In my home town of Darwin we have the George Brown Darwin Botanic Gardens.
They were established 150 years ago in 1886 to evaluate plants for food for then small developing community. They developed gradually into the scientific and recreational site that it is today.
The gardens have survived some major cyclones and during WWII it was completely flattened for use of the military. After the war it was gradually restored before around 90% of it was destroyed when cyclone Tracy hit at Christmas in 1974.
A local man who worked in the gardens, George Brown, led the reconstruction of the gardens after the cyclone and went on to become curator of the Gardens and then Lord Mayor of Darwin. After his death the Darwin Botanic Gardens were renamed in his honour to The George Brown Botanic Gardens.
The gardens now have an eclectic mix of plants that range from marine and estuarine through to rainforest – a large children’s play area that has a climbing frame in a huge raintree, a cafe in the historic Wesleyan Methodist church (oldest surviving building in Darwin) which was saved from destruction by moving it from it’s original site in the city centre.
It is also a favourite place of ours to walk through on a Sunday morning – which is what we did today – despite the fact that the humidity was hanging around 92%!
I thought I’d share a few pictures I took today so you can add the Gardens to your next Darwin Trip
The fountain next to the main parking area
The waterfall in the rainforest
Lots of rain and high humidity result in beautiful fungi formations
The flowers, fruit on my favourite ‘weird’ tree – the Cannonball Tree
Thanks for the tour Sally.
My pleasure 🙂