Nestled 100 kilometres west of Sydney in the Blue Mountains is the Mount Toma Botanical Gardens, opened in 1972 and covering 28 hectares. The garden area is located at an altitude of 1000 metres above sea level, which determines its specialisation - it cultivates plants from temperate climates that would not be able to survive in Sydney's warmer climatic conditions. 128 hectares of neighbouring land is also reserved for protection and will shortly be will soon become part of the garden.
The Mount Tomah Botanic Garden takes its name from the mountain on which it is is located on. The true "owners" of this land were the Darug Aborigines, and the and the word "tomah" is thought to be the name of a tree fern.
In 1804, naturalist and explorer George Cayley became the first European, to visit Fern Hill, now known as Mount Tom. And in 1823 Archibald Bell, accompanied by Aboriginal guides, discovered a road through the Blue Mountains. A year later, it was followed by botanist Allan Cunningham, director of Sydney Botanic Gardens from 1837 to 1838.
In 1830, one Susanna Bowen bought a tract of land on Mount Tomah, which she which she used for dairy farming and grazing. Three sawmills were also three sawmills were built here, harvesting cochwood, American laurel, and eucalyptus. These trees still dominate the wooded part of the mountain today.
Since 1934, the area that the botanical garden occupies today was was owned by horticulturist Alfred Branet and his wife Effie. Here they grew flowers, which they then supplied to florists in Sydney. In the early 1960s the Branet family decided to donate their Mount Toma property to the Royal Botanic Gardens, but they didn't realise this until in 1972. The new botanic garden was opened to the public 15 years later on 1 November 1987, as part of Australia's bicentennial celebrations.
Today, Mount Tomah Botanic Gardens is a nature lover's paradise, surrounded by UNESCO World Heritage-listed national parks. Here you can stroll along quiet walking paths under the crowns of trees, where the polyphony of over 100 species of birds can be heard. Among marsupials, lizards and colourful insects, with their unusual colouring.
