The National Botanic Garden of Australia is located in Canberra and is owned by the Australian government. The garden houses the largest collection of Australian flora, and the garden's mission is to study it and disseminate the knowledge gained.
When the plan to build Canberra was being drawn up in the 1930s, the establishment of a botanical garden was recommended by the Federal Capital Territory Advisory Council. A site for the garden was identified on Black Mountain and the ceremonial planting of the first trees took place in September 1949. Work then began on designing the garden grounds, assembling the collections and constructing a range of visitor facilities. The garden was officially opened in October 1970 by Prime Minister John Gorton. Today, the garden's administration owns 90 hectares of land on Black Mountain, 40 of which is occupied directly by the botanical garden. Plans for the use of the rest of the land are still being developed pending funding.
The botanical garden is divided into thematic sections, in which more than 5,500 plants are planted according to systematics or natural ecosystems. There is a small valley with rainforest, a Rock Garden with plants found in habitats ranging from deserts to alpine meadows, endemic flora from the sandy areas around Sydney, numerous eucalyptus trees (about 1/5 of all eucalyptus species growing in Australia), flowering shrubs of Banksia, Telopea and Grevillea, myrtle trees and delicate acacias.
The Australian National Herbarium is also located within the Botanic Gardens. It houses the largest collection of dried plants in the country. The Herbarium is involved in the creation of an electronic database of Australia's botanical diversity - which is about 6 million plants! Incidentally, the Botanic Garden itself maintains several large plant databases, such as the "What's it called?" - a list of scientific names ever used for Australian plants. A huge collection of photographs is also available.
