Pay EXTRA ATTENTION to the TRAFFIC around Stops 10 to 13, particularly while you are considering the answers to the Tasks for these stops.
Ensure that you attend to normal hazards like traffic and obstacles when using this digital tour. Take care, and do not view the digital tour while you are walking.
This digital tour will take lead you around the Royal Botanic Gardens and the Domain. It can be downloaded for iPad or iPhone use, or accessed via the internet while you walk. The larger the screen of your device the better you will be able to interpret the images.
You will find your way to 13 locations using the TOUR map. Start your tour at location 1 and work through to location 13.
At each location you will ….
• listen to an audio commentary (it is advisable to take earphones to aid your ability to hear the audio);
• browse a gallery of related images and videos; and
• carry out some special activities as a way to think about and explore the significance of this place.
The guide also presents a suite of general RESOURCES about the Royal Botanic Gardens and its history. These include historic maps, aerial views and much other material. Have a brief look at these RESOURCES before you start your tour so you know what they contain. Explore them during your tour and during the activities as you see fit.
Students should allow 30 minutes to travel on public transport (tram) to the site from the University of Melbourne campus (see ‘Directions’ menu). Once there, students should allow between 5-6 hours on site to complete the self-guided walking tour and to work through the in-situ activities associated with The Workbook (download The Workbook from the LMS and print a copy to take with you on the tour). For the sake of safety, you should complete the tour in groups of 2-3 classmates, or with a friend, but you must submit individual assignments for assessment.
Enter at GATE H and walk along the pathway until you reach the inner entrance gate. Look at the site map on the App to orientate yourself and find stop ‘1’. Begin your walking tour at Stop 1 and follow the instructions for associated activities.
All students MUST complete the Faculty’s medical questionnaire and online training for fieldwork PRIOR to embarking on the tour.
There are 2 cafés/restaurants within the Melbourne Gardens site, however, it is suggested that you pack a lunch and have a picnic in the gardens while on your walking tour. Be sure to dress accordingly and be prepared for inclement weather. Toilets can be found near Stop 3, Stop 4 and Stop 7 of the walking tour route.
There are only two main areas of content in the Guide: TOUR and RESOURCES.
Press the TOUR button to enter the main TOUR map. The main TOUR map is zoom-able so that you can use it to help navigate around the Gardens and make your way to each stop.
When you arrive at a location, open the related Stop number which is an active button on the TOUR map.
Explore the RESOURCES by pressing this button. Press on the ‘drawers’ of the RESOURCES ‘cabinet’ to see what they contain. Press the image and video icons to view them.
You can scroll through images using arrow buttons that appear with them.
SOUND: Manipulating the volume on your device will help you to listen to the audio for each stop, but you may also wish to use earphones to aid listening.
NOTE: You can use ‘pinch-zoom’ and ‘finger-swipe’ actions (found on your device) for the images and plans presented in the guide. This will be important for you in navigating and in completing the set tasks because you need to be able to examine carefully the details in content.
This App was created for ABPL90265 History of Landscape Architecture under a Learning and Teaching Initiative Grant (University of Melbourne): 'Developing Mobile Technologies for Teaching and Learning in the Field', Hannah Lewi, Wally Smith & Andrew Saniga.
Support, advice and GIS data were provided during the development of the App by the Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne and City of Melbourne.
Authors: Hannah Lewi, Andrew Saniga, Jacqueline Monie and Anna Hooper.
Archival Research and Content Management: Jacqueline Monie, Andrew Saniga
Interaction Design: Wally Smith, Hannah Lewi, Jacqueline Monie
Programming: Daniel Trembath 314 Technologies
Support: Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne; Melbourne City Council; University of Melbourne
Almond, E. (1996) ’A garden of views’, Victorian Historical Journal, Vol. 67 (1), pp. 29-65.
Angas, George French (1866) Polynesia : a popular description of the physical features, inhabitants, natural history and productions of the islands of the Pacific. With an account of their discovery, and of the progress of civilization and christianity amongst them, London : Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge.
Bourke, A. (2006) An Historical Record: Rocks and Rockeries in Alexandra Park, unpublished research, The University of Melbourne.
Clarke, F. (1944) In the Botanic Gardens: Their History, Art and Design, with Stories of the Trees, Melbourne: Robertson & Mullens
Fox, P. (2004) Clearings: Six Colonial Gardeners and their Landscapes, Melbourne: Miegunyah Press.
Guilfoyle, W. (1908) A Descriptive Guild to the Botanic Gardens, Melbourne, Melbourne: J. Kemp, Government Printer.
Jones, D. (2001) ‘Grottoes, rockeries and ferneries: the creations of Charles Robinette’, in Whitehead, G., (ed.) Planting the Nation, Melbourne: Australian Garden History Society.
