Description of the attraction
Fitzroy Gardens is a small park of only 26 hectares at the southeast end of Melbourne's downtown area. It is named after Charles Augustus Fitzroy, Governor of New South Wales. Today it is one of Australia's premier Victorian parks and, along with other "green islands", gives Melbourne the right to be called the "city of gardens".
There are several important historical sites in the park - first of all, this is Captain Cook's Cottage, brought to Australia from England, and the brick house built in 1864 by James Sinclair, a famous gardener who was directly involved in the creation of Fitzroy Gardens. By the way, he was also involved in landscaping the Vorontsov palaces in the Crimea and the Royal Garden in St. Petersburg, for which he received the Imperial Order of St. Anna from the hands of Nicholas I. a model of a Tudor village.
But, of course, the main decoration of the park is its amazing trees planted along many walking paths. According to architect Clement Hodgkinson, Fitzroy Gardens was supposed to be an open woodland with winding paths. Rapidly growing blue eucalyptus and Australian acacias were first planted in the park to create shelterbelts. Elms were then planted along the footpaths, which, viewed from above, form the Union Flag, the national flag of the United Kingdom. In the 1880s and 90s, many eucalyptus and elms were relocated to other parks to make room for other trees, as well as expansive lawns and ornamental beds.
In Fitzroy Gardens, you can see a scarred tree with a sign that reads: “Such scars remained on trees when the natives removed the bark to make canoes, shields, containers for food and water, kangaroo bags for carrying children. and other items. Please respect this place. It is of immense importance to the Wurungeri Aborigines, the guardians of this land, and is part of the heritage of all Australians.”
