PERCHED high up on a mound that was at one time the municipal waste station, the Australian Botanic Gardens Shepparton have taken hold and are developing as a garden should.
In keeping with its importance to the community, the gardens have been chosen to participate in a program ‘Care for the Rare’ that includes planting out a number of rare and endangered plants that are endemic to the region. Having identified the appropriate location, the rare plants have been propagated by the Royal Botanic Gardens at Cranbourne Gardens nursery.
With more than one third of Victoria’s 3,600 plant species registered as ‘threatened’, the program aims to increase populations of rare and threatened plants in environments they are best suited to and where they will thrive.
Taking charge of the consignment of plants, Jillian Grant, the president of Friends of the Australian Botanical Gardens Shepparton (FABGS), said, “There are seventeen species with more to come and we have over 600 plants in all. These will all be planted out soon.”
The planting will be undertaken by volunteers from the FABGS. A number of gardens around Victoria have been selected to be in the program because they are near to where the native species existed.
The Australian Botanical Gardens Shepparton is becoming a popular place for people to stroll around due to its almost secluded location within the metropolitan precinct.
“You can stand up on the top of Honeysuckle Rise and hear nothing but the birds, it is so peaceful,” Ms Grant said.
Now in its ninth year of operation, the gardens have come a long way towards being a botanical showcase. Environmental restrictions prevent tall shade trees being planted over much of the space, so the gardens are largely the shrubs and ground covers that remain hidden in the bush while trees will be planted in the lower reaches away from Honeysuckle Rise and the wetlands.
There are a number of pleasant walks going down to the river and through the wetlands that are suitable for all ages or up Honeysuckle Rise for the more energetic.
The gardens are open every day, all day, however there is a no dogs policy for obvious reasons.
