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Located on the western side of the lake are the city's 40 ha Botanical Gardens. They were created in 1858-59 on what had been the Ballarat police horse paddock. The soil for the gardens was carted from what was then Yuilles Swamp. It is now regarded as one of the finest cool climate gardens in the country.
The Robert Clarke Conservatory is a state-of-the-art, free-standing, fully-glazed walk-through floral conservatory which, from March of each year, showcases the city's famous tuberous begonia displays. Six different displays are mounted each year with the landscaping completely redesigned for each exhibition. The Robert Clarke Centre also incorporates the Gardens Shop, the Interpretative Gallery, a visitor information service and a function room which is for hire.
Other features of the garden are a fernery, the water lily pond, a nursery, an azalea garden, a camellia garden, the floral clock (1953), the enormous trees of Sequoiadendron Avenue (planted from 1863 to 1874), Horse chestnut Avenue, Californian redwoods, the swamp cypresses on either side of the statue pavilion, the turkey oak at the entrance of Prime Ministers Avenue, the druid's oak behind Adam Lindsay Gordon Cottage, a rockery, the sensory garden with its huge bluegum, the dahlia garden (in bloom from March to Easter), the weeping elms near the wishing well, the rose garden, autumn's chrysanthemums, winter's cyclamen, spring's schizanthus and spring bulbs, summer's flower displays and two major floral beddings created each year by the planting of over 80,000 seedlings (at their peak from March to October).
The Prime Ministers Avenue (set within Horse Chestnut Avenue) features bronze busts of all Australian prime ministers. The Statuary Pavilion contains allegorical figures donated by Thomas Stoddart and J. Russell Thomson who made their fortunes on the local goldfields. Many were collected in Genoa and made of Carrara marble. A highlight is Benzoni's Flight from Pompeii.
Other attractions are the Claxton Monument at the fernery, the intricate cast ironwork of the Morey Gates which frame a pair of 19th century marble lions, and the Adam Lindsay Gordon Craft Cottage.
I'm not happy with this, but it's an approximation of what I'm trying to do--which is to play around with the kinds of botanical prints done in 18th century.
Suggestions for improvement welcome!