The primary James Cook University living collection is found on our Townsville, QLD campus, 386Ha at the base of Mount Stuart. Additional collections are held across our various other campuses, namely in Cairns, Daintree, Orpheus Island and Fletcherview Station.
The Townsville collection is spread across 100Ha of developed campus, featuring ponds, ecosystem gardens and a large array of threatened flora, as well as over 280Ha of bushland, mixed between 5 dominant regional ecosystems.
The primary focus within the collection is based around the tropics, with emphasis on rare and unique species. Major collections held include the Cycad Collection, Myrtle Rust Initiative and the Threatened Species Program. The collections are used in teaching, learning and research by our staff and students, as well as supplying local landcare and conservation bodies of NQ. Each new garden added to campus is focused around our seven collection principles, Education and Research, Connection to Country, Cultural Significance, Conservation, Mental Health, Sustainability and Aestetics.
These collections are open to the public and are often used by local schools for interactive learning experiences. In addition, the collection and the team who manage it are involved in various specialist conservation groups, including programs under the IUCN, as well as Federal and State Governments.
The Diggers Foundation is Australia’s leading gardening charity, custodian of a legacy that began in 1978 when Clive and Penny Blazey founded The Diggers Club in Melbourne as a commercial nursery and seed business. Preservation and conservation sat at the core of the Blazeys’ vision from the start – preserving historic houses and gardens such as Heronswood (circa 1864) and The Garden of St Erth (circa 1855), planting water-saving gardens, and championing heirloom vegetable and flower seeds in the face of corporatisation.
In 2011, the Blazeys took the significant step of establishing The Diggers Foundation as a registered not-for-profit charity, gifting The Diggers Club business along with their privately-owned properties, Heronswood and The Garden of St Erth, to the Foundation. Today The Diggers Club is Australia’s largest gardening community, with over 85,000 members nationwide, and all its proceeds – membership, sales and garden entry – are now channelled into the Foundation’s charitable mission.
What it does The Foundation’s work spans preserving historic houses, gardens and arboretums, rescuing heirloom seeds through its “Support a Seed” initiative, and its “Seed the Future” community program, which has donated over 1.2 million seeds to community groups since 2023. Its broader focus is the conservation, protection and enhancement of botanical and ecological habitats, historic gardens and buildings, and cultural heritage, achieved through property stewardship, research and community education.
The gardens The Foundation owns and cares for several significant Australian gardens:
Heronswood (Mornington Peninsula) – the home of The Diggers Club and the first public garden in Australia to be certified organic.
The Garden of St Erth – a property with a history going back over 150 years, in Diggers’ care since 1996, spanning over 4 acres of food, cottage and bush gardens.
Cloudehill – acquired as the third garden under the Foundation’s stewardship, giving Diggers Club members free access and other visitors entry for a small fee to help fund upkeep.
Founders Clive Blazey AM is the author of eight gardening books and led the club to five awards for heirloom vegetable seed preservation. He was made a Member of the Order of Australia in 2019 for services to horticulture and conservation. As Clive Blazey has put it, when custodians are lucky enough to hold places like Heronswood or Cloudehill, they come to see that such gardens should never be traded like real estate but preserved for everyone to enjoy – and, since these gardens receive no government funding, the Foundation operates in a similar tradition to the UK’s Royal Horticultural Society.
The Kyneton Botanic Gardens date back to 1858 and are among the finest in Central Victoria’s small goldfields towns. They contain magnificent mature trees set in lawns sloping down to the Campaspe River. Seventeen of the trees have been listed as significant, including an endangered Chilean Wine Palm.
Kyneton Botanic Gardens is located on the traditional lands of the Taungurung people and the Friends of Kyneton Botanic Gardens wish to acknowledge them as Traditional Owners.
The current site is bounded by the Campaspe River on one side and Clowes, Mollison and Powlett Streets on the other and became permanently reserved as Public Gardens in 1867. Various grants were secured to obtain and plant trees and shrubs. Some plants were sourced from Ferdinand von Mueller, Director of the Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne (1857–1873), who aided many of the developing regional gardens, but it is unclear if any of those plants survive today. The Inauguration Tree, a magnificent Algerian Oak, was planted on 19 May 1863 and was recently celebrated at an event in the gardens for Botanic Gardens Week 2025.
In 2010 the Macedon Ranges Shire Council commissioned Andrew Laidlaw Design* to prepare a master plan to provide a new direction for the Gardens, one that respects the past and guides its rejuvenation and ongoing management. The Kyneton Botanic Gardens Master Plan was adopted by Council in 2011 with the aim of making the Gardens a relevant 21st century botanical garden. The Friends group is actively working alongside Council to fully implement this vision.
Of the seventeen National Trust of Australia listed trees, three are of State significance: the Chilean Wine Palm Jubaea chilensis, Coast Live Oak Quercus agrifolia and Variegated Portugese Laurel Prunus lusitanica variegata.
There is also an impressive collection of oaks (Quercus), including at least 13 varieties. These are not only in the Gardens, but also in the adjacent Community Park and along the Campaspe River walk. There are several varieties of elm (Ulmus), ash (Fraxinus), and hawthorn (Crataegus) as well as a large range of northern hemisphere conifers. These spectacular specimens include the Atlas, Blue Atlas, Deodar Cedars, Giant and Coast Redwoods and Douglas Firs. Also on display are pines, including several Himalayan White Pines Pinus wallichiana, a species uncommon in cultivation, many unusual shrubs, including Viburnum varieties, and a collection of Kniphofia, (e.g. red hot pokers).
The Friends of Kyneton Botanic Gardens aim to enthuse and educate the community about the wonders and enjoyment of these cold-climate gardens and horticulture in general. We hold monthly working bees in the gardens and events for members, such as bulb planting days, annual plant sales, conduct tours and publish regular newsletters on our activities.
Join us to promote the Kyneton Botanic Gardens as a tourist attraction, and raise funds to contribute to projects that improve and develop these significant gardens.
Membership fees for 2025/26 are $20 single and $30 family.
