Albury Botanic Gardens

The Albury Botanic Gardens Collection contains a wide array of objects. Gardening tools used by various gardeners on site - including spades, pitchforks, loppers and sieves - reveal how the gardens site was cared for and how gardening technology has changed over time. Other objects such as picnic baskets, porcelain lawn bowls, croquet sets and parasols represent the social aspect of the gardens and how the public have used the site for over a century.

The collection also includes over 50 books from the library of early curator J E R Fellowes, which he used as a guide to plant identification and garden design. One of the highlights of the collection is a hand drawn water coloured landscape plan, created by Fellowes in 1906. This work demonstrates the defining moment when the Albury Botanic Gardens changed from a Union Jack design to curved paths and rounded vistas.

Another highlight is the neo-Roman recreation of the figure of the Greek muse of tragedy, Melpomene, which was located in the gardens from 1892 until 2000.

The collection also includes postcards and photographs that document the life of the gardens for over 100 years, identifying the many changes that have occurred and the public’s on-going attraction to the gardens.

More recent additions to the collection are botanic artworks created for the Albury Botanic Gardens Florilegium that depict plants of significance to the Gardens.