As Melbourne’s urban sprawl continues so the pressure on the remaining patches of bushland increases …
A fast-growing species which was apparently widely distributed on the goldfields by Chinese diggers.
— Native Plants of Melbourne and Adjoining Areas by David Jones, Barbara Jones (Page 60)
Cassinia arcuata, everyone!
The flowerheads, in “long, drooping clusters of shiny brown” look at least as intensely familiar as the association of a curry scent with a similar binomial, but Bun’s plant was much denser than the Jones photo depicts.
However, it was very frequently-pruned, and I have a sense of growth reaching upwards in something like the manner of a trimmed magnolia branch. More research needed, then.