Canberra Botanic Gardens (1930s - 1978)

Summary

The Canberra Botanic Gardens could trace its origins to 1933 when it was first proposed that Canberra needed such a Garden, and that it be close to the proposed university and have a scientific basis. A feasibility study was prepared by Bertram Thomas, Chief of the CSIRO Division of Economic Botany, and presented in 1935, but nothing further happened for ten years. From 1945 Lindsay Pryor, Superintendent of Parks and Gardens in Canberra, made considerable progress in establishing the Gardens, including extensive contour ploughing to aid in water conservation and the planting of a wide range of eucalypts. Two annexes were established a frost-free location (at Jervis Bay) and an alpine site (in the Brindabella Ranges). Early staff appointments included botanists Erwin Gauba, Betty Phillips and Colin Burgess, and in 1956 Stan Kirby as the Gardens first full time overseer. Opened to the public for the first time in 1967, the Gardens were officially opened in 1970. The name was changed in 1978 to the Australian National Botanic Gardens.

Related entries

Timeline

 1930s - 1978 Canberra Botanic Gardens
       1978 - Australian National Botanic Gardens

Published resources

Encyclopedia of Australian Science and Innovation Exhibitions

• McCarthy, Gavan; Smith, Ailie; Moje, Christine; Rigby, Rebecca, The Study of Australian Eucalypts, eScholarship Research Centre, 2013, http://www.eoas.info/eucalypts/index.html. Details

Books

• Beer, Don, Miracle on Black Mountain: a history of the Australian National Botanic Garden (Braddon, A.C.T.: Halstead Press, 2022), 330 pp. Details

Resources

• Trove, National Library of Australia, 2009, https://nla.gov.au/nla.party-595659. Details