Gardens of the Goldfields

In 1857, only a few short years after the gold rush commenced, the miners at Ballarat and Bendigo dreamt of shady trees, green lawns, lakes and ducks, flowers beds and bandstands, and 150 years later their dreams survive. The beautiful gardens of the Goldfields embody some of the most interesting strands of nineteenth century thinking and development. There are grand ideas to meditate upon as you sip on a glass of central Victorian wine in the shade of a 150-year-old tree.  

Egalitarian democracy
Underwritten by the world’s richest goldfields, the Goldfields gardens were always intended to be enjoyed by everyone for free. But they were not just for enjoyment, they were intended to educate, and to help spread new species. This was embodied in the beliefs of Baron Ferdinand von Mueller, the first director of the Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne, who supplied the Goldfields gardens with cuttings and seedlings.

Landscape gardening
The landscape style developed in England in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries melded the work of man and nature and provided two highly qualified curators for two of the Goldfields gardens. The most famous exponent of the English style was Lancelot 'Capability' Brown, who laid the foundation for the gardens of Chatsworth House, England and had a hand in the gardens around Lowther Castle. The Chatworth gardens were completed by Joseph Paxton. One of Paxton's apprentices, Philip Doran, became the curator of the Castlemaine Botanic Gardens for 47 years. George Longley who trained as a horticulturalist at Lowther Castle, was the curator at the Ballarat Botanical Gardens for 40 years.