Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria Melbourne Gardens Master Plan Key Projects 2020–2040 Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria, its Board, Executive and staff acknowledge the Traditional Owners of Melbourne Gardens, the peoples of the Kulin Nation and pay our deepest respects to their Elders past, present and future. We are grateful and extend our thanks to the Aboriginal Custodians who met with Gardens staff over many months to contribute ideas and provide input to the preparation of all documentation in support of the Melbourne Gardens Master Plan 2020-2040. 2 TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgement 2 Foreword 4 Future Developments 6 Map of upcoming projects 7 Nature & Science Precinct 8 Birrurung Gate 11 Terrace Gardens 12 Arid & Drylands Precinct 14 Huntingfield Lawn Amphitheatre 16 Lakeside Conservatory 18 Sensory Garden 19 Wild Wood 20 Creative Seating 21 Herb and Medicinal Garden 21 Nymphaea Lily Lake 22 Entrances 22 Ornamental Bridges 23 The Islands 23 Resthouses and Follies 24 Picturesque Rockeries and Ruins 24 Timelines 25 Support the Gardens 27 ROYAL BOTANIC GARDENS VICTORIA — MELBOURNE GARDENS MASTER PLAN KEY PROJECTS 2020–2040 3 FOREWORD Preparing a new Master Plan for what Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria is a As we emerge from the impacts of many believe is one of the world’s great scientific organisation and embedded devastating bushfires and the worldwide botanic gardens is an exciting and within the landscape are collections of COVID-19 pandemic, there has never important task. There is an obligation plants supporting conservation, discovery been a more important time to value and to preserve and protect the elegance and learning. The living plant collections protect Melbourne Gardens for future of the original William Guilfoyle design, evolve with the changing needs of our generations. They are, and will continue and a timely need to celebrate the community and the constraints of climate. to be, the inspiration and lungs of our city, stories of a place with deep history and and a major international attraction for Held within Melbourne Gardens is the Aboriginal heritage extending millennia the State of Victoria. National Herbarium of Victoria, home beyond its 174 years as a botanic garden. to the irreplaceable State Botanical We welcome you to embrace and support In an increasingly urbanised society Collection with its 1.5 million preserved this vision. experiencing significant climate change, plant specimens dating back to the our botanic gardens must also seek 1600s and painstakingly collected from new, thoughtful and creative ways to across the globe. The combined living strengthen our connection with nature and preserved plant collections underpin and history. Victoria’s response to urgent issues Chris Trotman Most critically at this time, there is an in climate change, biosecurity, natural Chair, 2020 urgent need to safeguard Victoria’s resource management and Victoria’s Royal Botanic Gardens Board Victoria future by protecting its State Botanical therapeutic, agrifood and fibre economy. Collection with the construction of a This Master Plan is more than plants new National Herbarium of Victoria, and and landscapes. It is about protecting to use that opportunity to unlock those an important State asset and shaping a collections for scientific research and to future for one of the most beautiful and deepen our community’s connection with important botanic gardens in the world. Ken Harrison AM nature. Chair, 2013 - 2020 In this new Master Plan, we build on The Melbourne Gardens landscape must Royal Botanic Gardens Board Victoria Melbourne’s premier green space to stake continue to change and evolve, and has out a vision for Melbourne Gardens and long provided a green sanctuary and for Melbourne itself. The premier project is botanical resource for Melbourne. The the Nature and Science Precinct which will community living around Melbourne join the Arts and Culture, and Sports and Gardens continues to grow, with the Professor Tim Entwisle Entertainment precincts as Melbourne’s population in Greater Melbourne forecast Director and Chief Executive third major destination by the Yarra River. to double to 8 million by 2040. In close Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria proximity to the Melbourne Gardens, This is an urgent yet beautiful plan, one a major new transport hub, the Anzac to preserve irreplaceable specimens Station is currently under construction. and usher in a major renewal of our This will enable more people to access the much loved and world renowned Royal gardens. At the same time, we must adapt Botanic Gardens at Melbourne Gardens. Chris Cole our botanic gardens to an unprecedented As for all master plans, we anticipate Executive Director Melbourne Gardens climate challenge, threatening natural and future readers will use this Plan as a garden landscapes alike. guide, noting specifics may evolve as new information emerges. However, the impact and ambition of the Melbourne Gardens Master Plan will remain unchanged, responding as it does to sound community consultation processes and forecast need, future modelling, and gathering evidence for climate impact of unprecedented magnitude. 