Diaries of the Rev. Robert Knopwood, the first chaplain of Hobart, provided a detailed account of early horticultural activities, between the years of 1804 to1835. His land grant called "Cottage Green" encompassed much of the Battery Point we know today, along with the sea cliffs behind the current Salamanca Place site. On these 30 acres, he established a substantial food bowl for the struggling settlement.
From his1807 growing season, 5 acres of wheat, 1.5 acres of vegetables and numerous varieties of berry fruits were harvested.
The berry fruits would have included some of the weeds of today such as rosehips, elderberries (favoured for it's wine making qualities) as well as currants Ribes sp. Some of these moisture-loving berry fruits species would have also migrated up the rivulets into West Hobart and down the sides of the cobbled laneways of Battery Point Their presence today in these precincts are testament to their invasive and persistent qualities.
It can also be assumed that, some of the vegetables grown by Knopwood, escaped to become weeds in the surrounding woodland communities. The weed "Salisfy", Tragopogon porrifolius ( which is Latin for "goat's beard with leek like leaves") that proliferates on the fringes of remnant woodlands, can be traced back to this origin.
His diaries also acknowledged his enthusiasm for collecting seeds and cuttings from all available sources, including fresh offerings off trading vessels in the port of Hobart. New settlers would frequently collect plant specimens from various foreign ports of call (especially South Africa) on their journey to this new colony.
As part of this trading process by early settlers, on their six month trip, it is reported that the prolific "Capeweed" Arctotheca calendula was introduced in 1833, by way of live stock or hay purchased in Capetown.
Knopwood recalled in his writings, of the excitement generated by his trip to a Newtown Plant Nursery. It seems that in 1815 this nursery would have been one of the very earliest plant selling establishments existing in the young colony.
To get there he rode on horseback, and purchased 6 young peach trees as well as some English furze (gorse) bushes.
Plants such as willow, poplars, elms, hawthorn, black locusts, genistas, English and Scottish broom, boxthorn and cotoneaster would have been freely available at this very early nursery. Weeds galore for the colonists to spread far and wide!
The introduction of many new exotics species, can be attributed to the enthusiasm of amateur botanists such as Robert Lawrence ( Podocarpus lawrenci fame) and the acclaimed Ronald Gunn (Nothofagus gunnii fame).
They were prominent in the importation and exchange of plant material predominantly with the European Horticultural Institutions such as Kew Gardens. Hooker, the well respected Director of Kew at the time, relied on this plant exchange to further his studies and publications on this new Tasmania flora.
It is relevant to this article to note that, from the old records of orders at Kew Gardens, Kew's Directors contributions to the international weed flora of today was significant. Interesting references on the species, quantities, destination and date of world wide dispatch of plants yields valuable information not only to the introduction of future weed species to Van Dieman's Land, but also to many other countries.
With the advent of the "Wardian" case, a kind of sealed plant box, ship transportation of plant specimens became much more reliable by the 1830s. Early local trade catalogues, botanical garden lists and order books provided a comprehensive record of the weed flora that was brought into the State by these keen enthusiasts. Many of them had been favoured with substantial land grants, providing a means to establish their own expensive private botanical gardens. Both Gunn and Lawrence boasted expansive display and botanical gardens on their Cressy and Glen Dhu estates.
City Park land in Launceston was granted to Gunn (next to Government Cottage) and this was later to become the grounds of the Launceston Horticultural Society (The first in Australia). Plantings of not only the European trees were established, but by the 1850's it had become the site for the very first plant introductions from the Americas and Asia. Many of these non- European plants came from England following their earlier importation. This subsequently led to another wave on new environmental weeds into Tasmania including plants such as "Pampas Grass" Cortadeira selloana, "Cotoneaster" Cotoneaster glaucophylla, "Paterson's Curse" Echium plantagineum "Nasturtium" Tropaeolum majus, "Japanese Honeysuckle" Lonicera japonica, "Wandering Jew" Tradescantia fluminensis and "Banana Passionfruit" Passiflora mollissima.
"Blackberries" have been referred to in one of seven Mabel Hookey's scrap books, located in the Tasmanian Archives, as being introduced into Tasmania by another Launceston gentleman Philip Oakden (founder of the Bank of Australasia) who in 1843 imported one potted plant. He in turn passed out 6 cuttings to his gardener, which snowballed their spread across Southern Australia, ably assisted by the exotic and native bird population.
It is to be noted that introduction of "Boneseed" into the country has been dated as 1858, when it was recorded as a pretty, yellow, long flowering garden plant for shrub borders in estate gardens.