Australian Garden celebrates

By Sarah Schwager
IT WAS touted as revolutionary for gardens nationwide and was the first of its scale to open in Victoria in 150 years.
Since opening a year ago, the Australian Garden at the Botanic Gardens, Cranbourne, has more than lived up to its name.
State and federal tourism awards, positive visitor response, dedicated volunteers and a massive new round of funding have seen the garden emerge as a landmark recognised nationally and even internationally.
The Australian Garden celebrated its first birthday on Monday.
Royal Botanic Gardens Cranbourne director Chris Russell said the day was an opportunity to celebrate the efforts of staff and volunteers, who provided tours of the garden and planting advice.
“We had 25 visitors come in and share a birthday cake with us. They then enjoyed a tour of the garden,” he said.
Mr Russell said they were also very excited about the garden’s award success, with its most recent achievement in February when it was named Best New Development at the Australian Tourism Awards.
He said it was also a chance to celebrate the significant $21 million funding from the State Government announced in its draft budget earlier this month to complete the 21-hectare garden by 2011.
“The response from our visitors’ surveys has been overwhelmingly positive,” Mr Russell said.
“We have still learnt from them but it has been reassuring.”
He said one of the requests by visitors was for more information on plants and the garden.
As a result the Royal Botanic Gardens released a booklet called Plants of the Australian Garden last week, which includes where the plants are located, horticultural information about them and where to buy them.