Ballarat Botanical Gardens

Located on the west shore of scenic Lake Wendouree in Ballarat, Victoria, Australia, the Ballarat Botanic Garden Reserve covers an area of ??40 hectares divided into three distinct zones. The central reserve of the Botanic Gardens has the "gardenesque" style of the Victorian pleasure garden. On either side are parkland buffer zones known as the North and South Gardens. The gardens celebrated their bicentenary (150 years) in 2007.

Renowned fly fishing author Alfred Ronalds provided some of the first trees and plants for the gardens from his nursery across the lake. # Features The gardens feature a large modern conservatory, a returned ExPOW war memorial and the pavilion with historical statues. Stoddart's statue collection consists of 12 white marble figures from Italy donated by Thomas Stoddart in 1884. The 12 statues were figures from classical mythology: Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter, Hercules, Pomona, Bacchae, Hebe, Flora Farnese, Leda, Mercury and Flora. They were badly damaged by vandals in 2002 and after repairs were placed in the statue pavilion. The statues were returned to their original 1884 plinths in March 2010. A collection of bronze busts of all Australian Prime Ministers called Prime Ministers Avenue is on Horse Chestnut Avenue. One of the founding fathers of the federation was Alfred Deakin, who was the first federation member from Ballarat and the second prime minister. The first 12 busts were donated by Richard Crouch who also left a bequest to add more busts. South Gardens is home to Australia's former Prisoner of War Memorial, which was unveiled on 6 February 2004. The 130 meter long granite wall, designed by Ballarat artist Peter Blizzard, is engraved with the names of 35,000 Australian prisoners of war. == References ==