Brighton Heath-lands
The heath-lands south of Melbourne were a focus for 19th century naturalists.
By 1860, entomologist William Kershaw and actor Henry Edwards had combed the sandhills and swamps between Sandringham and Mordialloc with butterfly nets, magnifying glasses and jars. The impressive array of specimens they assembled was soon acquired as the Museum's founding collection of Australian insects.
The railway arrived inland at Brighton in 1859 and swung into the terminus and pier at Brighton Beach in 1862, making commuting from the bayside town into the city possible.1 Frederick McCoy established 'Maritima' as his family home, just a short walk from the railway station.
Many of the insects, reptiles and fish illustrated at the university laboratory were from Brighton and neighbouring Sandringham. It is likely that McCoy himself gathered the majority of these specimens as he wandered through the heath-lands down to the beach.
Insect larvae were collected with a sample of their host plant, upon which they continued to feed under Arthur Bartholomew's steady gaze. In the laboratory Bartholomew drew both larvae and plants, literally bringing the south coast environment into the drawing's frame.
With so many insect specimens and host plants collected from the area, the resulting drawings provide a glimpse of the glorious scented heath-land that characterised the sandy and occasionally swampy country south of Melbourne.
Today the area's ecological diversity has long since disappeared. Only a narrow fringe of banksias and ti tree remains, hugging the low cliffs on the windward side of an eternally busy Beach Road.
1Weston Bate, Encyclopedia of Melbourne, Andrew Brown-May & Shurlee Swain (eds), Cambridge University Press, Melbourne, 2005, p. 89.