Wendy Whiteley's Secret Garden
For 26 years Wendy Whiteley (b 1941) has been transforming the steep embankment in front of her Lavender Bay home from an overgrown wasteland into a garden sanctuary, now known as Wendy Whiteley’s Secret Garden. Today, pathways snake their way between giant fig trees, glossy foliage, dramatic flowers, sculptures and found objects, connecting terraced nooks and dappled clearings. What began as guerrilla gardening is now secure with a 30-year lease and a state heritage listing, and provides a much-loved slice of tranquillity.
Filmed in 4K during mid-winter 2018 for the exhibition ‘Bohemian Harbour: Artists of Lavender Bay’, on display at the Museum of Sydney, 1 September – 25 November 2018. © Sydney Living Museums
Bohemian Harbour: The artists of Lavender Bay, Exhibition Video
Bohemian Harbour Website
Sydney Living Museums
Wendy Whiteley - At Home in North Sydney
Wendy Whiteley - on remaking a house and creating a garden at Lavender Bay
Wendy Whiteley moved to Lavender Bay in 1969 ‘by chance’ with her husband, the artist Brett Whiteley, and young daughter Arkie. As she relates in this short interview and home tour, it wasn’t the house that made her stay but its special place beside the harbour and Arkie’s need for a somewhere to call home after years spent overseas in Europe, New York and Fiji.
The house that Wendy, Brett and Arkie occupied was built in 1907 as a single family dwelling – one in a line of five constructed around the same time. By 1969, and possibly as early as 1929, the house was divided to accommodate tenants. The interior staircase was removed. Wendy and her family intially shared the place as separate tenants with the artists Rollin Schlict and Joel Ellenberg; until 1974 when the Whiteleys bought the building and determined to make it a single family dwelling again.
Over the next decade and a half Wendy and Brett reshaped an old house, made dark with small windows and coloured wallpaper, so that it became a home, a studio and, with its new white walls and copious artworks, something of a gallery. An adjoining tower was built to accommodate a circular staircase which restored access between the various floors, but saved the space that would otherwise be taken by reinstated internal stairs. With this addition the Whiteley house became a landmark. It was painted into Australian art history in various of Brett’s most iconic Harbour works which looked out from the house to Lavender Bay.
After Brett’s death in 1992, Wendy turned her attention to the overgrown unused gully at the front of the house, owned by State Rail. Through an extraordinary example of ‘guerrilla gardening’ this was transformed over 20 years into ‘Wendy’s Secret Garden’, an urban oasis enjoyed by locals and visitors alike.
In this short film Wendy talks to Shannon Haritos about living at Lavender Bay and takes her on a tour of her house and garden.
Wendy Whiteley and the Secret Garden
For more than twenty years, Wendy has worked to create a public garden at the foot of her harbourside home in Sydney's Lavender Bay.
Learn more about the book, Wendy Whiteley and the Secret Garden” by Janet Hawley:
In this video, Wendy Whiteley tours her Secret Garden, accompanied by Julie Gibbs, Publishing Director at Penguin Random House Australia.
Wendy Whiteley was artist Brett Whiteley's wife, muse and model. An artist herself, with a finely honed aesthetic sense, she also created the interiors at the heart of Brett's iconic paintings of their Lavender Bay home. When Brett died, followed by the death nine years later of their daughter Arkie, Wendy threw her grief and creativity into making an enchanting hidden oasis out of derelict land owned by the New South Wales Government. This glorious guerrilla garden is Wendy's living artwork, designed with daubs of colour, sinuous shapes and shafts of light.
Wendy Whiteley and the Secret Garden” is the extraordinary story of how a determined, passionate and deeply creative woman has slowly transformed an overgrown wasteland into a beautiful sanctuary for everyone to enjoy - and in the process, transformed herself. The book is Wendy's story but it's also the story of the countless people who cherish the Secret Garden.
Wendy Whiteley and the Secret Garden” by Janet Hawley, published by Penguin Random House Australia 2015.
Wendy Whiteley's Lavender Bay garden oasis has become a Sydney icon
After the death of husband Brett and daughter Arkie, Wendy Whiteley threw herself into her overgrown garden, converting it into a sanctuary on the shores of Sydney Harbour.
