Sydney – Part III – Royal Botanical Gardens
Thursday, our last full day here in Sydney and
it purports to be another very hot one.
Luckily we have saved the Royal Botanical Gardens for last with very
large trees for shade.
New South Wales, Government House, is situated
within the Royal Botanical Gardens, an imposing structure resembling an English
Castle. Although we did not have
time to go inside, entrance is free.
We joined the Garden Tour at 10:30 am for a one
and a half hour duration, which was also free. The friends of the gardens, all volunteers, undertake this
task. Luckily, the gentleman, who
conducted the tour, took us through nice shady places. The fern house was quite a feat of
architecture, designed by a student.
The students were all given the project of designing a new Fern House
for the gardens with no intent of any of them being used. The curator of the gardens was so
impressed with this design he left it on is desk hoping one day to procure
enough funds to have it constructed.
He estimated that it would cost ¾ million dollars to complete. One of the gardens benefactors, an
English Lady, saw the design and asked when it would be built. The curator answered that it would
probably never be built due to the cost being ¾ million dollars and there were
no funds available for such a large project. Several weeks later a cheque for the full amount was
received from the Lady funding the whole project. Hence, the magnificent Fernery, designed to deflect the
sun’s intense heat and allow cool breezes to pass through, is enjoyed by
visitors to the park today. They
even planted a fern in my honour, The Todea Barbara, King Fern.
During our tour we met Clarence, an Aboriginal
Garden Warden, who played The Didgeridoo magnificently for us. We also saw many interesting plants,
beautiful blossoms, interesting structures, lovely views and impressive sculptures.
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| Government House |
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| Todea Barbara |
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| The Fernery |
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| Blue Ginger |
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| Wollemi Pine - The Rarest Tree in the world |
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| Clarence |
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| Plumeria |
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| Giant Water Lily |
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| Giant Water Lily |
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| View to Fort Denison |
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| Barbara from the Gardens |
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| Jim at Mrs MacQuarie's seat |
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| Bronze Mare & Foal |
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| The Rotunda |
This was our last day in Sydney and it left
nothing more but to pack up and prepare to move on tomorrow. Stay tuned for South Maroota and Nelson
Bay…………………
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