4 ROYAL BOTANIC GARDENS VICTORIA — MELBOURNE GARDENS MASTER PLAN KEY PROJECTS 2020–2040 5 FUTURE DEVELOPMENTS Over the last 20 years, Royal Botanic A highlight will be a new gate to be All the projects mentioned respond to a Gardens Victoria has led many new created between A Gate and H Gate, direct need, and in some cases have been landscape projects including The Ian providing an entrance along the Gardens’ identified in previous Master Plans. Potter Foundation Children’s Garden, long northern border, resulting in a direct However, this 20-year plan provides the Guilfoyle’s Volcano, Long Island connection to the upgraded boat landing opportunity to consider more global Redevelopment and Working Wetlands, on the Yarra River. This entrance, to be options for the future. One of these all carefully guided by previous Master known as Birrarung Gate, will explore longer-term opportunities is a new Plans. The next 20 years provides the indigenous landscape and plantings with Lakeside Conservatory on the current site opportunity to continue this work. strong connections to Long Island, vistas of the Terrace Tearooms. As a ‘habitat over the Ornamental Lake and a new The key project will be the Nature & for humans’, this indoor pleasure garden arrival point to the Gardens. Meanwhile Science Precinct. could burst with plants, where people the area at A Gate, the Gardens’ second come at all times of the year to work, rest, Delivered in stages, the Precinct will most used entrance, will be redeveloped play, socialise and meet in a landscape highlight the three unique dimensions of into a terraced garden with a focus environment that provides an intrinsic a world-leading botanic garden: nature, on health and wellbeing and a rich, and profound connection to nature. culture and science and transform contemporary design. Sitting sensitively in the landscape as a the Gardens’ arrival experience and Huntingfield Lawn, a finger of land grand folly, this structure would become connection to the City Of Melbourne. The between the northern border of a major new landmark and destination in Precinct includes a sensitively designed, Government House and Alexandra Melbourne. below ground herbarium and vaults, Avenue, has long been underused. Barely the remodelling of the historic 1934 The Master Plan’s suite of new projects recognised as part of the Gardens by the building and a welcoming public space is complemented by a series of smaller general public, this area is to be gently along the current Dallas Brooks Drive scale projects including garden bed re-contoured to create a new venue for alignment. With strong connections to renovations, infrastructure restorations small-scale theatrical performances, the rest of Melbourne Gardens, Melbourne and conservation work. These include the programming and other visitor Observatory and The Ian Potter new Sensory Garden, Herb and Medicinal experiences. Following the ridge line from Foundation Children’s Garden, it will Garden, triangle beds, reworking of the Huntingfield Lawn, Hopetoun Lawn is to become the Gardens’ destination meeting Ellis Stones Rockery, rejuvenation of be developed into a Wild Wood, a natural point. The Precinct will include Oak Lawn the islands and picturesque rockeries, bush kindergarten area to provide families and extend to a Centre for Gardens and replacement of the bridges with with a natural, unstructured play space Leadership at the existing Works Yard. ornamental structures. Creating more rarely found in cities. This development appropriate landscape settings for the will relieve pressure on The Ian Potter historic lodges, follies and Gardens’ Foundation Children’s Garden, which entrances will also be implemented. receives thousands of visitors each year. A primary influence on the Master Plan has been the Gardens’ need to respond to climate change, a process guided by the influential Landscape Succession Strategy for Melbourne Gardens. The driest and hottest part of the Gardens is its southeast corner, home to Guilfoyle’s Volcano, the Arid Garden and other dry climate collections. This area has been developed into an Arid and Drylands Precinct with the rejuvenation of the Arid Garden, which showcases the valuable Fields cacti and succulent collection. 6 MELBOURNE GARDENS MASTER PLAN 2020-2040 Revitalise A Gate to focus on health and wellbeing with connection to the Tan, strong planting