Wendy Whiteley's Secret Garden – at Lavender Bay on Sydney Harbour
Hidden at Lavender Bay, near North Sydney, is the secret garden of Wendy Whiteley (the former wife of famous Australian painter Brett Whiteley).
Pathways through the garden take you to the waterfront, with views of Sydney Harbour through the trees. From there you can enjoy a pleasant walk around the edge of the harbour or catch a ferry to Circular Quay.
Well worth a visit, this amazing space has been transformed from a railway waste land into a beautiful rambling garden.
My sister and I were lucky enough to visit on a perfect Spring day. We took some photographs of the garden and Wendy’s house, with its distinctive white tower.
Admission is free and the garden is open seven days a week.
I hope you enjoy the video and the music:
'Summer Love' by The 126ers
(YouTube audio library)
Vamos a Wendy Whiteley Secret Garden - Sydney - NSW - AUSTRALIA
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Sydney's HIDDEN Gem - Wendy's SECRET GARDEN
We visit Wendy's Secret Garden in Sydney Australia. A hidden gem just north of the city. Wendy Whiteley's Secret Garden is located at Lavender Bay on the lower North Shore of Sydney Harbour.
Take your family to enjoy this wonderful, rustic space created with love and maintained for more than 20 years.
Walk, drive, ferry or train - make the trip, you will not be disappointed.
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Wendy's Secret Garden -Lavender Bay
What a fantastic garden to explore. Set on a hill, the garden is terraced with winding pathways and stairs. The path is mainly of bark and stepping stones so bring the right footwear. The garden has most of your common house plants and Australian natives. Wildlife can be seen if your quiet. There are no toilets inside, closest being at Lavender Bay Wharf. There are no BBQ but plenty of tables and chairs down the bottom of the garden for your picnic. Be sure to write in Wendy's Welcome book when your down there. Being a secret garden there are no signs to Wendy's. Your GPS will take you to the back at Watt Park where there is limited 2hr parking. Otherwise you can head to Luna park from Milsons point station and follow the foreshore to Lavender Bay Wharf until you come to a set of stairs. Wendy's Garden is mid way up. Have Fun.
Cost: Free
Location: Lavender Bay NSW
Soundtrack
Music by Kevin MacLeod. Available under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license: Download link: MacLeod's description: Genre: Pop Time: 3:55 102 BPM (Moderato - A Bit Fast) Instruments: Glock, Ukulele, Guitar, Percussion Mid-tempo cheery music for all! Bright, Relaxed, Uplifting
Top 4 Secret Gardens In Sydney
Including:
Wendy's Secret Garden
Lex and Ruby's Garden
Lisgar Gardens
Swain Gardens
Full post on my blog londonerinsydney.com
More secret things in Sydney and things to do on my blog too!
Wendy Whiteley Interview
An interview with Wendy Whiteley, the wife of artist Brett and mother of actress Arkie, and behind a stunning secret Sydney garden.
Studio 10 | 8:30am on TEN
Wendy Whiteley - Interior with time past
Brett WHITELEY
Australia 1939 – 1992
Interior with time past 1976
painting: oil, charcoal and ink on canvas
Collection: National Gallery of Australia, purchased 1978
Wendy Whiteley, the wife and partner to Australian artist Brett Whiteley, gives a personal insight into Brett’s painting Interior with time past created in 1976, in the collection of the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra.
Brett Whiteley was a prodigiously talented draughtsman and one of Australia’s most successful artists until his premature death in 1992. Interior with time past is set in Brett and Wendy Whiteley’s house at Lavender Bay, Sydney. The painting includes images of his own drawings and sculptures, their household furniture with a still life of fruit, avocados and a vase of flowers in the foreground, to the magical expansive views out the windows across Sydney Harbour.
From the drawing on the easel of the couple making love, to the still-burning cigarettes, Whiteley evokes both a sense of people just departed as well as a warm and sensuous world of pleasure. Yet, Wendy draws our attention to the transient moments in life in the painting - the cigarettes just extinguished, the dice and lines of a poem depicted on the table.
Filmed on location at the National Gallery of Australia in 2015 and in Lavender Bay, New South Wales in 2016.
Wendy's Secret Garden - Wet with Rain. Sydney, Australia.
