The Royal Botanic Gardens in Sydney

Sydney

Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...

, Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

, are the most central of the three major botanical gardens open to the public in Sydney. (the others are the Mount Annan Botanic Garden

Mount Annan Botanic Garden

Mount Annan Botanic Garden is a 416 hectare botanical garden in a hilly area of the southwestern Sydney suburb of Mount Annan, between Campbelltown and Camden, Australia. The Garden opened to the public in 1988, specializing in native plants, with a collection of over 4000 species. It is the...

 and the Mount Tomah Botanic Garden

Mount Tomah Botanic Garden

Mount Tomah Botanic Garden is a 28 hectare public garden approximately 100 km west of Sydney in the Blue Mountains, established in 1972. There is an additional 128 hectares of land dedicated to conservation. The garden is 1000 m above sea level, and it specializes in cool-climate plants that would...

). The park, managed by the same trust as The Domain

The Domain, Sydney

The Domain is 34 hectares of open space in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It is located on the eastern edge of the Sydney central business district, near Woolloomooloo. The Domain adjoins the Royal Botanic Gardens and is managed by the Royal Botanic Gardens Trust, a division of the New South...

 adjoining it, is free to access and open every day of the year.

Location and area

The Botanic Gardens are situated overlooking Farm Cove

Farm Cove, New South Wales

Farm Cove is a tidal inlet and shallow bay in Sydney Harbour, separated from Sydney Cove by Bennelong Point . Known to the indigenous inhabitants of Sydney as Woccanmagully, Farm Cove was used by them as an initiation ground and for the "Kangaroo and Dog Dance".The land immediately adjacent to Farm...

, directly east of the Sydney Opera House

Sydney Opera House

The Sydney Opera House is a multi-venue performing arts centre in the Australian city of Sydney. It was conceived and largely built by Danish architect Jørn Utzon, finally opening in 1973 after a long gestation starting with his competition-winning design in 1957...

, Circular Quay and Macquarie Street

Macquarie Street, Sydney

Macquarie Street is the easternmost street of Sydney's central business district. Macquarie Street extends from Hyde Park at its southern end to the Sydney Opera House at its north.-Description:...

. On the southern edge the Cahill Expressway

Cahill Expressway

The Cahill Expressway is the first true freeway constructed in Sydney, Australia. It starts from the Eastern Distributor and Cross City Tunnel in Woolloomooloo, and runs through a series of sunken cuttings and tunnels between the Royal Botanical Gardens and The Domain...

 borders it and on the eastern edge, Art Gallery road. It is 30 hectares in area.

History

The first farm on the Australian continent, at Farm Cove, was established in 1788 by Governor Phillip

Arthur Phillip

Admiral Arthur Phillip RN was a British admiral and colonial administrator. Phillip was appointed Governor of New South Wales, the first European colony on the Australian continent, and was the founder of the settlement which is now the city of Sydney.-Early life and naval career:Arthur Phillip...

. Although that farm failed, the land has been in constant cultivation since that time, as ways were found to make the relatively infertile soils more productive.

The Botanic Gardens were founded on this site by Governor Macquarie

Lachlan Macquarie

Major-General Lachlan Macquarie CB , was a British military officer and colonial administrator. He served as the last autocratic Governor of New South Wales, Australia from 1810 to 1821 and had a leading role in the social, economic and architectural development of the colony...

 in 1816 as part of the Governor’s Domain. Australia's long history of collection and study of plants began with the appointment of the first Colonial Botanist, Charles Fraser

Charles Fraser (botanist)

Charles Fraser or Frazer was Colonial Botanist of New South Wales from 1821 to 1831. He collected and catalogued numerous Australian plant species, and participated in a number of exploring expeditions...

, in 1817. The Botanic Gardens is thus the oldest scientific institution in Australia and, from the earliest days, has played a major role in the acclimatisation of plants from other regions.

After a succession of colonial botanists and superintendents, including the brothers Richard and Allan Cunningham, both also early explorers, John Carne Bidwill was appointed as the first Director in 1847. He was succeeded the following year by Charles Moore, a Scotsman who had trained in the Botanic Gardens of Trinity College, Dublin. Moore, Director for 48 years (1848–96), did much to develop the Botanic Gardens in their modern form. He boldly tackled the problems of poor soil, inadequate water and shortage of funds to develop much of the Gardens in the form we see today. The Palm Grove, in the heart of the Royal Botanic Gardens, is a reminder of his skill and foresight, as is the reclaimed land behind the Farm Cove seawall which added a significant area to the Royal Botanic Gardens.

