Susan Buckland: Ruby's slice of paradise

COMMENT

Ruby Graham is a quiet champion. She had never set out to win anything for herself. What matters for Graham is that she will leave a slice of Sydney Harbour better than when she found it.

It was her hat that attracted our attention. It was bobbing about in the bushes. At first, I passed it off as native flora. But then I heard a chinking sound. And there, on her knees, armed with a trowel among a pile of freshly rooted weeds, was the woman I had read about on a sign only a few minutes before.

The sign read, "You are now entering Lex and Ruby Graham's Garden". It seemed that I was stepping into something special along the Sydney Harbour walk from Mosman Bay to Cremorne Pt. The public land that tips off the path to the water's edge was suddenly vibrant with colour and lush foliage. It was an oasis that extended for 3ha.

"My late husband Lex and I didn't have a plan when we started the garden back in the late 50s. We just began removing weeds to see what was underneath," she said.

The couple was in for surprises. Under the tangle of weeds they found enough to furnish a row of houses. From rolls of carpet and lino to mattresses, refrigerators and kitchen sinks. Even a few whale bone corsets

Then Lex found a single elephant ear bulb floating in the bay and planted it between the roots of a coral tree. It grew and the descendants are thriving in the garden that the couple decided should be won from a rubbish dump choking in creepers, privet and lantana.

They put the unearthed debris to good use, using an old TV antenna to rip into the lantana and chicken wire along the cliff edge to retain soil.

Discarded bricks filled holes. And other rubbish (corsets included) was buried. Now aged 85, Ruby has missed Lex from the day he died more than 13 years ago. But she is grateful for the volunteer helpers who began pitching in.

"Judith over there, she's been marvellous; meets me here every Tuesday morning." Judith was busy mulching a bush path.

"And there's young Jim who owns a gardening business and helps me also."

Young Jim had eyes fixed on a lithe Eve sauntering along the path at that moment. When she disappeared round the corner Jim emerged from a riot of begonias and bromeliads to shake my hand. Thank heavens for helpers like Jim and Judith because Ruby's passion has become too much to nurture alone.

I set off with her down the paths she and Lex had built over the years and admired trees, now metres high, that they had retrieved from crevices in rocks. Plants grown from cuttings and donated by local residents have been added to the array.

"If it doesn't grow it doesn't belong," says Ruby, who rarely misses a gardening session with her helpers.

The garden is the more remarkable for the lack of water in the public reserve when the couple started out.

They carried buckets of water to their fledgling garden and recycled with leaves from gutters to transform the sand and clay into compost. The council has since been inspired to install taps and to supply mulch and plants.

The harbour sparkled between the trees as Ruby pointed out birds and butterflies. Tortoises and frogs scuttled under rocks. But the subtropical garden might never have been if in the 1890s, the owner of Cremorne Pt had got his way and sold the land for subdivision.

"To think that this harbour edge was heading for private profit instead of public pleasure," said Ruby.

The Government turned the point and a wide strip of shoreline into the public reserve in 1905. "It is good the people won out. Couples get married here sometimes," she said, her eyes shining.

When we said goodbye she turned straight back to her garden and her trowel. And as I strode out towards the point I carried with me her look of peace and contentment.