Canning, Estelle Margaret (1936‐2021)

Born 2 December 1936 in Wangaratta, VIC; died 30 June 2021 at Dalton, near Goulburn, NSW.

Estelle grew up in Wangaratta in northern Victoria, one of five children of Walter and Olive Canning; her father was an accountant.

After completing her secondary education in Wangaratta she won a scholarship to Melbourne Teachers College and then taught English Literature and History, at various high-schools around Victoria.

She then taught at Malabunga High School near Rabaul in Papua New Guinea for three years, where she also learnt to drive.

On her return from PNG she decided to indulge one of her great passions by going to England and studying singing at Covent Garden while earning a living as a barmaid.

Returning to Australia she pursued her second passion, Australian plants, by enrolling for a Science degree majoring in Botany at Melbourne University.

In early 1966 she had a vacation job with the then Canberra Botanic Gardens working for Dr Betty Phillips collecting alpine plants around Happy Jack's Plain in the Kosciuszko National Park.

Around September 1967 she commenced work as a botanist with the Canberra Botanic Gardens. Her work as a "Junior Botanist Class 1" was mainly concerned with field-collecting, usually accompanied by a horticulturist who collected living propagation material, and the subsequent identification of plant specimens in the Gardens' Herbarium (CBG).

Estelle was fortunate to be included in the Gardens' second major collecting trip to Western Australia, starting in August 1968 for a period of three months. Two vehicles were involved with botanical and horticultural staff rotating back and forth to Canberra by plane. Estelle collected nearly 3,000 specimens on that trip.

She was very involved with getting plant name labels out into the Canberra Botanic Gardens for its official opening in October 1970, as at that time the physical labelling and stocktake of the living collection was the responsibility of the Herbarium.

During the 1970s she enrolled in an external MSc with Melbourne University on leaf anatomy in the genus Acacia.

She was instrumental in developing the Public Reference Herbarium at the Gardens and was later involved with producing several Environmental Impact Statements for various projects in local government areas near Canberra.

Estelle continued to be actively involved with field-collecting until the early 1990s, and by the time of her retirement in September 1995 she had collected about 10,500 specimens.

During her working life she had seen the Botanic Gardens' Herbarium moved to a new purpose-built building in 1974, and later merged with the CSIRO Herbarium (CANB) as the Australian National Herbarium with most of the collection moved from the Gardens to a building on CSIRO's Black Mountain site in 1994.

After retirement in 1995, Estelle continued as a volunteer with the Australian National Herbarium for several years, but her other interests soon took over. In 1985 she had bought her beloved Kunama Cottage property, near Dalton, a small village between Goulburn and Yass in NSW. There she had a flock of 'coloured' sheep and processed their wool, spinning, dyeing and knitting. She was respected and renowned for using native plants for dyeing and won many prizes at the Canberra Show.

Estelle was also a founding member of the Canberra Recorder and Early Music Society, playing recorder and teaching Renaissance dance. She was a long time member of the Canberra Spinners and Weavers as well as a member of the Dalton Craft Group, Yass Spinners and Weavers, the Yass Choir, and the Local Bush Fire Brigade and various other groups in and around Canberra.

Estelle died at the age of 84 at Kunama Cottage on 30 June 2021 and her funeral on 14 July was attended by a wide range of people from her various hobby interests and her botanical career. Unfortunately, due to Covid-19 restrictions her family members could not attend.

Commemorated in the plant name: Pultenaea estelleae R.L.Barrett & Clugston (2024).

Source: Extracted from: pers com Elizabeth Case, Murray Fagg, (23/6/2021)
Portrait Photo: Extracted from: George Chippendale collection, ANBG.

Collecting localities for 'Canning, E.M.' from AVH (12/8/2021)

10,500 specimens