Description of the attraction
100 km west of Sydney in the Blue Mountains is the Mount Tom Botanical Garden, opened in 1972 and occupying an area of 28 hectares. The area of the garden is located at an altitude of 1000 meters above sea level, which determines its specialization - plants of a temperate climate are cultivated here, which could not survive in the warmer climatic conditions of Sydney. 128 hectares of the surrounding area are also reserved for protection and will soon become part of the garden.
The Mount Tom Botanical Garden got its name from the mountain on which it is located. The true "owners" of this land were the natives of the Darug tribe, and the word "toma" they presumably called the tree fern.
In 1804, naturalist and explorer George Cayley became the first European to visit Fern Hill, now known as Mount Tom. And in 1823, Archibald Bell, accompanied by aboriginal guides, discovered a road that runs through the Blue Mountains. A year later, the botanist Allan Cunningham, director of the Botanical Gardens of Sydney in 1837-1838, followed this path.
In 1830, a certain Suzanne Bowen bought a plot of land on Mount Thoma, which she used for dairy farming and grazing. Three sawmills were also built here, which were engaged in harvesting kochwood, American laurel and eucalyptus. These trees still dominate the wooded part of the mountain today.
Since 1934, the territory that is now occupied by the botanical garden has been in the possession of the gardener Alfred Branet and his wife Effie. Here they grew flowers, which they then supplied to florists in Sydney. In the early 1960s, the Branets decided to donate their plot of land on Mount Tom to the Royal Botanic Gardens, but they only managed to implement this idea in 1972. And to the public, the new botanical garden was opened 15 years later - on November 1, 1987, as part of the celebration of Australia's bicentennial anniversary.
Today, Mount Tom Botanical Gardens are a nature lover's paradise, surrounded by UNESCO World Heritage Site National Parks. Here you can walk along quiet footpaths under the crowns of trees, in which you can hear the polyphony of more than 100 species of birds. Among the representatives of the local fauna are marsupials, lizards and colorful insects, surprising with their unusual coloring.
