History of the Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne

The Royal Botanic Gardens was established in 1846, after Lieutenant Governor Charles La Trobe selected the site on the southern bank of the Yarra River.

At the time of its foundation, the Gardens’ site was an uninspiring mixture of rocky outcrops and swampy marshland, but it was not long before the foundations were being laid for one of the great gardens of the world.

In 1857, the Gardens’ first full time Director, Ferdinand von Mueller was appointed. Mueller was to become one of the most acclaimed botanists of the 19th century, and was ultimately awarded Knighthoods by over 20 countries. Mueller established the Gardens’ scientific centre, The National Herbarium of Victoria, and amassed an extraordinary range of plants from every corner of the world.

In 1873 Mueller was succeeded by William Guilfoyle, who set about creating the Gardens’ world-famous "picturesque" landscape style. Guilfoyle sculpted sweeping lawns, meandering paths and glittering lakes, creating a series of vistas offering a surprise around every corner.

Guilfoyle was aided in his work by Melbourne’s mild climate, which allows an exotic mix of tropical and temperate plants to be grown, as well as the outstanding collection of plants already established by Mueller.

Today, the Gardens are home to more than 51,000 individual plants, representing over 12,000 different species, and have become a natural sanctuary for native wild life including black swans, bell birds, cockatoos and kookaburras fill the air with their distinctive song.

The Gardens are owned by the people of Victoria and managed by the Royal Botanic Gardens Board.

History of the Royal Botanic Gardens Cranbourne

Established in 1970 the Royal Botanic Gardens, Cranbourne, are dedicated to the conservation, display and enjoyment of Australian flora. Within an hour's drive of Melbourne and stretching over 300 hectares, the Gardens are a natural haven in a rapidly developing urban area. Key features include a large area of natural bushland and the ongoing development of a display garden of Australian plants.

For many thousands of years this place was, and still is the ancestral home of the Boonerwurrung people. Over the millennia they moved and lived with the seasonal rhythms of this Land. The ancient wetlands used by the Boonerwurrung still exist within the Cranbourne Gardens. Although many traditional names and songs have now been lost, such places like Perch swamp continue as a focus for life due to the presence of plentiful resources, permanent freshwater, and the raised dry ground of the sand dunes. These special ecosystems are rich in indigenous plant foods - "bush tucker". Plants such as Typha 'bullrushes' and water ribbons 'Triglochin' thrive here, in addition to the abundant bird and animal life that come here to drink.

For Aboriginal people the Land is never simply a place for physical sustenance, but is equally a wellspring for the spirit - sustenance for the soul. With this in mind, the site of today's Australian garden would have most likely held great significance for the Boonerwurrung. Known traditionally as 'Towbeet' this site was the highest point around, dominating the entire area ~ a place of undoubtable strategic and spiritual importance for the Boonerwurrung; until the arrival of the ngamundji, the white man.

Some of the first contact with Europeans was with the sealers operating throughout Bass Strait during the early 1800's. Some reports suggest that these rough seafarers took women from the islands and the mainland and had altercations with the men. When they had depleted the seal populations, they moved away (Ellender, 1998). This era marked the end of the Boonerwurrung life as it had been for a long time before.

The Cranbourne area was settled by Europeans in the 1830's. The Gardens were grazed by cattle from the 1840's. During this time, all but the wettest and least fertile sandy areas were cleared. This included regular and deliberate burning of grazed areas to promote the growth of pasture, and tree clearing for timber and other purposes. In the late 1880's much of the site was recommended for use as a Military Camp Reserve, though not well documented, plans for the reserve included the establishment of a training camp and rifle range. Neither of these practices have been confirmed. It is possible the site was used for small-scale camps and bivouacs. From the 1920's onwards sand mining was carried out on several areas, and the largest sand dune Empire Hill (known as Towbeet to the Boonwurrung) was completely leveled.

In the early 1960's, the Royal Botanic Gardens, in association with the Maud Gibson Trust (a benefactor of the Royal Botanic Gardens), became convinced of the need to develop an Australian native plant annexe. It was recognised that the Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne were unsuited to the cultivation of Australian native plants, due to the lack of space and sub-optimal soils. In 1961 the site of 174 hectares, which was being used for a military reserve, sand mining and grazing was identified as having the appropriate attributes. The Vietnam War intervened and it wasn't until sand mining ceased in 1970, that ownership was transferred from the Commonwealth Government to the State Government and the first parcel of land was purchased for the Royal Botanic Gardens Cranbourne. The Gardens opened to the public in 1989 for passive recreation, with a picnic area and walking trails provided through the indigenous heathland vegetation.

Between 1970 and 1995, the Royal Botanic Gardens acquired additional land surrounding the original purchase, including the acquisition of former grazing areas and a Grassy Woodland to the south. This added valuable clay loam soils and provided a greater diversity of habitats for the long term development of the Cranbourne site. The Gardens now encompass an area of 363 hectares, (nearly 1000 acres) and has over 70,000 visitors per year.

The Friends of the Royal Botanic Gardens Cranbourne held their first meeting in 1991 and commenced a valuable association with the site. This group has actively supported and assisted the Gardens in the ensuing years and currently has a membership of over 300 people.

During the establishment of the Royal Botanic Gardens Cranbourne, the administration of the Royal Botanic Gardens has evolved. In the beginning, the then Department of Crown Lands and Survey managed the original land purchase for Cranbourne. In 1991, the Royal Botanic Gardens Act was proclaimed and the Royal Botanic Gardens Board was appointed to manage both sites, at Melbourne and Cranbourne. As a result, the Royal Botanic Gardens separated from the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources and became a Statutory Authority directly responsible to the Minister for Conservation.

Bibliography

Ellender, Isabel (1998). Unpublished report, The Royal Botanic Gardens Cranbourne. An Archaeological Survey for Aboriginal Sites in the Australian Garden.