Wellington Botanic Garden

101 Glenmore Street, Thorndon, WELLINGTON

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The Wellington Botanic Garden is one of New Zealand's most significant public gardens, occupying an area of 25 hectares in the suburb of Kelburn. It consists of hills and valleys, the remains of a pre-European forest, mixed gardens, and plantings and buildings of significant architectural and historical value. It's history dates back to an appropriation of land from the Town Belt for a Botanic Garden in accordance with the instructions of the Directors of the New Zealand Company. It promotes an appreciation of plants and gardens, conservation, interpretation and research of historic and natural features of a heritage landscape, and public recreation to residents of and visitors to the Capital city. Wellington Botanic Garden has national historical significance as one of earliest public gardens in New Zealand. Officially established by an Act of Parliament in 1869, the garden was intended to serve as a kind of 'Central Depot for botanical and acclimatising purposes' that would benefit the entire colony. The Botanic Garden has a rich past, which has been connected to New Zealand as a whole, the Wellington region, Central Government, the New Zealand Institute, the sciences in New Zealand including the Royal Society, and the many generations of visitors to the Botanic Garden for almost 140 years. Developed by influential scientist Doctor James Hector the garden is an important scientific institution. It was founded on British ideas of a colonial botanic garden that would support plant trials, acclimatization, research into native plants and also a place for contemplation and learning. As a garden, the Wellington Botanic Garden evolved as it is not 'from any grand architectural design but from a series of pragmatic responses to the site, climate, horticultural taste, and a variety of other uses and demands operating at different time over the last one hundred and [thirty] years'. The majority of the plantings in the Wellington Botanic Garden reflect ideas about science and the taste and fashion in gardening from different periods over its 135-year history. The garden also contains buildings and artwork that contribute to New Zealand's architectural heritage and add significantly to the aesthetic value of the garden. The Wellington Botanic Garden is culturally important. It demonstrates elements of Victorian philosophies and values, such as the Romantic Movement. The Botanic Garden is often described by nineteenth century writers in terms of the sublime and savage, key terms in the Romantic Movement and romantic landscape painting. The native bush created an image of the 'forest primeval'. For instance, the New Zealand Cyclopaedia described the Garden as a romantic wilderness. The Botanic Garden also appealed to the idea of the exotic. The pine plantations of the 1870s, for example, were considered to be an exotic symbol. The Wellington Botanic Garden is also of significance from a social perspective. 'Public in its creation and the purposes it serves', the garden is both a public treasure and an important tourist attraction for visitors to Wellington City. Interest in new plants was also key to the Botanic Garden, as science was a major pastime and interest of the 'modern man'. The rare and unusual species found in Hector's Teaching Garden, made it a popular attraction. Today, the Botanic Garden continues to educate and enhance people's awareness of plants and their environment and provide appropriate recreation opportunities while protecting the diverse cultural and natural heritage contained within its boundaries.

Wellington Botanic Garden. The Lady Norwood Rose Garden. CC Licence 2.0 Image courtesy of www.flickr.com | 16/11/2005 | Wellignton City Council
Wellington Botanic Garden. Duck Pond CC Licence 2.0 Image courtesy of www.flickr.com | 28/01/2006 | Wellington City Council
Wellington Botanic Garden. Entrance gates on Glenmore Street. CC Licence 2.0 Image courtesy of commons.wikimedia.org | russellstreet | 11/04/2010 | russellstreet - Wikimedia Commons
Wellington Botanic Garden. c.1906. Muir & Moodie (Firm). Wellington Botanic Garden. Ref: 1/2-160096-F. Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, New Zealand. /records/23210053 | No Known Copyright Restrictions

Location

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List Entry Information

Overview

Detailed List Entry

Status

Listed

List Entry Status

Historic Area

Access

Able to Visit

List Number

7573

Date Entered

9th September 2004

Date of Effect

9th September 2004

City/District Council

Wellington City

Region

Wellington Region

Extent of List Entry

Registration includes the 24.7969 hectares of land comprised in Certificate of Title 48A/126, Wellington registry and is all that parcel of land more or less being Part Lot 1 of Deposited Plan 8530, Wellington Registry. The historic area is bounded by Glenmore Street, the path between Anderson Park (closed road) and the Norwood Rose Gardens, Wesley Road, Salamanca Road, and the ends of North Terrace, Glen Road and Mariri Road. This registration does not include Anderson Park, the Bolton Street Memorial Park, nor the Observatory Reserve (included in registration 7033), nor the land set aside for use by the Karori - Kelburn Tramway and its amenities as comprised in Deposited Plan 81339.

Legal description

Pt Lot 1 DP 8530 (RT 48A/126), Wellington Land District

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