Morrison, C. (1946) Melbourne’s Garden: A Descriptive and Pictorial Record of the Botanic Gardens, Melbourne, Melbourne: Melbourne University Press.
Pescott, R.T.M. (1974) W.R. Guilfoyle 1840-1912: The Master of Landscaping, Melbourne: Oxford University Press.
Pescott, R.T.M. (1982) The Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne: A History from 1845 to 1970, Melbourne: Oxford University Press.
Watts, P. (1983) Historic Gardens of Victoria: A Reconnaissance, Melbourne: Oxford University Press.
Westbrook, N. (1995) ‘Phantom Grids and Master Views: The Melbourne Domain - Emergence of an Urban Park’, Transition, Issue 14, pp.6-19.
Whitehead, G. (1997) Civilising the City, Melbourne: State Library of Victoria & City of Melbourne.
National Film and Sound Archive: http://www.nfsa.gov.au/
National Library of Australia: www.nla.gov.au
Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne (RBGM) Library and Archives
State Library of New South Wales: www.sl.nsw.gov.au
State Library of Tasmania: www.statelibrary.tas.gov.au
State Library of Victoria: www.slv.civ.gov.au
The University of Melbourne Map Collection: http://www.lib.unimelb.edu.au/collections/maps/
The University of Melbourne Archive
Department of Visual Aids, University of Melbourne (1952) Melbourne’s Garden, presented by the Gibson Trust, held at the National Film and Sound Archive (ID: 572073-1 JBS M318)
Robbins, Thos (photography) & Bailey, E.S. (commentary) (circa 1935) ‘Beauty Spots Around Melbourne’, contained in Chronicles of a Cameraman, Sutherland Collection, held at the National Film and Sound Archive (ID: 047134-01)
Mason, Stephen (circa 1929) Melbourne: Victoria’s Capital, held at the National Film and Sound Archive (ID: 0548249-0004)
Bartlett, A.T. (circa 1940) Holiday for Two: Sydney and Melbourne, held at the National Film and Sound Archive (ID: 035307-003)
Howson, Denzil (1950) Village History, Home Movie, held at the National Film and Sound Archive (ID: 594521-1 JBS M413a) (Further information - Denzil Howson Archive: http://tdgq.com.au/dha/galleries/family/OilingProjector.html)
Take any of the following trams - 1, 3, 3a, 5, 6, 8, 16, 64, 67, 72 – from Swanston Street/St Kilda Rd and get off at Flinders Street Station/Federation Square.
Walk across Princes Bridge towards Alexandra Parade, using TRAFFIC LIGHTS to cross at any of the roads you encounter.
Head east along The Tan (the public promenade) until you reach GATE H of the Melbourne Gardens.
For a map of the Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne showing the location of all GATES and Amenities, etc, please go to: http://www.rbg.vic.gov.au/documents/MelbMap_A3_13.2.13.pdf
This site and the surrounding area were, for many, many, generations prior to British colonisation, significant traditional meeting and camping places for the Boonwurrung and the Woiwurrung people of the Kulin nation[1]. In 1837, the first Mission Station and Aboriginal Reserve was set up on 835 acres of this site to ‘civilise’ the Indigenous inhabitants[2].
Established in 1846, the Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne, (renamed the Melbourne Gardens in June 2015) is one of the two sites comprising the Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria (RBGV) the other being located at Cranbourne[3]. It is 38.9 hectares[4] in size and contains over 50,000 individual plants (representative of the 10,000 species grown and studied here) from all around the world[5]. Being both a public garden for education and relaxation, its primary role is for horticultural and scientific research into plant systematics, taxonomy and biodiversity[6].
1. ‘Connecting to Country Kit’ (Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne Education Service) http://www.rbg.vic.gov.au/ (accessed 16/06/15) p 5
2. ‘Connecting to Country Kit’ (Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne Education Service) http://www.rbg.vic.gov.au/ (accessed 16/06/15) p 8
3. http://www.rbg.vic.gov.au/about-us/our-organisation (accessed 16/06/15)
4. http://www.anbg.gov.au/chobg/bg/-dir/095.html/ (accessed 16/06/15)
5. Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria – Melbourne Map and Guide (Visitor Brochure used on 12/06/15)
6. Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria – Melbourne Map and Guide (Visitor Brochure used on 12/06/15)
Below are some of the terms and their definitions used in the audio commentary and assignment workbook for the Botanic Gardens Walk. All have been taken from A Glossary of Garden History (2000) by Michael Symes. For a comprehensive list of landscape/garden history terms the following books will also be useful: The Oxford Companion To Australian Gardens (2002) by Richard Aitken and Michael Looker (eds.) and the Penguin Dictionary of Architecture and Landscape Architecture (2000) by John Fleming, Hugh Honour and Nicklaus Pevsner (eds.)
