Above: The Australian Garden by the Royal Botanical Gardens Melbourne.By Emma Sun
THE people involved in the success of Cranbourne’s Royal Botanic Gardens (RBG) at the Chelsea Flower Show are still in high spirits after claiming a coveted gold medal.
Director and chief executive of the RBG Melbourne Dr Phillip Moors said everyone was still really excited that the Australian Garden did so well.
“The grins are still very wide on all our faces,” he said.
“It’s a great achievement – the first time the RBG has had a display at Chelsea.”
Director of the RBG Cranbourne Chris Russell, who was in London with designer Jim Fogarty and the rest of the crew, said working on the garden and being at the show was an absolutely amazing experience.
“The Chelsea Flower Show is the most prestigious flower show in the world, it really is quite a phenomenon in terms of the calibre of the displays,” he said.
“All of the entrants get three weeks to put their display together, on grounds that are quite small in size – about four and a half hectares.”
“There were trucks forklifts making lots of noise bringing in plants and landscape materials, and then there were some of us lying down paving while others are trying to delicately perform miracles on plants.
“It’s a really congested and chaotic period, but there was a real excitement – all building to the deadline, to having the display ready for the judges and to be visited by the queen.”
City of Casey mayor Shar Balmes said it was a remarkable and a well deserved achievement for the Australian Garden to be awarded a gold medal at the world’s most prestigious garden exhibition.
“I congratulate the RBG team for the magnificent effort undertaken to showcase Australia’s unique flora, including a number of endangered plant species native to Australia, to the world,” Cr Balmes said.
“It is absolutely magnificent that an international audience was able to view elements of the Australian Garden at Cranbourne and that visitors to the RHS Chelsea Flower Show might now include a trip to the City of Casey, and RBG Cranbourne, on their travel itinerary when they visit Australia.”
Dr Moors said they would be now focusing on successes closer home. The RBG Cranbourne, the second site of the RBG institution, will be revealing the second and final stage of the garden to the public in about 12 month’s time.
“Promoting the Australian Garden at Cranbourne was our goal,” he said.
“We wanted to use Chelsea, the greatest garden show, as a platform to gain interest and we certainly did that – the level of interest from the tens of thousands of visitors in the plants and the garden really whetted appetites for them to see the real garden down at Cranbourne.”
The Australian Garden in Cranbourne has been a 16-year project in the making and the latest development will see it double in size.
“To complete the garden to its full 18 hectares is going to be really exciting and that’s our main focus for the next 12 months,” Mr Russell said.
“It’s great to take the design onto the world stage, and I’m really pleased that we got such a fantastic reception.
“We hope and expect that the exposure we had at Chelsea really helps drive tourism to the region. We’ve seen an increase in visitation since the show which is great.”
