Continuing to grow

With abundant flora and fauna, Bendigo’s Botanic Gardens provide the perfect wide open spaces for family and friends to enjoy during the summer months

By Lisa Chesters, Federal Member for Bendigo - Photography by AJ Taylor

The Bendigo Botanic Gardens in White Hills are a much-loved and wellused space for local families and community members. Over the warmer months, families with young children like my own flock to the gardens to play on the playground and run around the great open spaces. The gardens have to be among the best play spaces in Bendigo. The gardens are also a place of choice for several community events, as well as family get-togethers, celebrations and picnics. Alternatively, some enjoy wandering through the gardens as a way to detach and enjoy some fresh air. The Bendigo Botanic Gardens have come a long way over the past decade. The most recent development, the Larni Garingilang precinct, was opened a few months ago. Its name means ‘home of growth’ in the language of the Dja Dja Wurrung. This $7 million cultural precinct features a new cafe and function centre building, gardens with more than 15,000 local indigenous plants, gathering and education spaces, wetlands and ponds, and a stormwater harvesting system. The project was funded through the federal, state and local governments, as well as a contribution from Friends of Bendigo Botanic Gardens. The new precinct has filled a void between the existing Bendigo Botanic Gardens and the Garden for the Future, encouraging people to connect and interact with the landscape and the Bendigo Creek. This development is a passion project for the Friends of Bendigo Botanic Gardens group, which first raised this project with me a decade ago.

Their passion and advocacy does not begin and end with this project. They have a proud 20-year history of support and advocacy for Bendigo’s Botanic Gardens. The Bendigo Botanic Gardens – White Hills Master Plan was adopted by the City of Greater Bendigo in 2010, setting out an ambitious strategy to enhance the existing historic Botanic Gardens and significantly grow them to include new areas and features. Since then, progressive works have been implemented, including the construction of the $4.6 million Garden for the Future project, which opened in 2018. This space has hosted a vast array of successful community events, and concerns, including the recent Zinda Festival, celebrating our rich multicultural community. In 2013, the Bendigo Botanic Gardens received a $1 million boost from the federal Labor government to help implement a master plan. The Bendigo Botanic Gardens are one of regional Victoria’s earliest established botanic gardens, dating back to 1857. They are almost as old as Bendigo itself. According to the City of Greater Bendigo, the site appeared on a plan of the White Hills township just three years after gold was discovered in 1851. In 2001, the Bendigo Botanic Gardens were placed on the Victorian Heritage Register due to their historical, architectural, scientific, botanical, aesthetic and social significance. Looking ahead, the Master Plan reveals further vision for the space, including a regional level children’s playspace, aquatic facility, wetlands and arboretum to be built on the adjacent side of the Bendigo Creek to the Garden for the Future. In the meantime, the Friends are still active in playing an integral role in supporting, promoting, developing and maintaining the Bendigo Botanic Gardens. They are always on the lookout for new members and volunteers, with many and varied opportunities to become involved. There’s also a regular plant sale each Saturday from 10am until noon at the Friends of Bendigo Botanic Gardens nursery, at the Samuel Gadd Centre within the gardens. For more information, visit friendsbgobg.org.au