ARBORETUM: A collection of trees of different sorts. The concept developed from the seventeenth century in Britain. The principle interest is botanical, but arboreta [more than one] can be laid out artistically with regard to groupings, and walks. (Symes, 2000:12)
ARTS and CRAFTS: (late Victorian and Edwardian). The movement initiated by John Ruskin and William Morris led, in gardening, to the use of traditional crafts and materials for garden structures. In layout and planting, however, there was no single approach to follow, and gardens could vary from the informal cottage garden to Lutyen’s ordered geometry, where the hand of the architect was evident. (Symes, 2000:12)
CANOPY: The cover afforded by the uppermost or broadest branches of trees in a wood when in leaf. (Symes, 2000:27)
CLASSICAL: A term usually applied to buildings (especially temples) in a Greek or Roman style. (Symes, 2000:34)
CONIFEROUS: Cone-bearing, especially evergreens (pines, firs), often contrasted with deciduous. (Symes, 2000:37)
CRAZY PAVING: A pavement or path composed of irregular pieces of stone. (Symes, 2000:40)
DECIDUOUS: Trees or shrubs that shed their leaves (as opposed to evergreens). (Symes, 2000:41)
EARTHWORK: An embankment or work of excavation and building up of earth. (Symes, 2000:44)
EMBANKMENT: A bank or mount built up to protect or to give a view from. In gardens embankments were often created from the spoil of excavated lakes …and formed into a terrace walk. (Symes, 2000:45)
EXOTIC: A species that originates in another country, i.e. is not native to the land in which it is being grown. (Symes, 2000:47)
FABRIQUE: (a French term) An ornamental building in a garden (especially in the eighteenth century) often with cultural or emotional associations. (Symes, 2000:47)
GARDENESQUE: A term coined by J.C. Loudon in 1832 for a style that allowed each plant to develop naturally and fully and to be displayed to its best advantage, i.e. the garden became plant-centred rather than plants being forced into a preconceived design. The concept, however, was modified, if not distorted, by later authors such as Edward Kemp (1850), who defined it as seeking beauty of lines and variety – mixed and irregular. (Symes, 2000:54)
HERBARIUM: A collection of dried and preserved plants, or the building housing them. (Symes, 2000:65)
PALM HOUSE: (also known as a tropical house, greenhouse) A glasshouse for the cultivation of palm trees and other tropical plants. The enormous progress in technology in Victorian times embraced both the use of cast iron and glass on an extensive scale and improvements in heating. These together enabled species such as palms, which required a large space and also considerable moisture, to be grown indoors. (Symes, 2000:85)
PAVILION: A garden building, often light, airy and open; or containing one or more rooms. The term comes from the large tents of the Middle and Far East. Initially, in English gardens of the sixteenth century, a pavilion was always a tent of canvas. (Symes, 2000:88)
PERSPECTIVE: Perspective plays an important part in many garden views. Just as an artist or a theatrical scene-painter can create and manipulate perspective, so a garden designer can arrange objects or plantings to bring focal points nearer or to distance them. (Symes, 2000:90)
PICTURESQUE: The Picturesque was a movement that reached its height towards the end of the eighteenth century. After William Gilpin (who first used the word in 1748) popularised the wild scenery of the Wye valley and the Lake Districts [in Britain] … Richard Payne Knight and Uvedale Price sought to define the Picturesque as a particular type of scenery that was suitable for painting – broken, irregular, varied and often spectacular…In gardens the Picturesque approach is characterised by the use of dramatic scenery (where it exists), contrasts of texture and vegetation, and a sense of wildness in that bushes, shrubs and trees are allowed to proliferate without apparent check, to give a shaggy or overgrown effect to the view. (Symes, 2000:91)
PROMENADE: An area available to the public for walking. (Symes, 2000:95)
PROSPECT: A wide, panoramic view, as opposed to the narrow, framed view of a vista. (Symes, 2000:95)
ROCKWORK: Particularly in the eighteenth century, rockwork was used in the making of grottoes, cascades and other constructions. (Symes, 2000:99)
RUSTIC: A style of constructing seats, buildings etc. from simple natural materials in a crude and primitive form. …There were designs for rustic structures in the pattern books of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. (Symes, 2000:105)
SUMMERHOUSE: A garden pavilion intended for spending time in, particularly in fine weather. What distinguishes a summerhouse form other garden buildings is not always clear, and the term is used somewhat arbitrarily. (Symes, 2000:114)
TAXONOMY: The classification of plants (or animals), sometimes including the formation of species. (Symes, 2000:115)
VISTA: In it’s simplest meaning, a view. In garden design it is a deliberately created and controlled view, perhaps framed by trees, at the end of an allée [avenue], or determined by landform, for example, between two islands in a lake. The essence of a vista is distance: the spectator’s view is focused on an object or scene, sometimes with tricks of perspective to make it look nearer or further. (Symes, 2000:129)