Those of you following the furore caused by Joan Webster's diatribe against Canberra native gardens and native street trees (''The burning issue: native gardens a killer on our doorstep'' in the CT of January 19 and still available on our website) may enjoy this piece from 100 years ago. One hundred years ago this week ''A Good Australian'' obviously well-travelled and a landscape-architecture nationalist, had this letter published in The Bulletin.
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''Lewis Crade (Bulletin of 2 January 1913) questions whether there is any Australian city where the eucalyptus is employed to beautify the streets.
''Bendigo in Victoria was the first city in Australia to plant trees extensively to combat the dust nuisance. It now has over 200 miles of street plantation, chiefly eucalyptus, which are a perpetual glory, bound like a tiara about the head of the city, making of a desolate, shaft-scarred mining camp a pretty, sylvan retreat.
''Having seen the Avenue Thiers in Nice and driven along the glorious boulevard, beginning at Golden Square and running for four miles to the Botanical Gardens at White Hills, I claim superiority for Bendigo's avenue of native
trees.''
