4.1.3 Providing facilities for visitors

Background

To encourage visitors to experience the botanic gardens environment, a range of facilities is provided for use by a broad cross-section of the community. At the site in Canberra a kiosk provides light meals and morning and afternoon teas to visitors from 9.30 am until 4.30 pm seven days a week. A bookshop within the Visitor Information Centre is open from 9.30 am until 4.30 pm seven days a week and sells botanical, horticultural and environmental books and souvenirs.

As well as lawns for people to use for picnics, two outdoor areas designed specifically for public use have been built at the Canberra site. The Nancy T Burbidge Memorial Amphitheatre, on the Eucalypt Lawn, is used by a wide range of people for musical performances, book launches and other functions. The second, smaller amphitheatre has been built near the Crosbie Morrison Centre and its use is expected to be similar. At Jervis Bay an outdoor picnic shelter in the Gardens provides one of the few all-weather facilities in the locality.

Indoor facilities in Canberra include the Theatrette, Dickson Room, the Banksia Centre and Crosbie Morrison Centre. As well as providing essential space for staff meetings and training, and for school groups on educational visits to the Gardens, these venues are hired to groups and individuals for a variety of functions.

Public toilets, drinking fountains, public telephones and seats are located at strategic sites around the Gardens. A Parents Room is provided near the Information Centre in Canberra so that people can attend to the needs of infants. Picnic tables are situated in some grassed areas. A scheme is in operation to encourage people to donate funds to place memorial seats within the Gardens.

Management prescriptions

Objective

The objective is to provide facilities that encourage people to visit the Gardens and appreciate and enjoy Australia's flora.

Implementation

The needs of visitors will be continually monitored to assess requirements in terms of facilities and their location. Existing facilities for visitors will be maintained and enhanced where necessary.

A new kiosk will be constructed to replace the existing building, and a feasibility study for a restaurant in the Gardens will be undertaken. Improved facilities will be provided for the bookshop when the new information centre is developed.

A gathering place or `common', and possibly a playground nearby, is planned for the area near the kiosk. This will provide a paved open space for a range of recreational activities that are in keeping with the general ambience of the Gardens.

A picnic shelter is planned for the Eucalypt Lawn in Canberra. Additional seats and picnic tables will be placed around the Gardens, both in Canberra and at Jervis Bay, and the scheme to encourage people to donate funds for memorial seats within the Gardens will be more widely publicised.

There will be a major survey of signs and paths within the Gardens to enable the system to be redesigned for easier visitor use. Major paths and roads will be named to facilitate visitor orientation. Those activities that are inappropriate in a botanic gardens will be clearly indicated on the new sign system.

The area around the Crosbie Morrison Centre and its amphitheatre will be landscaped with plants suitable for the teaching programs for which it is used.