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Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria

1846 establishments in Australia2006 Commonwealth Games venuesBotanical gardens in Victoria (Australia)Environment of Victoria (Australia)Landmarks in Melbourne
Parks in MelbourneRoyal Botanic Gardens VictoriaTourist attractions in MelbourneUse Australian English from March 2015
Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne Visitor Centre 2017
Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne Visitor Centre 2017

Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria are botanic gardens across two sites–Melbourne and Cranbourne.Melbourne Gardens was founded in 1846 when land was reserved on the south side of the Yarra River for a new botanic garden. It extends across 38 hectares (94 acres) that slope to the river with trees, garden beds, lakes and lawns. It displays almost 50,000 individual plants representing 8,500 different species. These are displayed in 30 living plant collections. Cranbourne Gardens was established in 1970 when land was acquired by the Gardens on Melbourne's south-eastern urban fringe for the purpose of establishing a garden dedicated to Australian plants. A generally wild site that is significant for biodiversity conservation, it opened to the public in 1989. On the 363 hectares (897 acres) site, visitors can explore native bushland, heathlands, wetlands and woodlands. One of the features of Cranbourne is the Australian Garden, which celebrates Australian landscapes and flora through the display of approximately 170,000 plants from 1,700 plant varieties. It was completed in 2012.Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria is home to the State Botanical Collection, which is housed in the National Herbarium of Victoria. The collection, which includes 1.5 million preserved plants, algae and fungi, represents the largest herbarium collection in Australia and wider Oceania. It also includes Australia's most comprehensive botanical library.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria
Birdwood Avenue, Melbourne Melbourne

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Wikipedia: Royal Botanic Gardens VictoriaContinue reading on Wikipedia

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N -37.8334 ° E 144.98033 °
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Birdwood Avenue

Birdwood Avenue
3004 Melbourne, Melbourne
Victoria, Australia
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Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne Visitor Centre 2017
Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne Visitor Centre 2017
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National Herbarium of Victoria
National Herbarium of Victoria

The National Herbarium of Victoria (Index Herbariorum code: MEL) is one of Australia's earliest herbaria and the oldest scientific institution in Victoria. Its 1.5 million specimens of preserved plants, fungi and algae—collectively known as the State Botanical Collection of Victoria—comprise the largest herbarium collection in Australia and Oceania.The collection includes scientifically and historically significant collections gathered by Joseph Banks and Daniel Solander during the voyage of HMS Endeavour in 1770, as well as 2,000 specimens collected by Robert Brown during Flinders' circumnavigation of Australia (1801–1805), and three collections made by Darwin during the Voyage of the Beagle to South America, Australia, and the Pacific. The herbarium was established in 1853 by Ferdinand von Mueller, the Government Botanist for Victoria, and is situated within the Royal Botanic Gardens, Melbourne. The present building was constructed in 1934 through a donation from philanthropist Sir Macpherson Robertson. It, along with a 1989 extension, houses the entire collection of 1.5 million plant and fungal specimens. The Herbarium's botanic library is an important source for the history of Australian botany, and has contributed some 124 volumes (of the 1212 volumes contributed by Australia Institutions) to the online digital Biodiversity Heritage Library. The herbarium is also a partner in the Australasian Virtual Herbarium project, thereby making all of its collection data available to anyone to use. The herbarium also publishes an online key together with descriptions of plants found in Victoria via VicFlora.

Separation Tree
Separation Tree

The Separation tree was a heritage listed Eucalyptus camaldulensis tree, commonly known as a red river gum, located in the Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria in Melbourne in Victoria.Found on the Tennyson Lawn the tree was one of two original river red gums that were along the banks of the swampy billabong which makes up part of the Ornamental Lake.The tree was a Melbourne landmark and is best known as the site where the citizens of the city congregated on 15 November 1850 to celebrate when the news that Victoria was to separate from the colony of New South Wales after it had been announced by Governor La Trobe. It is one of the few trees left in the garden that pre-dates European colonization. The tree was approximately 24 m (79 ft) in height with a canopy that was around 27 m (89 ft) wide. The trunk had a circumference of 3.83 m (13 ft) at its girth. A plaque commemorating the centenary of the separation of the colonies was placed at the base of the tree in 1951. In 1982 the Separation Tree was placed on the Significant Tree Register of the National Trust of Victoria.In 2010 and again in 2013 the 400 year old tree was damaged in acts of vandalism. In the 2010 attack the tree was ringbarked and about 90 per cent of the cambial tissue removed. The wound was further widened and the remaining 10 per cent was destroyed in the 2013 attack.The tree canopy and parts of the trunk were lopped in 2015 after it was confirmed to be dead. By July 2015 only the main trunk and parts of three scaffold limbs remained. There are 26 separate plantings of saplings of the original tree scattered around Victoria including one in the botanic gardens in Melbourne and another in the garden at Parliament House.