Wendy Whiteley's Secret Garden Will Be Preserved

The future of one of Sydney's most beloved green spaces has finally been secured. After a concerted effort by local campaigners, the NSW government has agreed to lease the patch of harbourfront land known as Wendy's Secret Garden to the North Sydney Council on a 30-year renewable lease, confirming its position as a public garden for future generations.

"Wendy has poured her blood, sweat and tears into the garden," said Transport and Infrastructure Minister Andrew Constance at the announcement on Friday. "She, along with the people of Sydney, deserve certainty that it will be here for years to come. Our announcement today ends the question mark over the garden’s future."

The widow and muse of celebrated artist Brett Whiteley, for the last two decades Wendy Whiteley has tended to the government-owned land behind her Lavender Bay home, transforming it from an unofficial rubbish dump into a beautiful leafy oasis. Brett's ashes are buried in the garden, as are those of their daughter, actress Arkie Whiteley. The history of the garden was recently recorded in the book Wendy Whiteley and the Secret Garden, whose author Janet Hawley helped lead the push to ensure the space remained open for public enjoyment.

"People wrongly assume the council or the government pays for Wendy’s Secret Garden and wrongly assume it is permanent and secure," said Hawley last month. "But Wendy has paid for everything, and, alongside her four gardeners, done all the work from day one."

"I can't quite grasp it yet. It's still a bit unreal," the 74-year-old Whiteley told reporters in the wake of yesterday's announcement. "It will become a collaboration now, instead of there being the slightly worrying feeling that somebody could arrive with a bulldozer one day, or a chainsaw or something, and it would all be gone overnight."

Via The Guardian.