Beaumaris Conservation Society Inc. will email a .jpg file of the original of the letter below to interested persons on request..
    63 Durrant Street,
    Brighton, S.5.,
    VIC.
    September 7th., 1953    .
    Mrs. E. Hosking,
            President,
               Beaumaris  Tree Preservation Society,
                  "Coronet Hill", Coronet Grove,
                         Beaumaris, S.10., VIC.
    Dear Mrs. Hosking,
                                    Your society is to be congratulated in its
    endeavours to conserve good examples of the fast-disappearing
    native tree growth at Beaumaris. Efforts, in collaboration
    with the Native Plants Preservation Society, to secure for
    posterity a sample of the local wildflower country is also
    highly commendable.
                     As a professional botanist, I have visited the
    great sand-plains of Western Australia which are world-
    renowned for their unique native flowers - orchids, heaths,
    banksias, grevilleas, honey-myrtles and many others in
    rich diversity. No part of Victoria more closely resembled
    these colourful Western heathlands that the sandy east
    side of Port Phillip Bay, where a great wealth of showy
    flowers once extended from the Heads all the way round
    to Melbourne. Barely a vestige now remains, but on
    the Dunlop Estate at Beaumaris one may still see a
    limited display of heaths, wattles, wedding-bush, love
    creeper, bush-peas, lilies and various orchids, unspoiled
    as yet by encroaching weeds.
                 So that these may be available to another generation,
    the need for a close reserve is urgent. I understand that
    2.
    Dunlop Rubber Ltd. is agreeable to sell a selected portion of
    the Beaumaris Estate (near Reserve Rd.), and I would be
    happy to make recommendations for a site containing the
    best wildflowers. If your society could raise some of the purchase
    money, Sandringham City Council may be willing to pay
    the balance? In any case, the most satisfactory arrangement
    would be for the Council to accept landlord responsibilities,
    and the area would need to be surrounded by rabbit-proof
    fencing. Municipal authorities in other parts of the State
    have co-operated splendidly with the Native Plants Preservation
    Society, e.g. Seymour Shire Council which enclosed 3 acres
    of bushland at Talla rook - now a "show place" -, Barrabool Shire's reserves along the Great Ocean Road near Anglesea,
    and a remarkable survival of orchids recently enclosed by
    Flinders Shire near Dromana.
                                It would be tragic if the last chance to save
    anything worthwhile of our vanishing Bayside flowers
    were allowed to pass without the utmost effort by
    those of us who have the fascinating indigenous
    flora of Australia at heart.

                                Yours faithfully,
                                                             J.H. Willis
                                                            Botanist at
                                                             National Herbarium,
                                                                    SOUTH YARRA, S.E.1