If you enjoy eating pecans, grapefruit, or the ‘Allsopp’ Avocado, it’s thanks to the horticultural efforts of a research garden that once operated at Lawnton.
From its inception in 1862, the Queensland Acclimatisation Society played a key role in advancing Queensland’s agriculture, importing and adapting non-indigenous plants to the Queensland environment. As a government advisory body tasked with identifying and researching crops with commercial potential, the society established an experimental garden on 100 acres at Lawnton around the turn of the century.
As early as 1908, the society introduced castor oil and cotton plants, and rubber, citrus, and nut trees to determine their commercial viability and varieties best suited to Queensland’s subtropical and tropical conditions. Trials of pineapples, papayas, raspberries, date palms, mangoes, olives, bananas, apples, maize and cassava led to their cultivation as commercial crops.
Lawnton researchers successfully imported new sugarcane varieties, investigating propagation via seed and artificial cross-fertilisation techniques. They identified a disease-resistant Q813 sugarcane variety, a strain still in use in 1926. In later years, trials included avocados, custard apples, pecan nuts and soya beans.
The highlight of the research work at Lawnton was breeding the popular Allsopp avocado, a unique Australian cultivar. Its name pays homage to Richard (F.M.) Allsopp, the influential horticultural manager who oversaw day-to-day operations at the garden. A street in Lawnton now bears his name.
Legacy, Challenges and the End of an Era
From 1915 to 1941, pecan nut research was the major operational focus, leading to 100 farmers establishing commercial pecan crops in Queensland and New South Wales.
Remnants of Lawnton’s pecan grove were added to the State Heritage Register in 2009. Several old, gnarly trees survive within Stephen Lawn Park along Brays Road as ‘The only pre-World War II Acclimatisation Society plantings known to be extant that are related to commercial crops.’ (Barter, Pioneering the Pine, 2005).
But research success didn’t come without drawbacks. By the late 1930s, the crossbreeding, trialling, and growing of resource-hungry varieties of sugar cane, rubber trees, tropical fruits, and nut trees had depleted the river flats’ soil of essential nutrients. Seeds from trials of the toxic castor oil plant escaped from the garden’s precinct and spread, becoming an invasive weed.
During the war, the gardens relocated briefly to Scarborough Road at Redcliffe and then later to Redland Bay. The Acclimatisation Society ceased operations in 1956.
Read more stories from The North Lakes Guide print magazine here:
- In the North Lakes Loop: Updates from the Community
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- A Brief Affair
- The Magic of Jim Henson Comes to Brisbane
- Organic Gardening in September
- Fresh Start: The Budget-Friendly Way to Spring Clean
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- Crystal and Jewellery Show Debuts at Pine Rivers Showgrounds
- Spring Carnival Celebrates Community, Culture and Connection
- Where to Find Local Gluten-Free Dining
- Junior Volunteers Take Over at Capestone Lake parkrun
- A Garden of Endless Discovery
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