Welcome to “Stories from the Geelong Botanic Gardens”, my personal collection of stories about (one of) my favourite places.

I first visited these Gardens in 1982, but since 2003, they have become my second home. Over that time, I have been collecting stories about the Gardens, and using them in my work with school students visiting the Gardens and also as a volunteer garden guide. The stories I’ve collected help shed light on the  history and development of the Gardens and the importance of plants that grow there.

Over time, I came to mistrust some of these stories; how old is that tree? who was responsible for that feature?

Digging deeply into the records using Trove, as well as images collected by the State Library of Victoria and the Geelong Heritage Centre, I’ve come to to discover that not everything we thought we knew was strictly true and some was downright wrong. I’ve also discovered little gems of stories that shed light on how things used to be, and even come across some modern ones.

This blog is my place to share these stories with an audience wider than my immediate family and a handful of interested staff and volunteers from the Geelong Botanic Gardens.

Enjoy!

Jenny Possingham