The Colac Botanic Gardens is a regional

botanical garden A botanical garden or botanic gardenThe terms ''botanic'' and ''botanical'' and ''garden'' or ''gardens'' are used more-or-less interchangeably, although the word ''botanic'' is generally reserved for the earlier, more traditional gardens. is ...

, located at the corner of Fyans and Gellibrand streets, on the shores of Lake Colac in

Colac, Victoria Colac is a town in the Western District (Victoria), Western District of Victoria, Australia, approximately 150 kilometres south-west of Melbourne on the southern shore of Lake Colac. History For thousands of years clans of the Gulidjan people ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

. Land was allocated in 1865, with the garden being established in 1868 by Daniel Bunce, and later remodelled in 1910 by Melbourne Botanical Gardens director William Guilfoyle. The Colac Botanic Gardens covers fifteen

hectare The hectare (; SI symbol: ha) is a non-SI metric unit of area equal to a square with 100-metre sides (1 hm2), that is, square metres (), and is primarily used in the measurement of land. There are 100 hectares in one square kilometre. ...

s, and contains over a thousand specimens (more than any other provincial garden in Victoria). The garden hosts variations of trees such as bunya bunya pine (''

Araucaria bidwillii ''Araucaria bidwillii'', commonly known as the bunya pine (), banya or bunya-bunya, is a large evergreen coniferous tree in the family Araucariaceae which is endemic to Australia. Its natural range is southeast Queensland with two very small, ...

''), Black Matipo ('' Pittosporum tenuifolium''), Firewheel Tree ('' Stenocarpus sinuatus''), Bird Plant (''Crotalaria agatiflora'') and Tecate Cypress (''

Cupressus forbesii ''Hesperocyparis forbesii'', with the common names Tecate cypress or Forbes' cypress, is a nonflowering, seed bearing tree species of western cypress native to southwestern North America in California and Baja California. It was formerly know ...

''). Several trees in the garden have been placed on the Victorian Significant Tree Register. The gardens are listed on the

Victorian Heritage Register The Victorian Heritage Register (VHR) lists places deemed to be of cultural heritage significance to the State of Victoria, Australia. It has statutory weight under the Heritage Act 2017. The Minister for Planning is the responsible Minister. ...

References

Botanical gardens in Victoria (state) Colac, Victoria 1868 establishments in Australia {{Australia-garden-stub