Many locals have fond memories of Constance Coleman, artist, conservationist and teacher.
Henrietta Constance ‘Connie’ Coleman was born in Melbourne on 21 October 1903.
Her father, William, was a scene painter at JC Williamson’s.
The opening of the railway line from Lilydale to Warburton in 1901 gave Constance’s father William, an ardent fisherman, access to the Yarra River.
William took the family to the Launching Place Hotel for a holiday each Christmas.
He bought three one-acre blocks at an auction there in 1920. In about 1928 the family built a small shack on the land.
After her father died in 1932, Constance lived in a hayloft belonging to family friends, while she painted, studied art (1927-31), and trained to be a teacher.
When she commenced teaching at the Lilydale Higher Elementary School about 1954, the shack at Launching Place became her home.
Over time, she bought adjoining blocks to create a 10 hectare property she named ‘Wanderslore’ after the garden in Walter de la Mare’s Memoirs of a Midget.
Following the closure of the railway line in 1965, Connie purchased a prefabricated Fettler’s hut from the Launching Place Railway Station, and moved it up the hill to be her painting and writing studio.
In 1982 she published her book Bellbirds and other poems, illustrated with her lino cuts.
Realising that the property might be broken up on her death, Connie gifted Wanderslore to the Trust for Nature in 1987-8, as a sanctuary reserve for the conservation of wildlife and native plants.
She also gave $10,000 to the Trust to provide maintenance of the property.
The Trust regards Wanderslore as an important remnant of Yarra Valley foothills bushland in excellent condition, large enough to allow plant regeneration and to support fauna.
Constance wrote of Wanderslore, ‘Many years ago, I was met and befriended by a small bushland hillside which, with its two flanking valleys, gave me … the benevolence of its tranquillity and companionship. More, it has allowed me to become aware of the rich tapestry of that interwoven life which it nurtures … . And this has become a life structure, a fragile web, that is being fragmented. … What of my hillside, its valleys, its inhabitants? What defences have they against the incursions of the bulldozer, and Man’s business acumen?’
Constance lived alone on her property, continuing to paint until she suffered a stroke.
She spent her last few years at the Launching Place Nursing Home.
She died on 22 May 1990. Her grave inscription at Wesburn reads, ‘EARTH CLOSE, EARTH WISE, CONTENT AM I’.
– Paula Herlihy, from information supplied by the Friends of Wanderslore Sanctuary.
