Wittunga Botanic Garden 40th Anniversary Celebration

Date posted: 01 September 2015

Wittunga Botanic Garden 40^th Anniversary Celebration
Saturday, 17 October
Wittunga Botanic Garden
Shepherds Hill Road, Blackwood
12pm – 4pm
Free

A free public event – featuring food trucks, vans and stalls; live music and children’s activities – will be held on Saturday 17 October, celebrating the 40^th anniversary of Wittunga Botanic Garden opening to the public.

The fun-filled celebration (12-4pm) will host Fork on the Road – which brings together Adelaide’s best mobile street food vendors – as well live music from the Band of SA Police. Nature Play SA will offer a range of children’s activities, while guided tours of the Blackwood-based Garden’s stunning Australian and South African living collections will also take place.

Botanic Gardens of South Australia Director, Stephen Forbes, said the event was a chance to celebrate one of the state’s most interesting and historic gardens, and pay tribute to the Ashby family, who bequeathed Wittunga to the Botanic Gardens.

“Wittunga Botanic Garden is filled with treasures, from uniquely Australian Hakeas and Banksias to diverse South African Ericas and stunning Proteas” Mr Forbes said.

“Celebrating lake-side with food, music and friends – cut off from suburbia – you’ll get a sense of what makes Wittunga so special, and if you’re lucky you might even spy an inquisitive koala or two.”

Wittunga was developed as a private formal English garden in 1902 by innovative English-born estate agent and naturalist Edwin Ashby (1861-1941). Ashby, however, came to specialise in the cultivation of Australian native flora after his fascination with bush plants took root, and he was fascinated by the close relationship between the water-wise Australian and South African flora.

His legacy can be seen all over the garden, including Wittunga’s innovative 1920s-built raised sandy Maluka Beds, which he developed to mimic growing conditions he’d seen in Western Australia.

Wittunga was bequeathed to the Botanic Gardens of South Australia by Edwin’s son, Keith, in 1965, and opened to the public in 1975.

Join the 40th Anniversary Facebook event page (and share with your friends!).