Our guest speaker was Bryan O’Halloran, a volunteer from the Royal Botanic Gardens. Bryan hosts free walks through the gardens at 11.00am and 2pm each day except Monday, Christmas Day, Good Friday and ANZAC Day. The layout and topography of the gardens allow a huge range of plants to thrive in suitable environments. Governor LaTrobe arrived with his wife in 1839. He was a cultured Englishman with a French background.Governor LaTrobe is remembered by the Temple of the Winds and the William Tell Pavillion was built in memory of his Swiss wifeThe Gardens are located in South Yarra - they were originally planned for the area around Southern Cross Station but the current site has much better natural features and they are now 170 years old. The first Australian Botanic Gardens were in Sydney, followed by Hobart and then Melbourne.Guilfoyle was the landscape designer and Von Mueller the botanist. Von Mueller was a German with a PhD in botany and the first layout was very formal and he lost his job and was replaced by William Guilfoyle who mad wide paths and sweeping lawns.
