Flora for Victoria 1996Print Page

The plaque commemorates Flora for Victoria 1996, a project to celebrate the Royal Botanic Gardens of Melbourne`s 150th anniversary and the centenary of the death of its first director Baron Ferdinand von Mueller (1825 -1896). 

The Botanic Gardens received a donation of selected plants as part of the project. 

Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria are botanic gardens across two sites–Melbourne and Cranbourne. Melbourne Gardens was founded in 1846 when land was reserved on the south side of the Yarra River for a new botanic garden. It extends across 38 hectares (94 acres) that slope to the river with trees, garden beds, lakes and lawns. It displays almost 50,000 individual plants representing 8,500 different species. These are displayed in 30 living plant collections. Cranbourne Gardens was established in 1970. 

Ferdinand von Mueller studied pharmacy and took his Doctor of Philosophy at the University of Kiel in 1847. He came to Australia in 1848 for health reasons and became a great botanical collector and writer. He was Victorian Government Botanist from 1853, and for a time Director of the Botanic Gardens. He travelled widely in Victoria and was on the A.C> Gregory expedition to northern Australia in 1855-57. He supported botanical exploration and collecting throughout the colonies. His botanical publications are very extensive, and include Fragmenta Phytographiae Australiae published over the period 1858-82.

Dr Mueller received honours from many of the ruling Royal Houses of Europe, he was made a Baron by the King of Wurtemberg in 1871, and knighted by Queen Victoria.

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