Make YOUR wish for the future of our Gardens
On Monday 13 June Sydney’s Royal Botanic Garden celebrated its 195th birthday. This day also started the countdown to our 200th birthday in 2016.
As we head towards our Bicentenary in 2016, we want to know your thoughts and wishes for our gardens for the next 200 years. Find out about the Botanic Gardens Bicentenary 2016. Learn more.
Wishes from the local community, visitors and many public figures were hung on a wishing tree at our birthday celebrations on 13 June 2011 and we are continuing to collect your wishes. Please send your wish to i.wish@rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au
Or chat and let others know your wish on Facebook
Remember, every plant has a story to tell. Many help cure diseases, provide us with food, shelter and clothing and of course oxygen and fresh water to keep us alive. So it is important that we don’t take our Gardens and this planet for granted!
The Wishing Tree
In earlier times people believed that certain trees contained spirits and that you could make a wish by touching the trees or by walking around them three times forward then three times backward. This is how the idea of 'wishing trees' and the saying 'touch wood' originated. This Norfolk Island Pine (Araucaria heterophylla) is the second 'Wishing Tree' to have graced the Royal Botanic Garden. The original Wishing Tree was planted around 1816 by Mrs Macquarie, in the garden bed where the Wollemi Pine now stands. The original Wishing Tree decayed with age and was removed in 1945. The 'new' tree will never achieve the same grandeur because soon after it was planted its crown was damaged in a violent storm.
YOUR wishes
My wish for the Royal Botanic Garden is that it will help people to develop knowledge and understanding of biodiversity within the natural environment. I hope the Gardens will continue to provide wonderful open spaces for people of all ages and special needs.
Purple Wiggle (Jeff Fatt) of the Wiggles |
My wish for the Royal Botanic Garden is that children in particular will understand how wonderful a garden can be, no matter how big it is! Gardens are magical and they are a place where children can explore and just be! I hope the Gardens continue to grow beautiful roses for everyone to enjoy!
Dorothy the Dinosaur |
My wish for the Royal Botanic Garden is simple - that future generations continue to enjoy and be inspired by what are without doubt the most beautiful gardens in the world, set against the stunning backdrop of Sydney Harbour. We are lucky to have three Botanic Gardens in our city, each unique and remarkably beautiful. I am proud that one of my first acts as Premier has been to make the Botanic Gardens at Mount Tomah and Mount Annan in Western Sydney free for all visitors - bringing them into line with the Royal Botanic Garden. The three Gardens are owned by the community and should be enjoyed free of charge. While our city and society may change in ways we can’t imagine over the next 200 years, I’d like to think that our three Botanic Gardens will remain untouched, that families and visitors to Sydney continue to flock to their beautiful surrounds to relax, learn about nature and be inspired by their natural beauty.
Barry O’Farrell MP, Premier |
The Royal Botanic Gardens are one of Australia’s oldest and most loved public institutions. But more than a public space in the middle of a dynamic and bustling city. They are a meeting place, a venue for celebrations large and small, a place where generation after generation has created wonderful memories as they gather under the shade of these magnificent trees. The Gardens are also a living and important chapter in the story of our nation’s natural history and stand as a symbol of the wonderfully diverse environment we are fortunate to enjoy in this beautiful land. In 1816, when Sydney was a small and fragile colony, Lachlan Macquarie understood that he was but a custodian for generations to come. Today we are the inheritors of his wisdom and vision. And so, on the occasion of this 195th anniversary, my wish is that all Australians - today and tomorrow - will treasure the Royal Botanic Gardens as a great urban gift to Sydney and to our nation. Few places have been so favoured by nature as this great island continent. May we be grateful for this land, respecting and preserving it always.
The Hon Julia Gillard |
My wish is that the gardens under the aegis of the Botanic Gardens Trust will be world-leaders in helping the people understand, value and appreciate the plant world which is crucial to the survival of our species.
Prof David Mabberley |
My wish would be to increase the use of the Australian plant species from the Sydney basin to further develop a 'sense of place' unique to our location. And then a suggestion was made to me to increase the range of permanent and temporary works of art within the Gardens. The works of art could help to interpret the displays and the history of the area, provide colour, sound and movement and event opportunity to play.
Alan Jones |
Ralph Waldo Emerson once said 'Nature is loved by what is best in us' … and my wish for these beautiful gardens is that they will continue to inspire future generations, as a haven of calm, peace, tranquility and inspiration … always reminding us to continually reflect on what is most important in life.
Anne Geddes |
I wish Australians might appreciate more fully the unique beauty and fragility of our natural environment, and their responsibility to protect our flora and fauna.
John Bell |
My wish is that Sydney's Royal Botanic Gardens fulfils the dreams of the Macquaries, embodies the spirit of Sir Joseph Banks, and meets the aspirations and needs of modern Sydney. And much more! From one fine old Royal botanic garden to another ... enjoy the day, and the next 205 years!
Dr Tim Entwisle |
I wish that in 200 hundred years time there will be dancers of The Australian Ballet relaxing in the Royal Botanic Gardens taking inspiration from those magical surroundings into the Sydney Opera House for their nightly performances as we have done since the opening of the SOH in 1973!!!
David McAllister |
Australia's Mountain Ash (Eucalyptus Regnans) is the tallest flowering plant on earth and living examples in Tasmania are the tallest and oldest trees in the nation, many of them growing to nearly 100 metres. They are also exceptionally helpful to humans, locking up more carbon than any other species on earth. In Victoria, Mountain Ash forests comprise half the state's water catchment area. Yet we continue to mercilessly log these magnificent old growth forests, mostly for woodchip and newsprint. My wish is that we finally bring this logging to an end and as a mark of respect, I would ask the Royal Botanic Garden Sydney to plant a commemorative native Eucalyptus regnans so that it may become a gift to future generation’s centuries from now.
Dick Smith |
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The original Wishing Tree
Dressed Wishing Tree on 13 June 2011
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