Royal Tasmanian Botanical Gardens | |
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![]() Entrance to the Royal Tasmanian Botanical Gardens | |
Location | Lower Domain Road, |
Nearest city | Hobart, Australia |
Area | 14 hectares (35 acres) |
Established | 1818 |
The Royal Tasmanian Botanical Gardens (RTBG), which cover an area of approximately 14 hectares (34.6 acres), in Hobart located within the Queens Domain.
The gardens were established in 1818 and is the second oldest Botanical Gardens in Australia – the Sydney Botanic gardens were founded two years earlier. [1] The land was originally occupied by the Muwinina people. Archaeological excavations have uncovered extensive shell middens and stone artifacts dating back more than 5000 years. [2]
The Gardens hold historic plant collections and a large number of significant trees, many dating back to the nineteenth century. It also has an increasing number of important conservation collections of Tasmanian plants, of which the King's Lomatia is one of the most unusual, and the world's only Subantarctic Plant House. Here, plants from subantarctic islands in high southern latitudes are displayed in a climatically-controlled environment, where chilly fogs and mists mirror the wet, cold conditions of their island homes. The plants of the Subantarctic Plant House have been collected by Gardens staff and associated scientists on field trips to Macquarie Island.
The visitor centre houses a restaurant, souvenir shop, and a gallery with regularly changing displays by local artists, together with a display area containing the Gardens' own exhibitions.
Prior to European settlement, local Aboriginal tribes used the site, and traces of their occupation are still apparent.
From 1996, the Gardens have contained The Patch, a working display garden which regularly appears on Gardening Australia. [3] [4]
The Royal Tasmanian Botanical Gardens are known to be supportive of the local community, including hosting an exhibition in February 2011 of photos created by students at OAK Community Services. [5]
In early 2011 the Gardens played host to Power Plant, a sound and light show that came straight from a sell out season in Hong Kong. The show was installed into the gardens as part of the Ten Days on the Island 2011 Festival. [6]
Hobart is the capital and most populous city of the island state of Tasmania, Australia. Located in Tasmania's south-east on the estuary of the River Derwent, it is the southernmost capital city in Australia. Despite containing nearly half of Tasmania's population, Hobart is the least-populated Australian state capital city, and second-smallest by population and area after Darwin if territories are taken into account. Its skyline is dominated by the 1,271-metre (4,170 ft) kunanyi / Mount Wellington, and its harbour forms the second-deepest natural port in the world, with much of the city's waterfront consisting of reclaimed land. The metropolitan area is often referred to as Greater Hobart, to differentiate it from the City of Hobart, one of the seven local government areas that cover the city. It has a mild maritime climate.
Tasmania is an island state of Australia. It is located 240 kilometres to the south of the Australian mainland, and is separated from it by the Bass Strait. The state encompasses the main island of Tasmania, the 26th-largest island in the world, and the surrounding 1000 islands. It is Australia's least populous state, with 569,825 residents as of December 2021. The state capital and largest city is Hobart, with around 40% of the population living in the Greater Hobart area. Tasmania is the most decentralised state in Australia, with the lowest proportion of its residents living within its capital city.
Macquarie Island is an island in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, about halfway between New Zealand and Antarctica. Regionally part of Oceania and politically a part of Tasmania, Australia, since 1900, it became a Tasmanian State Reserve in 1978 and was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1997.
Government House, Hobart, is the home and official residence of the governor of Tasmania, Australia. The palatial house is located on Lower Domain Road in the Queens Domain, near the Royal Tasmanian Botanical Gardens. There have been three Government Houses, all in Hobart.
The Wych Elm cultivar Ulmus glabra 'Lutescens', commonly known as the Golden Wych Elm, arose as a sort of a wych found in the York area in the early 19th century by W. Pontey of Pontey's nursery, Kirkheaton, Huddersfield, who propagated and distributed it. The original tree he named the Gallows Elm for its proximity to a gallows near York. Loudon in The Gardener's Magazine (1839) identified it as a form of Ulmus montana, adding 'Lutescens' by analogy with Corstorphine sycamore, Acer pseudoplatanus 'Lutescens'.
The Royal Hobart Regatta is a series of aquatic competitions and displays held annually in Hobart, Tasmania, Australia and is Tasmania's oldest sporting event. The regatta began in 1838.
Leonard Rodway was an English-born Australian dentist and botanist.
The Royal Society of Tasmania (RST) was formed in 1843. It was the first Royal Society outside the United Kingdom, and its mission is the advancement of knowledge.
The Field Elm cultivar Ulmus minor 'Argenteo-Variegata' or simply 'Variegata', known in Australasia and North America as Silver Elm or Tartan Elm, is said to have been cultivated in France from 1772. Green noted that variegated forms of Field Elm "arise frequently, and several clones may have been known under this name". Dumont de Courset (1802) listed an U. campestris var. glabra variegata, Loudon (1838) an U. nitens var. variegata, and Wesmael (1863) an U. campestris var. nuda microphylla variegata.
The Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery (TMAG) is a museum located in Hobart, Tasmania. The museum was established in 1846, by the Royal Society of Tasmania, the oldest Royal Society outside England. The TMAG receives 400,000 visitors annually.
Buckingham Land District is one of the twenty land districts of Tasmania which are part of the Lands administrative divisions of Tasmania. It was formerly Buckingham County, one of the 18 counties of Tasmania and one of the first eleven proclaimed in 1836 and is bordered to the north by the River Derwent, and to the south by the Huon River. It includes Bruny Island. Hobart is located in the county. It was named after the then county of England.
Gardening Australia is an Australian lifestyle television program which suggests and promotes organic and environmentally friendly ways of gardening. It is created by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and airs on ABC TV, as of 2021 in an hour-long weekly show each Friday evening.
Smooth Island, is a privately owned island with an area of 59.31 ha lying close to the south-eastern coast of Tasmania, Australia. The island is part of the Sloping Island Group situated in Norfolk Bay and surrounded by the Tasman and Forestier Peninsulas. The towns Dunalley and Murdunna are nearby. Smooth Island differs from other Tasmanian islands as it has an unencumbered freehold title down to the high-water mark.
Damnamenia is a genus of flowering plants in the family Asteraceae.
The Hope Island, part of the Partridge Island Group, is a small island that lies close to the south-eastern coast of Tasmania, Australia. The island is located in the D'Entrecasteaux Channel between Bruny Island and the Tasmanian mainland. Its neighbouring islets are named Faith and Charity, and also the Arch Rock.
Gahnia grandis is a tussock-forming perennial plant found in southeastern mainland Australia and Tasmania.
Corybas dienemus, commonly known as the windswept helmet-orchid, is one of two helmet orchids endemic to Australia's subantarctic Macquarie Island, and the first orchid to be found there. It is a relatively small orchid with green flowers with purplish-red markings and was discovered in 1978.
Leptinella plumosa is a small flowering plant in the daisy family. It is a circumantarctic species found on many subantarctic islands in the Southern Ocean. The specific epithet comes from the Latin for “feathery”, referring to the form of the leaves.
The British colonisation of Tasmania took place between 1803 and 1830. Known as Van Diemen's Land, the name changed to Tasmania, when the British government granted self-governance in 1856. It was a colony from 1856 until 1901, at which time it joined five other colonies to form the Commonwealth of Australia. By the end of the colonisation in 1830 the British Empire had annexed large parts of mainland Australia, and all of Tasmania.
The Lady Franklin Gallery and Ancanthe Park is a historic sandstone museum and 2.96-hectare (7.3-acre) parkland in Lenah Valley, Tasmania, Australia. When it opened on 26 October 1843, it became the first privately funded museum in Australia.