Community
24 September, 2023
The perfect pinic spot
AS the weather begins to improve and the days get longer our thoughts turn to spending more time outdoors.
Koroit’s heritage-listed Botanic Gardens is a wonderful place to stroll, explore and enjoy a picnic with family and friends.
The garden is one of the earliest provincial botanic gardens in Victoria and features more than 100 rare and unusual trees from around the world.
In 1857 the district surveyor, Thomas Watson, provided a 20-acre allotment for public gardens in Koroit immediately south of the National School reserve.
In 1873 the site was permanently reserved as a public gardens and recreation area.
The northern portion, Victoria Park, was used in the 1870s for sporting events and the south west section became a cricket ground from about 1873 - and is now known as the Jack Keane Oval.
Famed garden designer William Guilfoyle prepared a plan for the area in 1880, which covered about 12 acres of the southern part of the reserve.
The 1880 Guilfoyle plan, drawn by Robert Whitworth, is a rare surviving 19th century landscape plan and the gardens is substantially intact to the 1880s plan today.
A stroll around the gardens will uncovered seven trees which are listed on the National Trust Register of Significant Trees, including a Rapanea Howittiana and Dracaena Draco which is included on the world’s rare and endangered list.
With so much to see, explore and discover, make sure you head to the gardens these school holidays.
