Description of the attraction
The National Botanical Garden of Australia is located in Canberra and is owned by the Australian government. The garden contains the largest collection of Australian flora, and the garden's mission is to study and disseminate the knowledge gained.
When the plan for the construction of Canberra was drawn up in the 1930s, the creation of a botanical garden was recommended by the Advisory Board of the Federal Capital Territory. The site for the garden was determined on Black Mountain, and in September 1949 the ceremonial planting of the first trees took place. Then work began on the design of the garden area, the collection of collections and the construction of a complex of services for visitors. The garden was officially opened in October 1970 by Prime Minister John Gorton. Today the administration of the garden owns 90 hectares of land on the Black Mountain, 40 of which are directly occupied by the botanical garden. Plans for the use of the rest of the land are still being developed pending funding.
The botanical garden is divided into thematic sections, in which, according to taxonomy or natural ecosystems, more than 5, 5 thousand plants have been planted. Here you can see a small valley with a humid tropical forest, a Rock Garden with plants found in different habitats - from deserts to alpine meadows, endemic flora of sandy areas around Sydney, numerous eucalyptus trees (about 1/5 of all eucalyptus species growing in Australia), flowering shrubs banksia, telopea and grevillea, myrtle trees and tender acacias.
The Australian National Herbarium is also located within the Botanical Gardens. The largest collection of dried plants in the country is kept here. The Herbarium is participating in the creation of an electronic database of Australia's botanical diversity - and this is about 6 million plants! By the way, the botanical garden itself maintains several large databases on plants, for example, "What is it called?" - list of scientific names ever used for Australian plants. A huge collection of photographs is also available.
