Royal Botanic Garden - From Failed Farm to Garden

Photo: Ymblanter, CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)

A stop on Sydney Harbour: Rocks to Opera House, a free self-guided tour.

You're in the Royal Botanic Garden, looking over Farm Cove, which the Gadigal call Woccanmagully. The name Farm Cove tells the story: in 1788 the new colony planted its first crops here. The soil was poor, the seasons strange to the newcomers, and the farm failed, leaving the settlement close to starvation in its early years.

In 1816 Governor Lachlan Macquarie founded a botanic garden on the site, making it the oldest scientific institution in Australia. Charles Fraser became the first colonial botanist the next year, and later director Charles Moore shaped much of the garden you walk through now. It covers about 30 hectares and is free and open every day.

Look for giant figs, palms, and a Wollemi pine, a species known only from fossils until it was found alive in 1994. For years a huge colony of flying foxes roosted here and damaged the trees; a relocation program that began in 2012 moved them on by 2013.

Getting here: Walk downhill from Government House into the garden and follow the paths toward the water of Farm Cove, about 5 minutes.

Did you know?: Farm Cove is where the colony's first farm failed in 1788 - the garden's lawns now grow on the very ground where those first crops withered.

Photo op: From the seawall path, frame the Opera House sails rising beyond the trees and the curve of Farm Cove.

More on Wikipedia: Royal Botanic Garden, Sydney · Lachlan Macquarie · Wollemia

Royal Botanic Garden - From Failed Farm to Garden

Stops on this tour