A HOMAGE to the Botanical Gardens\u2019 history has opened to the public to coincide with this year\u2019s Begonia Festival, with the ribbon cut on the Gothic fernery building.<\/p>\n
The original structure was demolished in 2019 and with its adjacent frame going to ruin, City of Ballarat mayor Cr Daniel Moloney said the opening will allow people to see where the new design is headed.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re making the fernery accessible to people so they can actually see the potential for the fernery,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey can see the first stage complete and what it could like as you walk through, to future stages of the project.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo have a reminder of our past and a reminder of the importance of the Begonia Festival here as part of the fernery redevelopment, I think it\u2019s really quite exciting.\u201d<\/p>\n
The opening is the part of the $1.7 million first stage of the site\u2019s redevelopment, and although the structure currently holds minimal plants, an assortment of flora will be added as part of stage two.<\/p>\n
Landscaping works will soon see extensions to the fernery with footpaths connecting to several locations across the garden\u2019s precinct.<\/p>\n
The outlines of the next stages will be decided within the next few months, and will potentially involve an additional structure to compliment the new one.<\/p>\n
The Friends of the Ballarat Botanical Gardens acting president Robert Selkirk said the group is excited for people to be able to be reintroduced to a piece of the city\u2019s history.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have been waiting for a period of probably 20 years now for all this to happen,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cEverybody who\u2019s lived in Ballarat is very familiar with the old fernery, and it\u2019s really part of Ballarat and part of the Botanical Gardens particularly.\u201d<\/p>\n
The revived fernery features two pictures at its Wendouree Parade entrance, one of its original 1800s incarnation, and the other of its steel frame counterpart.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A HOMAGE to the Botanical Gardens\u2019 history has opened to the public to coincide with this year\u2019s Begonia Festival, with the ribbon cut on the Gothic fernery building. The original structure was demolished in 2019 and with its adjacent frame going to ruin, City of Ballarat mayor Cr Daniel Moloney said the opening will allow […]<\/p>\n