SYDNEY LIVING MUSEUMS

Helen Curran

Former Assistant Curator

Photograph of Helen Curran, assistant curator at Sydney Living Museums

Helen was Sydney Living Museums’ dedicated gardens interpreter. A former arts student with a late-blooming interest in science and natural history, she is fascinated by the stories of love, loss and human endeavour that the plants growing in SLM gardens tell.

Stories by Helen Curran

Photograph of the SLM gardens team pruning the bougainvillea

In good hands

A week with the Sydney Living Museums Gardens team shows heritage practice at its most hands-on.

Photograph of pleasure garden and fountain at Vaucluse House

From across the seas: the gardenesque at Vaucluse House

The pleasure garden at Vaucluse House, with its expansive green lawns and shrubbery of exotic curiosities, replicates one of the pinnacle movements of 19th century horticulture – the gardenesque.

Watercolour painting of Vaucluse House created by Frederick L Fisher, 1874

Florilegium: plant stories from Sydney Living Museums' gardens

Native plants and exotic species from abroad have shaped Sydney’s gardens from the earliest days of the colony. Through the tales of their discovery, collection and exchange, and the horticultural...

Black and white photo of three children sitting on a fence eating watermelon slices.

The great watermelon robbery

The ancient Egyptians valued watermelons so highly that they entombed Tutankhamen with a stash of them. In colonial NSW, that sweet ruby flesh was hardly less prized – as a story from the early years...

Black and white photograph of Vaucluse House with large fig tree and vine covered verandah

The leprechaun in the garden

Published for St Patrick’s Day in 1911, ‘The Goblin of Vaucluse’ is an intriguing evocation of the garden at Vaucluse House at the turn of the 20th century.

Pink racemes of crepe myrtle against the Elizabeth Farm homestead

In the pink at Elizabeth Farm

Amid the late summer bounty in the garden at Elizabeth Farm, the crepe myrtle is the undoubted star of the show.

Photograph of a group of orange, green and white pumpkins on a dark background.

A harvest of melons and pumpkins

This autumn the kitchen garden at Vaucluse House has a bumper harvest of squashes and melons. Learn how to care for your cucurbits with horticulturist Anita Rayner, read about the great watermelon...

A jacaranda in flower in the courtyard at Vaucluse House.

The dream tree: Jacaranda, Sydney icon

Every November, jacarandas rain a shower of purple on Sydney’s streets. This gorgeous flowering tree has such a firm hold on the city and its imagination that few of us could imagine it any other way...

A kitchen garden in spring

A kitchen garden in spring

This Sunday 11 October, Vaucluse House is celebrating its 100th anniversary as a house museum with a free community open day. It’s also the 15th birthday of our recreated Victorian kitchen garden –...

Punch drunk on guava jelly

Punch drunk on guava jelly

There’s a special pleasure in tasting a fruit straight from the tree. Just a few months ago, the cherry guavas in the kitchen garden at Vaucluse House were tiny, unpromising-looking green orbs. This...

Sea captains and shaddock jam

Sea captains and shaddock jam

In the winter months, you’ll see them dangling from the branches of a tree at the bottom of the kitchen garden at Vaucluse House, by the compost heap, like bright baubles. These days, the shaddock (...

Hand-coloured postcard of verandah covered in purple wisteria

The wisteria at Vaucluse House

The wisteria at Vaucluse House was once famed as one of Sydney’s finest springtime sights.

Custard apples and cherimoyas

Custard apples and cherimoyas

One of the things that’s surprised me most about colonial gardens is just how exotic they were. I like to think of myself as relatively broad-palated, but when I stumbled across a list of fruits...

Close-up of a cream camellia with a pink splotch

Camellia days at Vaucluse House

Now that midwinter is here, the camellias at Vaucluse House are putting on a glorious show – a riot of cream, scarlet and pink-coloured blossoms.