THERE IS AN essential truth in this paragraph, that good design should respond to the demands of the immediate environment, in this case that of Sydney. The topography is steep and the soils meagre, so stonework and terraces make good sense, while the summer is hot and humid; the ‘Hindostanee’ model is not as extravagant as it might seem at first sight. The droughts are basic to any understanding of context, not just in Sydney but in most of southern Australia, especially its large cities.

If we invert the climate from Sydney's wet summer and autumn combined with dry winters and spring, the context changes to the southern arc of the continent, from Perth to Melbourne and Hobart, where the summers are dry and the winters wet. John Thompson's comments still hold: English lawns and flowerbeds are equally inappropriate, while his ‘Hindostanee’ desiderata remain relevant to design. Where the summers are dry, the style might be called Mediterranean rather than Hindostanee, but the two are linked historically, with origins in Persia, moving west with the ‘Saraceni’ in Sicily, the Moors in southern Spain, and travelling east to India with the Mughal Empire.