Water gardening in Australia is only now becoming popular — probably because our seasonal weather patterns seem to be changing and it rains more, and also because more housing estates have piped water instead of people having to rely on rainwater tanks.
Learning water gardening in Australia is hampered by the fact that most books are written in countries where the seasons are alternate and imperial measurements and Fahrenheit temperatures are used. Here we use metric and Celcius, and so have to convert everything. The worst part is that you fall in love with a photo of a plant you must have, spend six months writing letters to all the water garden nurseries, and then find it isn’t in
the country.
Australia is so large that winters in Tasmania are very cold (snow in parts) and dry; in Victoria it is cold, windy and wet; in New South Wales, it is cold and dry; in Queensland, South Australia, West Australia and Northern Territory, it is cooler and dry. In Northern Teritory and Queensland, down the coast as far as Townsville, the winter temperatures are so warm that tropical lilies flower all year. However, it is difficult to grow tropical lilies in outside ponds further south than Canberra. Hardy lilies do not perform well further north
than Townsville. Even in South East Queensland (in the hills behind the Gold Coast), I find the darker colours flower best in warm water, but once the temperature is over 30 Celcius, the flowers burn, curl up, and die.
Bugs are a problem; the warmer the temperature, the worse they become. It is illegal to have a body of water without fish in it in Queensland in case the Ross River mosquito breed and cause a debilitating disease which affects the brain like meningitis. The disease is also thought to be distributed by ducks who have visited the Ross River area during summer.
I live in a valley in a gap between two mountains, which are national parks. The national parks draw many
visitors to walk in the rainforest, sit and sip coffee on a suspended deck over the tree tops, and generally soak
up the peace and tranquility of the area which is only half an hour from the busy Gold Coast area and its miles of golden beaches, bronzed lifeguards, and topless, sunbathing tourists. In our valley, the wind can whistle down and, during winter, we often get frosts. Last winter we had several nights of –2 celcius and the larger fish in my above ground ponds started to die (swordtails, mollies, etc.). I had to bring them into the indoor aquariums.
I use aboveground ponds as they are easier on my back to manage, and they keep the poisonous cane toads out. Unfortunately, they appear to lose heat from the sides, and it takes plants longer to bloom in them than the same plant in the inground dams and ponds. To control the cane toads we don heavy shoes and go out at night with old supermarket bags and a torchlight. You can see the white throats of the toads in the starlight; when you shine the torch onto them, they crouch. You need to pick them up before they adjust to the light and hop away. My husband grabs the back leg, and I put my foot on the toad’s back and then grab a back leg; our daughter puts her hand inside the bag, picks them up, and drop them into a plastic bag. When we first moved to this property, our record was 157 in one night! After seven years here, we hardly get 20 a night. Unfortunately, this has made us lazy and now we hardly go out at night at all, so the populations are building again. During winter they hibernate, so one way of easily removing them in bulk is to deliberately leave piles of prunings, sheets of old steel, piles of timber, etc. around the garden. During winter, clean them up and you will find a dozen or more toads sleeping beneath them. Once you have the toads in the bag, it is kindest to put
them in the freezer. Be careful to dedicate a shelf to the toads or mark the bags. It is a rude shock to open the freezer and find a frozen toad staring at you when it has escaped the bag. When the household rubbish is being collected, don’t forget to take the frozen toads, too.
Despite the drawbacks, water gardening is becoming more popular. I have yet to find anything to beat the tranquility found of sitting beside a pond, dappled with light and shade, and watching the fish nibble at the biscuit crumbs I have sprinkled on the water’s surface.
