Royal Botanic Garden Sydney

The Royal Botanic Garden, Sydney is a heritage-listed major 30-hectare (74-acre) botanical garden, event venue and public recreation area located at Farm Cove on the eastern fringe of the Sydney central business district, in the City of Sydney local government area of New South Wales, Australia.

Opened in 1816, the garden is the oldest scientific institution in Australia and one of the most important historic botanical institutions in the world. The overall structure and key elements were designed by Charles Moore and Joseph Maiden, and various other elements designed and built under the supervision of Allan Cunningham, Richard Cunningham, and Carrick Chambers. The garden is owned by the Government of New South Wales and administered by the Royal Botanic Gardens and Domain Trust. The Botanic Garden, together with the adjacent Domain were added to the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 2 April 1999.The Garden and The Domain are open every day of the year and access is free. Its stunning position on Sydney Harbour, the Sydney Opera House and the large public parklands of The Domain ensure it is one of the most visited attractions in Sydney. The garden is bordered by the Cahill Expressway to the south and west, Macquarie Street to the northwest, Art Gallery Road to the east, and Sydney Harbour to the north.

The first farm by European settlers on the Australian continent, at Farm Cove, was established in 1788 by Governor Phillip. Although that farm failed, the land has been in constant cultivation since that time, as ways were found to make the relatively infertile soils more productive. The Botanic Garden was founded on this site by Governor Macquarie in 1816 as part of the Governor's Domain. Australia's long history of collection and study of plants began with the appointment of the first Colonial Botanist, Charles Fraser, in 1817. The Botanic Gardens is the oldest scientific institution in Australia and, from the earliest days, has played a major role in the acclimatisation of plants from other regions. After a succession of colonial botanists and superintendents, including the brothers Richard and Allan Cunningham, both also early explorers, John Carne Bidwill was appointed as the first Director in 1847. Charles Moore was possibly the most influential Director, with his responsibility spanning 48 years, from 1848 to 1896. Moore was succeeded by Joseph Maiden who added much to Moore's maturing landscape, and served for a period of 28 years.

The Garden comes under the responsibility of the Royal Botanic Gardens and Domain Trust, established in 1980 by act of the New South Wales Parliament. The Domain Leasing Act 1961 was repealed and An Act to constitute the Royal Botanic Gardens and Domain Trust was passed, defining its powers, authorities, duties and functions. The trust is also responsible for the adjoining public open space of The Domain as well as the Australian Botanic Garden Mount Annan in western Sydney and the Blue Mountains Botanic Garden Mount Tomah in the Blue Mountains. While the Trustees provide oversight of the lands under legislative guidelines, the day-to-day operational management of the Garden is undertaken by staff. In 2014 it was announced that the Royal Botanic Gardens and Domain Trust would be known as the Botanic Gardens & Centennial Parklands, widening responsibilities to take in the heritage-listed Centennial Parklands that includes Centennial, Moore and Queens parks.

The Royal Botanic Garden consist of 29 hectares (72 acres) of closely cultivated land surrounded by 51 hectares (130 acres) of open parklands comprising The Sydney Domain. The Garden forms a large natural amphitheatre, wrapped around and sloping down towards the 'stage' of Farm Cove. It is divided into four major precincts called the Lower Gardens, the Middle Gardens, the Palace Gardens and the Bennelong precinct. Within the four major precincts are many smaller gardens and features as well as large amounts of lightly wooded lawn areas. Located approximately in the middle of the four precincts is the Palm Grove Centre which offers a restaurant, cafe, visitors centre and bookshop. A large and complex public botanic garden, largely of late 19th-century character; being not only an historic site of the first importance but containing within it numerous structures which have been nominated separately by the National Trust of Australia (NSW). A predominantly nineteenth century character of landscape layout strengthened by large mature trees. Traditionally designated as four areas reflecting its development.The single most distinct landscape feature in the Garden is the historic hand-hewn sandstone seawall that curves around Farm Cove from Mrs Macquarie's Point to the Opera House, delineating the garden from the harbour and providing a focal point for visitors, joggers and photographers.

The layout of the Gardens is exceptionally important, each area (the Middle garden, the Lower Garden, the Palace Lawn etc.) reflects an important stage in the development of the Garden and the current fashion in landscape design almost from the founding of the colony. The squared beds of the Middle Garden are traditionally believed to reflect the first furrows and shortly thereafter the first garden plots of the new settlement. The old Garden Palace grounds is the area bordering Macquarie Street and the Conservatorium of Music (former Government House stables). The Middle Garden is the first farm site. The Upper garden comprises the southern section housing administrative offices and National Herbarium on Mrs Macquarie's road as well as the nursery and depot area bordering the Cahill Expressway. The Lower Garden comprises the rest of the area extending north of the Middle Garden to Farm Cove.The Garden Palace grounds being the highest point have excellent views and are maintained as lawn areas, garden beds, Australian shrubs and turf species. The area was originally enclosed by a paling fence for grazing the Governor's stock. An ornamental fence was constructed along Macquarie Street and in the grounds stood the Garden Palace built 1879 which was destroyed by fire in 1882.The Middle Garden is now the most closely cultivated section of the gardens where both native and exotic species are well labelled. It included the spring walk famous for its azalea display, one of the finest collections of outdoor palms in the world and a 1970s succulent garden. Some of the Lower Garden was laid out by Charles Fraser and features ponds which are frequented by waterfowl including Australian Black Swans which breed successfully in the environment.

The library at the Royal Botanic Gardens was established in 1852. It is named after Daniel Solander (1733–1782) who was a student of Linnaeus and held positions at the British Museum, including working in the library. He was employed in 1768 by Joseph Banks to accompany him on HMS Endeavour on James Cook's first voyage to the Pacific. On their return to England in 1771 he became Banks' botanist and librarian. The library is the oldest botanical research library in Australia. The library has a collection of horticultural, botanic and taxonomic literature and is located within the National Herbarium of New South Wales which has samples collected by Banks and Solander on the voyage with James Cook amongst more than 1.2 million plant specimens.

The Royal Botanic Garden was for decades home to a large colony of native Grey-headed Flying Foxes, a large species of fruit bat. The colony (estimated to be over 20,000 strong at times) caused significant damage to the trees used for roosting, especially around the Palm Grove Centre where dozens of historic trees were killed or severely damaged. In May 2010 the trust announced a plan to evict the colony from the gardens by driving them away with repeated playing of extremely loud recorded noise. This plan was subsequently held up for several years by court action instigated by an animal welfare group but approval was finally given to the trust to proceed in June 2012. By June 2013 the bats had entirely left the Garden and the damaged trees had started to recover.In an ironic coda, many of the bats displaced from the garden were found to have moved to a native bushland site on the north coast of New South Wales which was scheduled to be destroyed for an upgrade of the Pacific Highway, the main road linking Sydney with Brisbane. The destruction of the forest and displacement of that colony became a publicly contentious environment-versus-development issue in early 2014 and the building of the road was delayed pending a court-ordered federal government environmental assessment.

As at 22 September 1998, the Royal Botanic Garden and The Domain collectively are of exceptional national, state and local significance as: