1.2 DESCRIPTION OF THE GARDENS
As noted, the Gardens are located at two sites, one of 90 hectares on
the lower slopes of Black Mountain in Canberra, and the other of 80
hectares in the Jervis Bay Territory on the New South Wales south
coast (see Figures 1.1 and 1.2). Facilities for visitors include a
visitor information centre, bookshop and kiosk in Canberra and a
display shelter at Jervis Bay. Parking and picnic areas and public
toilets are provided at both sites, as are marked trails to help
visitors to explore and understand the Gardens.
Major buildings have been erected on the Canberra site to provide
facilities necessary for maintaining the plantings (the Nursery
complex and trades depots), research, Herbarium and library
facilities and office accommodation. Special-purpose buildings such
as the Environmental Education Centre and the Banksia Centre have
also been constructed. Infrastructure at Jervis Bay is limited to a
single administration building and associated workshops and nursery
facilities.
The living collections
The living plants cultivated at the two sites represent about 5900
species, or about one-third of the species of flowering plants known
to grow naturally in Australia. The majority of the collections is
maintained in open-ground plantings in the developed sections of the
Gardens. The component of the collections that cannot be readily
cultivated in open-ground plantings, for climatic and other reasons,
is maintained as a permanent pot collection in the Nursery and in
glasshouses.
The Gardens are arranged in numbered sections, each with a planting
theme: taxonomic themes (based on botanical relationships), such as
the Acacia, Eucalyptus, Proteaceae and Rutaceae sections;
biogeographic themes (based on ecological or geographic
relationships), such as the Rainforest Gully, the mallee shrubland,
the Sydney Basin flora and the Tasmanian flora; specific
environments, such as the Rock Garden and aquatic pools; and
educational themes, such as rare and endangered plants, cultivars of
Australian plants, and variations in growth and form. Other areas
are planted for aesthetic effect, especially around buildings.
The Herbarium
The Herbarium forms the basis for the scientific documentation and
authentication of living plants grown in the Gardens. It is a
reference collection of some 270 000 preserved plant specimens and is
a nationally and internationally recognised resource for the
scientific community. Specimens of most plants in the living
collections are held in the Herbarium and this information is linked
to that in the photographic collection.
The Herbarium collection includes mounted dried specimens labelled with information from the field notes of the collector; these are often
associated with spirit-preserved material, wood samples and
photographs. Some specimens are duplicated in the public reference
collection housed in the visitor information centre in Canberra and
at Jervis Bay.
Data collections
Data collections held at the Gardens comprise the extensive
photographic collection, the library and the Integrated Botanical
Information System (IBIS) computer information system, which, as well
as containing the most up to date references to the names of all
Australian vascular plants, contains the information that links the
Herbarium collection, the living collections and the photographic
collection in a manner that facilitates cross-referencing.