Cardross ‘happy place’ is refuge from a family’s pain

FOR Leigh and David Bush, it remains a special place in their hearts and minds.

Lovingly called “Hannah’s tree”, it’s the Chinese pistachio tree where their 11-year-old daughter enjoyed having a swing and some quiet reading time.

That was until December 5, 2015, when double tragedy struck the Bush family.

It was the day Hannah was killed alongside her 80-year-old nan, Norma Skinner, when their car was T-boned as they drove across the intersection of Irymple and Fifteenth streets, in Irymple.

Mildura County Court heard that a Chinese man, who was in Australia on a one-year working holiday visa, was speeding and had taken “a completely unnecessary risk” when he slammed into Mrs Skinner’s car.

Man To Cheng, 23, pleaded guilty to dangerous driving causing death and was handed a five-and-a-half-year jail sentence.

“No one can compensate for what we’ve lost, so just really be careful (on the roads),” Ms Bush told reporters after Cheng was sentenced.

If the heartbreaking loss of their daughter and Leigh’s mother is not enough, the couple have had health battles.

In a horror year, Leigh almost lost her own life with organ failure and pneumonia after contracting the swine flu shortly before Hannah’s death, and David has battled a serious heart condition.

The qualified horticulturist had lost his only sister to breast cancer just 20 days before Hannah was killed.

This week, Sunraysia Daily spoke to the couple about one of the great joys that remains in their life: the kaleidoscope of colour that is their five-star home garden.

I’m happy to report there were plenty of laughs during the interview as the couple took me through the 25-year journey of how their garden came together.

But when asked about their favourite parts of the garden, David gave a heartfelt recollection of his daughter’s favourite place in the tropical oasis that now features about 100 palm trees.

“I really love my daughter’s swing tree,” he said.

“Hannah loved it. If she wasn’t having a swing, she’d drag some cushions up into the forks of the trees and be up in the tree reading a book.

“That’s where we’d find always find her. This tree was a happy place for her.”

Ms Bush said the loss of her daughter, who was in Grade 5 at Cardross Primary School at the time of her death, and her own health battles had left her mentally and physically broken.

“But I look forward with positivity – and the community has been a great source of support for us,” she said.

“We decided to stay here at the property (after the double tragedy) and really, the garden has kept me busy and focused on moving ahead, and it brings back good memories (of Hannah).

“It’s the tranquillity that we both needed.”

Mr Bush said the couple’s garden had been “so therapeutic for us”.

“Grief is a terrible thing, and it goes to a whole different level when it involves your child,” he said.

“To go through something like we did … well, it was very tough. And it still is.

“But the colours and the different season’s fruits in the garden bring us a lot of joy.

“We have 40-odd different varieties of fruit trees, like mangoes, cherries, apricots, plums and fruiting palms.

“They are all wonderful – but it’s just the fruit flies that can put a dampener on things.”

When I ask about their vast array of palm trees, it sparked some lovely banter between the couple, who had run a nursery across the road from their Euston Avenue property before retirement.

“We’d have about 100 palms now,” David said, before Leigh cheekily chimed in: “But we still sneak the odd one in.”

“We like to challenge ourselves in the garden,” David added with a more serious tone, and then a laugh.

“They might say a certain type of plant won’t grow in Mildura, and that’s what we like to challenge – and then prove them wrong.

“We have some rare palms here. The Chilean wine palm (jubaea chilensis) is endangered in the wild. It is a magnificent tree.

“In Chile, where they come from, they are endangered because they would cut them down to make an alcoholic beverage from the trunk.

“This could be 200 years of growing and a couple of months of fermenting, then the tree’s all finished.”

Ms Bush said the therapeutic qualities of her garden were immeasurable.

“To be enveloped in green just makes me happy,” she said.

“When we walk around and see what we’ve created, it’s just so wonderful.

“And there’s Hannah’s tree, which holds special memories for us.”