Australian National Botanic Gardens

Development of the Australian National Botanic Gardens

The first step towards the creation of the ANBG occured when the Advisory Council to the Federal Capital Territory recommended that a botanic gardens be established in the national capital. In 1933 Dr Bertram Dickson , Chief of the C.S.& I.R. Division of Plant Industry was chosen to prepare a report on the feasibility of this project.

Dickson travelled extensively both in Australia and overseas and concluded that the best site for the Gardens in Canberra was on the lower slopes of Black Mountain. He presented an extensive report to the Council on its site and development in 1935.

Lack of funds during the Depression and the Second World War delayed any action on the ground, but just three weeks after the war in the Pacific ended Lindsay Pryor, the Director of Parks and Gardens, made an immediate start on the development of the Gardens.

Pryor used the occasion of an international forestry conference in Canberra in September 1949 to have the Prime Minister Ben Chifley and the Director of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Sir Edward Salisbury, plant ceremonial trees to formally initiate the Gardens. This gave the first official recognition of the Gardens.

Planning and planting continued throughout the 1950's after the land for the Gardens had been resumed from a number of leaseholders who were using much of the area for grazing. Dr Dickson's report outlined the importance of incorporating the Australian flora into the Gardens and, with the widening community appreciation of the Australian flora in the late 1950's and early 1960's, the Gardens adopted the policy of giving priority to Australian native plants.

The Gardens' Annexe at Jervis Bay was also developed over this period as Pryor realised the need for a frost free environment to compliment the site in Canberra. A second annexe, for cold tolerant plants, was initiated near the snow-line at Mt Gingera in the Brindabella Ranges west of Canberra. After initial plantings in the 1950's, active maintenance of this garden ceased in the late 1960's.

The Gardens were always seen as a scientific institution with the early establishment of a herbarium and library and the later construction of a laboratory for horticultural research. From its inception the Gardens recognised the need for accurate details of the origin of all its plant collections and thus the need for field trips to collect material in the wild. This rather radical departure from the conventional botanic gardens practice of accepting gifts of plants of unknown origin, or of purchasing plants from nurseries, became the hallmark of its scientific collection. Field collecting expeditions have become an integral part of the management of the Gardens.

The basis of the Gardens' scientific theme plantings was established in the early years with sections devoted to different taxonomic plant groups. Ecological themes soon followed when the Rainforest Gully was begun in 1968. It was with great vision that the misting system in the Gully, which provided adequate water and humidity for the successful establishment of rainforest plants, was installed. Twenty five years later the Rainforest Gully is one of Canberra's major attractions.

The Gardens' research interests in orchids and in the establishment of significant collections of cryptogams (mosses, lichens etc) was initiated in the mid 1970's. The Gardens' living collection of Australian orchids is now the most extensive known in cultivation and the Herbarium contains the largest collection of cryptogams in Australia.

The provision of information, interpretation and education services to the public and special interest groups began in the late 1960's with the production of a guide to the Gardens and the installation of interpretive signs. Ranger guided tours, the provision of propagation workshops for school children, and the development of a regularly changing exhibition program were among the early initiatives of the Gardens' staff. There is now an environmental education centre and an education officer producing material for students and teachers to make best use of the resources of the Gardens.

The Gardens' photograph collection was established in the late 1960's and has grown into one of the largest collections of accurately named portraits of Australian plants. It also provides a photographic record of the development of the Gardens.

Electronic data management became a significant aspect of the Gardens record keeping system in the 1980's. They were the first botanic gardens in Australia to fully computerize the records of the living plant collection, and about one half of the herbarium records are now stored electronically. The Gardens now manages the index of plant names for the whole of Australia and plays a leading role in the coordination of botanical data standards for all botanic gardens and herbaria.

The process of development of the Gardens as a national scientific, educational, conservation, and recreational resource continues with major initiatives in the areas of botanical data management, taxonomic and biological research, and a special interest in the presentation of the Australian flora to the public.