Description of the attraction
In southwestern Sydney, on 416 hectares of rolling hills, is Australia's largest Botanical Garden, Mount Annan. The garden, opened in 1988 by the Duchess of York, Sarah Fergusson, contains an extensive collection of typically Australian plants - more than 4 thousand specimens! It was in this garden in 1995 that the Wollem pines were first cultivated - the oldest plants on Earth, accidentally discovered a year earlier on the territory of the Wollemi National Park, 200 km from Sydney. Before that, it was believed that the Wollem pines had already disappeared from the face of our planet. These trees were so valuable that for some time they were kept in steel cages to protect them from thieves. Today, Mount Annan Botanical Gardens display the world's only collection of the first generation of pine trees, consisting of 60 trees.
The botanical garden is traditionally divided into several thematic areas - "Garden of Big Designs", "Garden of Australian Acacias", "Banksia Garden", etc. Among all this blooming splendor, 160 species of birds live, mountain kangaroos, wallaroo, wallabies and ordinary kangaroos, well known to every tourist. The garden has 20 km of walking paths and picnic areas. It also houses the Botanical Research Center and the Seed Bank of New South Wales, founded in 1986. The main task of the bank was to provide the created garden with seeds of wild plants, first of all, acacia, eucalyptus and plants of the Proteaceae family, which includes about two thousand species. Today, an important part of the bank's activities is made up of scientific research and projects for the protection of nature.
The construction of the MacArthur Center for Sustainable Living is close to completion, which has already begun implementing a number of educational programs to train the local population in organic farming. It is planned that everyone who wants to grow their own vegetables and fruits, but do not have suitable land plots for this, will be able to realize their ideas in this center.
