FEATURE GARDEN
Wellington Botanic Garden: full circle to the future 1869–2019* David Sole, Manager, Wellington Gardens*
In an infant colony 12,000 miles from the old country, Wellington was just discovering its European self. By the mid-1860s Taranaki Whanui ki Upoko o Te Ika had been displaced from ki Paekākā (the traditional area of the city area in which the botanic garden is located), the gold rush was on in the South Island, there was an agricultural boom, and, despite the Treaty of Waitangi, land was being grabbed by fair means and foul. In a wider context Europe was going through an unprecedented period of revolutions, the British Empire was at its zenith and Australia while having its own difficulties, was already establishing significant botanic gardens. From this emerged the Wellington Botanic Garden. Originally designated in the 1839 presettlement plans for the city, it was a luxury which the early settlers could contemplate but not afford. As can be observed when flying in, Wellington was and isn’t the verdant plain portrayed by the voracious New Zealand Company. Finally in 1869, 150 years ago, the bill ‘An Act to Establish and Regulate an Institution called the Botanic Garden of Wellington’ was
A new settlement…or was it? Pipitea pa whose origins predate European settlement. Photo: Wellington City Libraries
passed and the first crown grant was handed to the Governors of the New Zealand Institute for the management and development of the garden. This meant that after the Domains Act 1868 which made it possible to evict squatters, prohibit grazing and prevent further felling of the forest and begin fencing, formal planting and planning started to get underway.
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THE BOTANIC GARDENer | ISS 53 SUMMER 2019/20
