Gardens around the Gardens
Open Gardens in Daylesford to support the Restoration of Wombat Hill Botanic Gardens
Ray Robinson - 3 Camp Street, Daylesford
A small, densely planted woodland style of garden. Also includes an intensively cultivated vegetable garden.
Daylesford House - 8 Smith Street, Daylesford
One of the great gardens planted by the prosperous burghers of the town after the Gold Rush, recently renovated with classical features.
Holly Lodge - 19 Grenville Street, Daylesford.
A recently restored large stroll garden featuring both traditional and contemporary plantings. A seasonal delight.
Kilmaley - 25 Stanbridge Street, Daylesford
Walnuts and chestnuts frame magical walks, berries, hedges and ve getables. Ticino style planting recalls Daylesford’s Swiss Italian heritage.
Villa Castagna - 12A Stanhope Street, Daylesford
One and a quarter acre Neo-Baroque garden with intricate rooms and significant trees.
Concert 5.00 pm - At the hedge theatre, Villa Castagna, 12A Stanhope Street, John Weretka (tenor viola da gamba) and Brian Johnson (virginals) will be presenting a programme of dance tunes drawn from John Playford’s ‘Dancing-Master‘ (1709), as well as compositions by Godfrey Finger and Diego Ortiz. Entry with Gardens around the Gardens ticket. Win by O’Shea and Murphy will be available.
Talks: 11am - 1pm Wombat Hill Botanical Gardens by David Glen, Paul Bangay and Stephan Ryan.
Plants Sales: 10am - 2pm Wombat Hill Botanical Gardens
Date: Sunday 4th December - Gardens Open 10am - 4pm
Cost: Tickets $10 (all inclusive entry to all gardens - Children FREE)
Tickets available from the Wombat Hill Botanic Gardens and individual gardens
This event follows the opening on the 19th and 20th of November of Stuart Rattle’s Musk Farm.
All proceeds will go to support the restoration of the Wombat Hill Botanic Gardens in Daylesford.
Wombat Hill Botanic Gardens Restoration
The Wombat Hill Botanic Gardens in Daylesford are a remarkably unspoilt example of the type of public gardens established throughout Victoria in the nineteenth century. The gardens, which include one of Australia’s finest pinetums, are of historic and cultural significance. They were built on crown land to a design by noted Victorian garden designers Taylor and Sangster. The gardens were intended to be of scientific importance and to provide a place for pleasure and recreation. In the garden’s heyday bands played in the Rotunda, water cascaded from fountains and a stream trickled though the rustic fernery leading to a grotto filled with water lilies.
Sadly, the Rotunda, Rustic Cascade, Fernery and even the paths have all but disappeared. The planned restoration will return these elements to their former splendour.
The Friends of Wombat Hill Botanic Gardens are delighted to announce that support is to be offered by the owners of a number of significant private gardens in the Daylesford area. Between November 2011 and April 2012 these gardens will be open to the public as part of a major fundraising effort to restore the Wombat Hill Botanic Gardens. These gardens - rarely open to the public - will be seen in all their seasonal glory
For more information on the Friends of the Wombat Hill Botanic gardens download the FWHBG Membership Form (pdf) or email Patrice O’Shea patriceoshea68@gmail.com
You mean that even in the 19th century, the gardens were intended to be of scientific importance? I am delighted. I would love to see turn-of-the-century photos of bands playing in the Rotunda, fountains, ferneries and the grotto. We tend to think that our generation “invented” pleasure, recreation and certainly science.