Wattles in flower

As we celebrate National Wattle Day on the first day of September each year, we delve into two works that include the wattle — with over 1,000 species of acacia Australia-wide, it’s the nation’s largest family of flowering plants. While the flowering times of wattle vary greatly depending on the region, Australia’s national flower —…

Go back in time to Daphne Mayo’s 1914 Wattle Day celebrations in Brisbane

It’s National Wattle Day on the first day of September, and we’ve been celebrating the Wattle for different reasons for over a century. QAGOMA has a sculpture in its Collection by artist Daphne Mayo that has a special connection to the Queensland Wattle League dating back to 1914. Daphne Mayo (1895–1982) is one of Queensland’s…

Wattle: From the illustrations of May Gibbs to Ellis Rowan’s watercolours

National Wattle Day was first celebrated in New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia on 1 September 1910, then in Western Australia and Queensland in 1912. Wattle had become a symbol of Australian national identity from Federation — becoming one nation — the Commonwealth of Australia, on 1 January 1901. Branches of wattle then featured…

National Wattle Day: A celebration of a floral emblem

In 1988, the year of Australia’s bicentenary, the Golden Wattle (Acacia pycnantha) was officially gazetted as Australia’s national floral emblem, enjoying a popular acceptance as the national flower long before then. We’ve been celebrating the Wattle for different reasons over the last century, and in 2020 for the first time, Brisbane is lighting up in…