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Daylesford Botanic Gardens

Other Name

Wombat Hill

Location

Victoria Street, DAYLESFORD VIC 3460 - Property No G13087

File Number

G13087

Level

State

Statement of Significance

Daylesford Botanic Gardens, set aside in 1854 as a Camp and Police Reserve, reserved as a public garden in 1862 (and slightly extended in 1870 and 1883), and developed as a public garden with input from William Sangster in 1884-85, is of State cultural significance:

- As an representative example of a regional 'botanic' garden, a garden type best exemplified in Australia by the collection of such gardens created in colonial Victoria; typical characteristics of regional botanic gardens which are demonstrated at Daylesford include a carriage drive, informal park layout, decorative structures and works such as the rotunda, tower and cascade, contrast between open lawns planted with specimen trees, areas of intensive horticultural interest, and a location in proximity to a township developed during the mid to late nineteenth century;

- For its early design and layout; the garden adopted a picturesque approach to design and this is still reflected in the surviving drive and path system and placement of major features, the incorporation of major water features (represented by the cascade leading from the reservoir), and the informal arboretum;

- For its collection of plants, especially trees, characteristic of late nineteenth century gardens (including a preponderance of conifers) and representative of the horticultural collections found in regional Victorian botanic gardens especially as a result of the plant distributions by Ferdinand von Mueller from the Melbourne Botanic Gardens; this includes some outstanding individual specimens listed individually on the Register of Significant Trees, including Pinus ponderosa (Western Yellow Pine), Tilia cordata (Small-leaved European Linden), Pinus coulteri (Big Cone Pine), Abies nordmanniana (Caucasian Fir) x2, Abies pinsapo (Spanish Fir), Cedrus atlantica f. glauca (Blue Atlas Cedar) and Pinus wallichiana (Bhutan Pine);

- Historically, for the design input by noted landscape designer William Sangster and for the survival of his 1884 plan, a rare example of a plan from this prolific designer; and

- For the manner in which the spectacular siting of the Gardens provides a key design feature and permits a panoramic view (now aided by the tower); as well as vistas within and out of the gardens this siting also permits extensive views of the Gardens from the township; taken together, the gardens and the adjacent township development form a fine nineteenth century precinct.

Group

Parks, Gardens and Trees