Wendy Whiteley - after the death of partner, artist Brett - dedicated herself to restoring the back of their Lavender Bay home from a railway wasteland into this amazing garden. Open to the public. Now a sanctuary for Parrots, seabirds, Possums, Kookaburras and Owls. Walk with me! Thanks to Van Morrison for: 'In the Garden'
Wendy Whiteley's secret garden..A must visit on the shores of Sydney Harbour.
Rambling and nostalgic...garden, created by Wendy in memory of her husband Brett Whitely. This was just some unused ground beside the railway siding .( I believe)
Bit by bit she transformed it, into a lovely harbour walk.
In Conversation with Wendy Whiteley
Brett Whiteley: On The Water
15 November 2012 - 27 January 2013
Brett Whiteley: On The Water is a major exhibition of works by one of the most celebrated Australian artists of the twentieth century. Brett Whiteley had a prodigious career spanning four decades creating some of the most iconic images in Australian art. His lyrical and sensuous work attracted international acclaim and is held in major public and private collections across the world. The exhibition features over 60 works including studies and etchings, photographs, sculptures of birds, sharks and bathers, and Unfinished Beach Polyptych : 6 imposing panels leaving The Brett Whiteley Studio for the first time in 17 years.
Lavender Bay (Sydney) NSW & the Secret Garden
Lavender Bay is a harbourside suburb on the lower North Shore of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. it is located 3 kilometres north of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of North Sydney Council. Lavender Bay was named after the Boatswain, George Lavender, from the prison hulk Phoenix, which was moored there for many years. The bay was originally called Hulk Bay and sometimes Phoenix Bay. George Lavender lived on 14 acres adjacent to the property of Billy Blue. The area along the waterfront has been developed as pedestrian walkways and parklands and includes many small sculptures of characters from Australian children's' literature. The eastern end of the Bay is the historic Luna Park amusement park.
The Secret Garden was built by Wendy Whiteley, the wife of famous Australian Artist Brett Whiteley. It is a beautiful place for a picnic, some meditation or to sit and read a book. There are lots of nooks and crannies throughout the garden so you can find your own little piece of solitude and shade. We are indebted to Wendy for building and maintaining the fantastic garden. In 2009, she was awarded an Order of Australia medal for her work here.
Wendy's Secret Garden in Sydney, Australia
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Brett & Wendy Coming to Riverside this week!
18 January - 27 January 2019
Take a deep dive into the extraordinary, turbulent artistic partnership of Brett and Wendy Whiteley.
Together since they were teenagers, Brett and Wendy made an indelible impression on a burgeoning Australian contemporary art scene. They blazed a trail from Sydney in the late 1950s, to London in the swinging 60s, to New York City in the tumultuous Vietnam War years.
Eventually, they settled at Lavender Bay, where Brett captured Sydney Harbour in his signature ultramarine blue. But there were dark times ahead – restless years of separation and addiction that ended with Wendy alone, building and tending her magnificent “Secret Garden”.
Kim Carpenter (The Book of Everything, Lulie the Iceberg, Monkey … Journey to the West) directs and designs, and Lucas Jervies (The Australian Ballet, Sydney Dance Company) choreographs a visually ravishing production that conjures the joys, passions and struggles of Brett and Wendy’s relationship.
“Kim Carpenter’s Theatre of Image holds a special and unique place in the Australian theatrical landscape” Sydney Morning Herald
“For flair and sheer visual pleasure, the company is streets ahead of anyone else” Sun-Herald
Video credit: ABC News.
Day: The Last. Great North Sydney Walking Tour
Bump out day. A quick last stroll around Wendy Whitely's Secret Garden then off to the Airport. (We got Emergency Exit Seats-again)
Music Provided by NoCopyrightSounds:
Electro-Light - Symbolism–
(Can you tell I like this track)
I found A Secret Garden Vlog
Hi everyone! Today i went exploring on my break at work and went to visit Wendys secret garden in North Sydney near lunar park which is near milson point in Sydney Australia. Wendy's Garden was amazing, the gardens were beautiful and could see the Sydney Harbour Bridge so clearly! Couldn't believe how nice it looked. Then I went to buy some spicy noodle for another challenge video, so make sure to keep your eye out so you do miss it!
Wendy's Secret Garden, Lavender Bay, Sydney
Limited Edition Photobook and Prints Available
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