
evolution. The manner and means by which some women have gone about
exposing
these injustices is not appropriate".
As
an alternative she suggests "we can look at what has happened
and decided what ought to happen, then act to see that responsible
people are given the opportunity to correct the problem." Women's
clubs, such as the Business and Professional Women's, are a good
forum for this, Miss Hendry said.
"We
are an international organisation with a voice at the United Nations.
And we've had success in the past in correcting injustices. The death
Duties Act, which discriminated against step-children is
an example. We discovered there was higher rate of death duty on money
left to step-children than on that left to natural children. We
researched and presented our case and the Act was changed”.
To research problems peculiar to women, Miss Hendry feels there is a
vital place for clubs that are exclusively female.
Gardener’s
Gallery
Canberra Times 9th
April 1994
The launch of ACT Heritage Week at Blundells Cottage by Lake Burley
Griffin awakened interest in the historic surrounds. In 1965, Mary Griffiths,
with the help of landscapers Margaret Hendry and Professor Dick Clough,
planned a garden which would complement the 1858 cottage, and members
of the Canberra District Historical Society established the plantings.
"We
wanted to capture the pioneer era recorded by Miles Franklin," said
Mary last week, "and the aromatic lemon verbena by the back gate
was planted to echo Mary Fullerton's description in Bark House Days of
father
wearing a spray
to church on Sundays. The olive in the orchard should have priority;
it was grown from a cutting taken from the famous Shumack tree at Weetangera,
and the walnut
was saved from Tully's farm."
The
pepper tree (Schinus molle) planted in 1967 is bearing masses of
pink peppercorns now. Recently I sowed three
berries from an old pepper
tree overhanging the
gate of Lady Fairfax's garden in Sydney and all have germinated.
Now to beware of frost damage.
Visit by Landscaping Expert
West
Wyalong Advocate, Thursday August 22, 1974
The
important thing in landscaping is to blend it into the natural
environment, Miss Margaret Hendry said when on a visit to West Wyalong.
Miss
Hendry, who is a senior lecturer at the Advanced College of Education
at Canberra, is also the State Division President of Business and Professional
Women Clubs, and she spoke at a dinner held by the West Wyalong Club.
Before
her present appointment Miss Hendry is on the staff of the National
Capital Development Commission and she wholly or partly designed
many projects in Canberra including the Belconnen Town Centre, parks
playgrounds
and shopping
centres. The club arranged for her to tour the town areas with the
assistant shire engineer, Mr. G. Eshuis and the citizens representative
on
the Central Western Regional
Advisory Committee, Mr. Cordon Fisher.
Miss
Hendry said West Wyalong and Wyalong had a character of its own,
which should be fostered
and highlighted. The new lawn cemetary
was
an interesting
site to her, and she said it provided an opportunity for a unique
development, with plots of graves surrounded by earth banks and
paths, and a central
shallow lake. Miss Hendry commended Bland Shire Council for planting
trees that were
native to the area, blending with the natural environment rather
than changing it.
The
only suggestion she made concerning McCann Park was that gravel walks,
particularly from the entrance, could
be set on, to be shaded
by the growing
trees, and that a slot operated gas barbecue with a heating ring
be installed.
The
gas barbecue, she was told, is a project envisaged by the Lions Club.
Miss
Hendry said the townspeople should exploit any of the unusual historical,
mining and other points of interest to make people
sufficiently curious to
have them stay for even a short time.
Kingston
Shore plan begins with a stroll
By
MARIA MOSCARITOLO
Canberra Times 15th
May 1997
Judging
of the $120,000 Kingston Foreshore Ideas Competition is about to
begin. The six judges met in Canberra yesterday for a site
inspection. The panel, chaired by Sydney architect and urban designer
Ken Woolley, toured the shore and old Kingston Powerhouse, which
is to remain a feature
of the site.
The
competition, launched in January, aims to develop the area acquired
in the 1995 Kingston shore-Acton Peninsula land swap
between the Commonwealth
and the ACT.
The
winning designs will be chosen from more than 70 entries
Australia-wide and are to include the most inmportant elements
from community
consultations conducted earlier this year. Ideally,
designs will complement the surrounding
areas, re-using existing buildings where possible.
The
consultations identified a wide range of possible uses for
the site, which will
include both commercial and community spaces,
entertainment
venues, recreational facilities and arts, crafts and
cultural centres. A hotel and residential apartments were also
proposed.
According
to one judge, chair of the Canberra Business Council Denis
Page, the site provides an ideal opportunity to develop
lake use.
A
deputy Secretary, Department of Communication and the Arts and
a community representative Cathy Santamaria,
says the panel
will
favour entries which
take "the best possible advantage of the water and at
the same time encourage families and tourists to make this
area a favourite place." Other
members of the panel. which includes four Canberrans.
arc the director of City Projects. Melbourne, Rob Adams,
landscape
architect Margaret
Hendry and engineer Bruce Sinclair. The winner will
be announced on June 27.
