Person

Waterhouse, Eben Gowrie (Gowrie) (1881 - 1977)

CMG

Born
29 April 1881
Waverley, New South Wales, Australia
Died
17 August 1977
Killara, New South Wales, Australia
Occupation
Horticulturist and Linguist
Alternative Names
  • Waterhouse, Gowrie (Also known as)

Summary

Gowrie Waterhouse was a distinguished teacher of languages at Sydney Grammar School and the Sydney Teacher's College before being appointed to the University of Sydney. He was Professor of German from 1938 to 1945 and for 20 years head of his department. Waterhouse was also an influential landscape designer and writer, and assumed responsibility for landscaping the University's campus. In 1914 Waterhouse, with architect William H. Wilson, established the Eryldene house and garden. This became a showpiece of horticulture and garden design. Waterhouse was particularly interested in camellias, becoming a widely-recognised expert in their identification and breeding. He played key roles in Australian and international camellia societies. Among his publications were books written to assist the teaching of languages to children, and works on camellias, horticulture and landscape design. In 1980 Eryldene house and garden were acquired by the Eryldene Trust. The E. G. Waterhouse Medal is awarded by Camellias Australia for outstanding service to the science and horticulture of camellias.

Details

Chronology

1903
Education - Bachelor of Arts (BA), University of Sydney
1906 - 1909
Life event - Travelling in Europe
1909 - 1912
Career position - Language teacher, Sydney Grammar School
1912 - 1926
Career position - Senior lecturer in modern languages, Teachers' College, Sydney
1919
Education - Master of Arts (MA), University of Sydney
1926 - 1938
Career position - McCaughey Associate Professor of German and comparative literature, University of Sydney
1938 - 1945
Career position - Professor of German, University of Sydney
1938 - 1960
Career position - Trustee, National Art Gallery of New South Wales
1939 - 1946
Career event - Established Camellia Grove Nursery, St Ives, Sydney
1952
Career position - Foundation Secretary, Australian and New Zealand Camellia Research Society
1957
Award - Gold Medal, Goethe-Institut, Munich, Germany
1960 - 1962
Career position - President, National Art Gallery of New South Wales
1962
Award - Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE)
1962 - 1977
Career position - Foundation President, International Camellia Society
1966
Award - Veitch Medal, Royal Horticultural Society, London
1976
Award - Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George (CMG)

Children

Related Corporate Bodies

Related People

Published resources

Books

  • Armati, Mary, E. G. Waterhouse of Eryldene (Sydney: Fine Arts Press, 1977), 96 pp. Details
  • Waterhouse, E. G., Camellia quest (Sydney: Ure Smith, 1947), 30 pp. Details
  • Waterhouse, E. G., Camellia trail: with 21 plates in colour by Paul Jones (Sydney: Ure Smith, 1952), 44 pp. Details

Book Sections

  • O'Neil, W. M., 'Waterhouse, Eben Gowrie (1881-1977), linguist and Camellia expert' in Australian dictionary of biography, volume 12: 1891 - 1939 Smy-Z, John Ritchie, ed. (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1990), pp. 389-390. http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A120438b.htm. Details

Resources

See also

  • Aitken, Richard and Looker, Michael eds, The Oxford Companion to Australian Gardens (Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 2002), 700 pp. pp. 630-2. Details

Gavan McCarthy [P004098] and Helen Cohn

EOAS ID: biogs/P001477b.htm

Except where otherwise noted, content on this site is
Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
What do we mean by this?

Published by Swinburne University of Technology.
This Edition: 2024 November (Ballambar - Gariwerd calendar - early summer - season of butterflies)
Reference: http://www.bom.gov.au/iwk/calendars/gariwerd.shtml#ballambar
For earlier editions see the Internet Archive at: https://web.archive.org/web/*/www.eoas.info

The Encyclopedia of Australian Science and Innovation uses the Online Heritage Resource Manager (OHRM), a relational data curation and web publication system developed by the eScholarship Research Centre and its predecessors at the University of Melbourne 1999-2020. The OHRM has been maintained by Gavan McCarthy since 2020.

Cite this page: https://www.eoas.info/biogs/P001477b.htm

"... the rengitj, as a visible mark or imprint on the land, is characterised as a place of origin, the repository of all names, as well as a kind of mapped visual expression of the connection between people and places which is to be carried out in the temporal sequence of the journey." Fanca Tamisari (1998) 'Body, Vision and Movement: In the footprints of the ancestors'. Oceania 68(4) p260