Page 16 - Luce 2021

P oint of View

Prof Tim Entwisle (1978)

celebrates 125 years of the

Royal Botanic Gardens

The year 2021 was a milestone for Royal Botanic Gardens
Victoria. As current director and chief executive of the
Gardens – encompassing the two stunning botanic gardens
at Melbourne and Cranbourne – I stand on the shoulders of
the scientists, botanists, horticulturalists and other leaders
who have guided the organisation for 175 years. My particular
pleasure has been guiding our much-loved Gardens into the A great botanic garden can address the existential threats
twenty-first century, into a forward-looking, contemporary of our time – such as climate change and plant extinction –
scientific and cultural organisation, and the natural heart while simultaneously serving up some of the most exquisitely
(and mind) of Melbourne. crafted landscapes you are ever likely to encounter. They are
multisensory places, places with wide vistas and cosy nooks,
It is also an important time in history to acknowledge full of scent, birdsong, animal life and a panoply of people
the traditional owners of the land occupied by the two from all walks of life and at every age and stage. There is no
Gardens and give thanks for their custodianship, foresight contradiction in a garden combining and holding all these
and innovative land and water management over some ideas and life forms at once.
40,000 years.
To that end, at Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria we publish
‘Why not combine all?’ These were the words scrawled by pioneering scientific plant research and curate vast collections
the landscape designer of Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne, of botanical landscapes and extraordinary living and
William R. Guilfoyle, on a pamphlet by Ferdinand von preserved plants (including their seeds and genomes), while
Mueller, the scientist he replaced as director in 1873. Shortly at the same time producing and presenting music and theatre
before von Mueller was (rather pointedly) removed from performances, light and sound installations, visual art and
office, he pleaded his case for the ideal botanic garden – one photography exhibitions, environmental and interpretation
he was in the process of creating – at a public lecture held projects, nature-based learning programs – and even a circus
in Melbourne’s Museum in 1871. Clearly on the defensive, or two!
von Mueller insisted the primary purpose of a botanic garden
was to gather together the world’s plants, and to display them What would von Mueller and Guilfoyle have thought of
in a way that best demonstrates their various scientific and this? Despite their differing perspectives on the objects of a
economic qualities. ‘All other objects are secondary,’ said botanic garden, I’m sure both would embrace the breadth
von Mueller, ‘or the institution ceases to be a real garden of our engagement with Victorians and visitors. Von Mueller
of science.’ was known to parade around wearing his medals and awards
at performances by military bands in the Gardens. Guilfoyle
Annotating his personal copy of the published transcript, most held extremely popular moonlight concerts, illuminated by
likely as he was preparing to take up his new role, Guilfoyle gaslight. Whatever they wrote and said, both saw this place as
begged to differ, having no need for such a hierarchy of more than a garden. As do I. Although… I must add that Alex
purposes. He was entirely at ease with von Mueller’s garden Jessep, director from 1941 to 1951, was less enthusiastic about
of science – but surely, wrote Guilfoyle in another note, ‘these music in the Gardens. To be fair, he was expected to host up
need not clash with the picturesque’. to 120,000 people at summer concerts on Central Lawn –
until the construction of Sidney Myer Music Bowl solved that
I am with Guilfoyle on this one. A botanic garden can and particular dilemma for him.
must ‘combine all’. For me, gardens are the most diverse
places around, places in which the realms of nature, culture Oxford Economics, in a recent valuation of Royal Botanic
and science naturally co-exist and commingle, weaving Gardens Victoria, calculated a ‘non-use value’ to Victorians of
narratives of the past, present and future in unique ways. $18.3 million a year. That is what the community said it was
There is nowhere else in our cities, or on earth, where this willing to pay even if they never visit one of our two sites in
can happen so well as in a botanic garden. person, and it is in addition to all those more tangible values
such as education, biodiversity services, tourism and science.
People visit a botanic garden for many reasons. A great
botanic garden is many things to many people. We welcome Over 175 years, our Gardens have evolved along with the
visitors on their own terms, whether they want to learn about people and the state we serve. You can track this change
plants, luxuriate on the lawns, or come seeking sanctuary, through favourite plantings such as von Mueller’s cork
health, or social connection. Then, if they have the time and oaks and pines, Guilfoyle’s palms and araucarias (with his
the inclination, visitors begin a journey deeper into nature and bunya pines photo-bombing just about any vista you care
a growing awareness of the importance of plants to life on to photograph today), Alex Jessep’s camellias, Phil Moors’
earth; if already scientifically inclined, perhaps experiencing re-creation of Royal Botanic Gardens Cranbourne in the
that additional thrill of the poetry and sheer beauty of the early 2000s, and even the most recent commemorative trees
world’s plants assembled in the one place. planted by Victorian luminaries Nick Cave and Michael
Leunig. While over half the trees are Australian natives (many
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