Explore government botanist’s work at BMI

THROUGHOUT the nineteenth century, Ferdinand von Mueller was Victoria’s State government botanist, a director of the Royal Botanic Gardens and founder of the National Herbarium of Victoria.

He collected native botanicals wherever he went, holding extensive archives of Australian specimens. Sorting his records into three volumes, he made copies to share with Mechanics Institutes, including Ballarat’s.

Ballaarat Mechanics’ Institute is currently exhibiting three volumes they were gifted within The Botanist and the BMI in the Heritage Reading Room.

The BMI’s Marion Blythman said original and digitised specimens, documents and drawings and have been displayed to bring visitors in, with some contemporary photographic comparisons.

“The collection has been out before, but we don’t bring it out all the time because the specimens are fragile,” she said.

Changing exhibitions every three months, the BMI encourages people to discover and explore the library.

“We want to make people aware of what’s in the collection. People come in and they go, ‘wow.’ You can pull out books, look at them, feel them, which is something you can’t do in a lot of heritage libraries. That’s a drawcard,” Ms Blythman said.

To enhance the exhibition, the BMI is hosting events. A botanical drawing workshop will be held on Sunday, 8 March from 10.30am to 3pm. Tickets are $50 for BMI members and $60 for the public.

Brigid Corcoran from Saltbush Kitchen is running a bush foods morning tea with tastings on Tuesday, 24 March, 10.30am. Tickets are $20 for BMI members and $25 for the public. Call 5331 3042 to book.