In 1862 Sydney’s first zoo

Zoo

A zoological garden, zoological park, menagerie, or zoo is a facility in which animals are confined within enclosures, displayed to the public, and in which they may also be bred....

 was opened within the Botanic Gardens and remained there until 1883, when most of it was transferred to Moore Park. During these years much of the remnant natural vegetation of the surrounding Domain was removed and planted as parkland. The Moreton Bay Figs, one of the major elements of this planting, continue to dominate the landscape.

In 1879 a substantial area of the Domain, south of the Government House stables (now the Conservatorium of Music

Sydney Conservatorium of Music

The Sydney Conservatorium of Music is one of the oldest and most prestigious music schools in Australia...

), was taken for the building of the Garden Exhibition Palace

Garden Palace

thumb|300px|Sydney's Garden Palace; an architectural drawing from the 1870s.The Garden Palace was a large purpose-built exhibition building constructed to house the Sydney International Exhibition ...

. This building, ‘an outstanding example of Victorian architectural exuberance, with towers and turrets deployed around a giant dome 100 feet (30.5 m) in diameter surmounted by a lantern 200 feet (61 m) above the ground’, dominated Sydney’s skyline and covered over two hectares. The International Exhibition held in the Palace attracted over one million visitors. However, the building was destroyed by fire in 1882 and the land, now known as the Palace Garden, was added to the Botanic Gardens.

Towards the end of his time as Director, Moore, together with Ernst Betche, published the Handbook of the Flora of New South Wales, further establishing the Botanic Gardens as a centre for the science of botany.

Moore was succeeded by Joseph Henry Maiden who, during his 28-year term, added much to Moore’s maturing landscape. He organised the construction of a new herbarium building, opened in 1901 (today part of the Anderson Building), and made major improvements to the Domain. However, the Botanic Gardens suffered from loss of staff positions during the First World War

World War I

World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

 and, in the depression of the 1930s

Great Depression

The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...

, the position of Director was lost. Both the Herbarium and the living collections languished. From 1945 Robert Anderson worked to reunify the two. In 1959 the title ‘Royal’ was granted and the Herbarium and Royal Botanic Gardens were administratively reunified under the title Royal Botanic Gardens. Knowles Mair (1965–70) achieved reunification and the Royal Botanic Gardens began its return to eminence.

Dr John Beard (1970–72) and Dr Lawrence Johnson (1972–85) further developed the organisation, and the Robert Brown Building was opened in 1982 to house the Herbarium. The breadth of activities increased over these decades with the formation of the Friends of the Royal Botanic Gardens; educational and ecological programs; the Flora of New South Wales; the scientific journals Telopea and Cunninghamia and programs of computerised documentation of both the living and herbarium collections.

Other initiatives, the Mount Tomah Botanic Garden (1987), Mount Annan Botanic Garden (1988) and the Tropical Centre (1990) glasshouses, were opened to the public after Professor Carrick Chambers became the ninth Director in 1986. The Royal Botanic Gardens celebrated its 175th anniversary in 1991. During Professor Chambers’ ten years as Director, the Rose Garden (1988), the Fernery (1993), the Herb Garden (1994), and the Oriental Garden (1997) were opened and the Rare and Threatened Species Garden (1998) was commenced to further enrich the experience of visitors. The Royal Botanic Gardens Foundation was established to seek a wider range of support for future needs.

In 2003 the business name of the organisation, comprising the three Botanic Gardens and the Domain and administered by the Royal Botanic Gardens & Domain Trust, was changed from the Royal Botanic Gardens Sydney to the Botanic Gardens Trust. The present Executive Director is Dr Tim Entwisle. David Mabberley

David Mabberley

Professor Dr. David John Mabberley, , is a botanist, educator and writer. Among his varied interests is the taxonomy of tropical plants, especially trees of the families Labiatae, Meliaceae and Rutaceae. He is perhaps best known for his plant dictionary The plant-book. A portable dictionary of the...

 was appointed as Executive Director in April 2011 and begins in the role in August 2011.

Flying foxes

The Royal Botanic Gardens are home to a colony of over 22,000 Grey-headed Flying Fox

Grey-headed Flying Fox

The Grey-headed Flying-Fox, Pteropus poliocephalus, is a megabat native to Australia.Members of the genus Pteropus include the largest bats in the world. The Pteropus genus has currently about 57 recognised species....

es, a large species of fruitbat. The management of the Gardens holds the bats responsible for killing dozens of trees and, in May 2010, received approval for a plan to move the colony elsewhere.

In February 2011, a Federal Court ruling gave the Royal Botanic Gardens and Domain Trust the go-ahead to play recorded sounds in an attempt to drive the bats from the gardens. The sounds, which include engines starting and metal pounding, are scheduled for implementation in May 2011 for two weeks.

External links

• Official Sydney Botanic Gardens Website
• The Allan Cunningham Project dedicated to documenting accurate information related to Allan Cunningham Botanist Explorer 1791-1839