Lumen Waite 100 - Flipbook - Page 9
WORDS › MARK DOUGLAS AND JOHNNY VON EINEM | PICTURES › ISAAC FREEMAN
Clara Serena’s headdresses
These glowing Art Deco-era headdresses once adorned the
brow of leading Australian opera singer Clara Serena, and
now adorn a wall in Urrbrae House. Clara was discovered,
aged 14, by Peter Waite when he and companions heard
her singing at her aunt’s home in Woodside, as they passed
by after attending an Oakbank race meeting. Peter helped
fund her early career and Clara lived with the Waite family
while studying at the Elder Conservatorium of Music. She
became lifelong friends with Peter’s daughter, Elizabeth.
The headdresses were worn by Clara when she performed
on the stages of the grand opera houses of Europe and
Great Britain in the 1920s and 1930s. Clara performed to an
audience of 23,000 at the London Crystal Palace in 1936.
Giorgia
Giorgia the Harvester has been part of
the Waite family since 2013, when she was
purchased “for the price of a Ferrari”, Head
of the School of Agriculture, Food and Wine,
Professor Jason Able jokes, but “without fear of
getting the speeding ticket”. Though she may
be slow, Giorgia has covered plenty of ground.
She visits up to 14 different trial sites each year,
from South Australia’s upper mid-north across
to Wimmera in Victoria, where she has harvested
durum and bread wheat, barley and pulse crops.
Giorgia has been active for around 1400 hours,
and each year she reaps 10,000 breeding plots.
Save the trees
The Waite Arboretum is not only a gift
to in-the-know South Australian locals
who venture through the greenspace to
marvel at is beauty and biodiversity, but
it also serves a global purpose. There
are 136 plants in the Arboretum that are
currently on the International Union for
the Conservation of Nature’s Red List.
The list catalogues threatened species. One
such example in the Arboretum is the Pyrus
tadshikistanica, a pear tree which is listed
by IUCN as critically endangered. There
are two in the Arboretum, and despite their
mortal peril, the pair will still offer a shady
hideaway to visitors beneath their branches.
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