Background on The Ian Potter Foundation Children’s Garden

The Site
The Ian Potter Foundation Children's Garden (Children’s Garden) is a garden within the Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne and extends over an area of 5000m2 (half a hectare).

The Children’s Garden is located at the Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne, Observatory Precinct, Birdwood Avenue, South Yarra 3141 (Melway Reference 2F K12).

Why create a children’s garden?
With increasing urbanisation and higher density living, there are reduced chances for children to venture outdoors and explore, experience and enjoy the natural world.

The Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne has created a natural experience for children that will inspire happy memories and develop a life-long appreciation and interest in plants and gardens.

The Ian Potter Foundation Children’s Garden is a magical place where children are able to dig, build, create, hide and explore as part of their everyday learning about themselves and their place in the world.

How has The Ian Potter Foundation Children’s Garden been funded?
The total cost for the development of The Ian Potter Foundation Children’s Garden is approximately $1.4 million, which includes the design, construction, and planting.

The Ian Potter Foundation is the principal supporter of The Ian Potter Foundation Children’s Garden. In addition, the Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne launched a public appeal to assist with further funding for the development and life of The Ian Potter Foundation Children’s Garden.

What does The Ian Potter Foundation Children’s Garden provide?
The Ian Potter Foundation Children’s Garden is a safe, interactive educational environment in which children of all ages, backgrounds, physical abilities and cultures can play, explore and discover the natural world.

It features plants, water, structures and pathways that reflect Melbourne's changing seasons. The Ian Potter Foundation Children’s Garden has been especially designed to intrigue, teach and excite children from a very young age about the importance of conservation and the environment.

The Ian Potter Foundation Children’s Garden has been scaled for children to create a sense of ownership, leading to care and increased responsibility for the environment. The Ian Potter Foundation Children’s Garden has been designed to be accessible to anybody including wheelchair users, visitors with walking frames and parents with prams.

Located just inside O-Gate, close to the Visitor Centre, The Ian Potter Foundation Children’s Garden provides a perfect setting for families to learn together about the magical plant kingdom.

Every aspect of The Ian Potter Foundation Children’s Garden has been designed to promote the fun and enjoyment of gardening, to nurture the link between children and the earth, and the extraordinary kingdom of plants.

From the piazza and highly ornamental entrance garden through to the ‘parterre’ styled children’s kitchen garden, and on to water, plant tunnels and bamboo forests, there is something for every child to enjoy and marvel at.

The plants of The Ian Potter Foundation’s Children’s Garden
Plants have been selected for their diversity, colour and form. They have been chosen for their weird and wonderful shapes and their capacity to delight, stimulate and invite inquiry into the world of plants.

The plant selection also is guided by the Living Plant Collections Policy of the Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne - to promote the geographical, ecological, ornamental and cultural significance of plants. Plants that help to demonstrate the scientific work of the Gardens will also be grown.

Who has helped bring The Ian Potter Foundation Children’s Garden to this point?
Students and teachers from Toolangi and St Joseph’s Primary Schools have been involved from the start of the research phase for The Ian Potter Foundation Children’s Garden. They have worked with Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne horticulture, education, nursery and Herbarium staff; played in garden beds in order to inspire some responses about what they would like in a children’s garden; and been observed at special activity stations for us to discover how children play without adult direction.

Extensive research has been undertaken with families and adults visiting the Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne to elicit their views of what a children’s garden should be and should provide.

A reference panel also has provided professional advice to the Gardens on The Ian Potter Foundation Children’s Garden’s development. The panel was made up of Ian Harris, City of Melbourne; John Raynor, Burnley Horticultural College; Carolyn Blackman, horticultural media; Bruce Echberg, landscape architect; Mary Lou Jelbart, art critic and journalist; Mary Featherston, art critic and early childhood development; and Kath Murdoch, Melbourne University Primary Education.

What is The Ian Potter Foundation?
Established by Sir Ian Potter in 1964, The Ian Potter Foundation is today one of Australia's major philanthropic foundations. It makes grants for outstanding initiatives in the arts, education, environment, health, medical research, scientific research and social welfare.