Royal Botanic Gardens

Palace Garden Gate

Growing plants and exquisite light projections will greet audiences at the Macquarie Street entrance to the Royal Botanic Gardens at the Palace Garden Gate as part of an inventive installation designed to literally bring to life Elizabeth Macquarie’s passion for all things botanical.

Mrs Macquarie loved landscapes and, as an amateur watercolourist, she carried painting materials on her tours of the colony to sketch and capture the beauty of Australia’s unique scenery.

She also liked to share her passions and is said to have brought iris bulbs with her on tours as gifts for settlers. Today, many NSW communities still boast flourishing iris plants distributed by Elizabeth’s own hand.

With the help of Elizabeth Macarthur, she also pioneered hay-making in the colony and designed farms and gardens. Mrs Macquarie’s Road and the Royal Botanic Gardens itself were developed under her direction.

A frequent place of resort for Elizabeth, the Royal Botanic Gardens owes much of its efficiency to her patronage and is a fitting backdrop for one of the more intimate light showcases of Macquarie Visions.

“Liberal to excess in the purchase and labour of procuring native and exotic plants, fruit trees, shrubs, etc, she exhibited equal liberality in their dispersion and distribution.”

The display also references the market garden developed at Farm Cove which provided produce as the Governor’s kitchen garden.

Macquarie declared a part of his Governors Domain a Botanic Garden in 1816 when Mrs Macquaries Rd was also built through it. The Macquaries also put the wall up to protect it, much of which still exists today.

Today you can still view legacies of the Macquaries if you take a trip through the Garden during opening hours.

The Gardens foundation day is traditionally 13 June 1816 when Elizabeth Macquarie’s road to her ‘Chair’, a carved rock ledge at the Point, was completed. The new Road ran along the new Wall that bounded the new Garden within the Governor’s Domain. A remnant of Macquarie Wall begins just past the Gardens Shop after you cross the creek on the oldest culvert in Australia – also built by Macquarie’s road gang. If you walk along the harbour side of the Wall you will be treading the route of the original Mrs Macquaries Road now in the middle of the Gardens

Venue Information

The Palace Kiosk will remain open from 6pm each night www.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au