Inala Jurassic Garden: a global collection of Gondwanan flora on south Bruny Island, Tasmania Dr Tonia Cochran, Owner, Curator and Collection Manager, Inala Jurassic Garden, South Bruny, Tasmania
The Inala Jurassic Garden is a privately owned botanic garden located on south Bruny Island off the south-eastern coast of Tasmania. Its relatively remote location on an ‘island off an island off an island’ is rather a fitting place for a garden which features representatives of living plant families whose ancestors thrived on the ancient Gondwana supercontinent when it began splitting
Tonia Cochran. Photo: Bronwen Scott.
apart in the Jurassic period to form today’s southern land masses – quite the Jurassic Park with its plant equivalents of dinosaurs that are still with us today! Unlike the eventual size of some of its plant inhabitants, the garden is currently quite small (around 5 acres, or 2 hectares, in size). However, it is located within my 1,500 acre (600 hectare) conservationcovenanted property ‘Inala’ which is predominantly comprised of natural vegetation: mostly wet sclerophyll Messmate Stringybark Eucalyptus obliqua forest with a mix of heathland, wetland and rainforest elements and a small balance of pasture which was created by the early European settlers in the mid-1800s (Fig. 1). The concept for the garden is a culmination of ideas formed over more than 25 years of leading tours in Tasmania and across the globe and has been inspired by Tasmania’s Gondwanan connections. As the last piece of Gondwana to separate from the Antarctic continent around 45 million years ago, Tasmania is well placed to demonstrate this connection, both in terms of its native flora and its geology and is therefore an ideal base to showcase such a garden. THE BOTANIC GARDENer | ISS 56 WINTER 2021
Figure 1. Aerial view of the Inala property showing the location of the Inala Jurassic Garden. Photo: B. Moriarty.
39
