St Kilda Botanic Gardens

St Kilda Botanical Gardens are located in the suburb of St Kilda, Victoria, Australia.

Features

Registered with Heritage Victoria, the 6 hectare gardens contain approximately 810 mature tree specimens of which eight are registered as significant with the National Trust.

This combined with the Alister Clark Rose Garden, installed in the 1950s, a Sub-Tropical Rainforest Conservatory, Annual Floral Displays and local, indigenous plants provide a valuable collection of plants to study or just enjoy a picnic.

History

The St Kilda Botanic Gardens, a former gravel pit and rubbish dump, were established on 28th September 1859. The municipal council petitioned the Department of Lands and Survey to make this segment of land bordered by Dickens Street, Tennyson Street and Blessington Street a Botanic Garden. Paths were laid out, beds formed and hundreds of plants, mainly from the Royal Botanic Gardens, Melbourne, were established. With design attributed to Ferdinand von Mueller and assisted by a government grant of £100, the gardens were soon attracting many visitors.

By 1907 generous donations of money and plant material had led to the establishment of a rosary, extensive flower beds and a nursery. Exotic forest trees has been planted during the 1870s; Australian species were added in 1932. More recent additions to the gardens are the Alister Clark Memorial Rose Garden, opened in 1948 and redesigned in 1985 to is current style, an ornamental pond, collections of indigenous plants and the sub-tropical rainforest conservatory.

Information

Access: Blessington, Tennyson, Dickens and Herbert Streets. If locked in after closing there is a turnstile exit into Herbert Street.

Getting there: 96 tram to the Acland Street/Barkly Street junction and walk along Blessington Street or 67 tram to Brighton Road/Mozart Street junction and walk along Mozart Street.

Opening Hours: Between sunrise and sunset seven days a week and the conservatory is open between 10.30am and 3.30pm week days and 1.00pm and 4.30pm Saturday to Sunday and public holidays.

Facilities: Toilets with disabled access, conservatory, playground, giant chessboard and chess tables, gazebo, pond, glasshouse, Ecocentre

Restrictions: Dogs on leash, no cycling

External links

* [http://www.foskbg.org.au/ Friends of the St Kilda Botanical Gardens]
* [http://www.ecocentre.com/ The Ecocentre]