Olive Pink Botanic Garden is a

botanic 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, an ...

Alice Springs Alice Springs ( aer, Mparntwe) is the third-largest town in the Northern Territory of Australia. Known as Stuart until 31 August 1933, the name Alice Springs was given by surveyor William Whitfield Mills after Alice, Lady Todd (''née'' Al ...

in the

Northern Territory The Northern Territory (commonly abbreviated as NT; formally the Northern Territory of Australia) is an states and territories of Australia, Australian territory in the central and central northern regions of Australia. The Northern Territory ...

of Australia, specialising in plants native to the arid

central Australia Central Australia, also sometimes referred to as the Red Centre, is an inexactly defined region associated with the geographic centre of Australia. In its narrowest sense it describes a region that is limited to the town of Alice Springs and i ...

n region.

History

The 16 ha area that is now Olive Pink Botanic Garden was gazetted in 1956 as the Australian Arid Regions Flora Reserve after intense lobbying by the garden's founder, and first honorary curator, Olive Muriel Pink. The garden is part of a substantial area of contiguous Crown Land that extends east from the

Todd River The Todd River (Arrernte language, Arrernte: ''Lhere Mparntwe'') is an Ephemeral, ephemeral river in the southern Northern Territory, central Australia. The origins of the Todd River are in the MacDonnell Ranges, where it flows past the Alice ...

on the southern edge of Alice Springs'

central business district A central business district (CBD) is the commercial and business centre of a city. It contains commercial space and offices, and in larger cities will often be described as a financial district. Geographically, it often coincides with the "city ...

. Prior to 1956, the land was unoccupied and grazed variously by

feral goat The feral goat is the domestic goat (''Capra aegagrus hircus'') when it has become established in the wild. Feral goats occur in many parts of the world. Species Feral goats consist of many breeds of goats, all of which stem from the wild goat ...

, rabbit, and cattle populations, such that the vegetation on the

floodplain A floodplain or flood plain or bottomlands is an area of land adjacent to a river which stretches from the banks of its channel to the base of the enclosing valley walls, and which experiences flooding during periods of high discharge.Goudi ...

was substantially modified and devoid of tree and shrub cover when Pink took up occupancy there in 1956. Pink, with her Warlpiri assistant gardeners, spent the next two decades battling drought conditions and almost non-existent operational funding to develop her vision for the reserve. Together they planted a somewhat eclectic collection of trees and shrubs native to the central Australian region as well as various cacti, garden flowers, and introduced trees around Home Hut that could withstand the harsh summers. After Pink's death in 1975, the

Northern Territory Government The Government of the Northern Territory of Australia, also referred to as the Northern Territory Government, is the Australian territorial democratic administrative authority of the Northern Territory. The Government of Northern Territory wa ...

assumed control of the reserve and set about fulfilling Miss Pink's vision of a public area for the appreciation of native flora. During the next decade networks of walking tracks were put in place, the visitor centre built, extensive plantings of mulga, red gums and various other tree species established, a waterhole and sand dune habitat created, and an interpretive display installed. The garden opened to the public in 1985 as the Olive Pink Flora Reserve, and was renamed Olive Pink Botanic Garden in 1996. The garden is managed by a voluntary board of trustees which has employed a succession of curators to manage the expanding plantings and visitors' experience of the reserve. Olive Pink Botanic Garden was listed on the

Register of the National Estate The Register of the National Estate was a heritage register that listed natural and cultural heritage places in Australia that was closed in 2007. Phasing out began in 2003, when the Australian National Heritage List and the Commonwealth Heritag ...

on 30 May 1995, and on the

Northern Territory Heritage Register The Northern Territory Heritage Register is a heritage register, being a statutory list of places in the Northern Territory of Australia that are protected by the Northern Territory statute, the ''Heritage Act 2011''. The register is maintained b ...

on 18 March 2009, because of its strong links to Miss Olive Pink, anthropologist, campaigner for Aboriginal social justice, artist and visionary gardener. The garden was inspiration for

Anne Boyd Anne Elizabeth Boyd AM (born 10 April 1946) is an Australian composer and emeritus professor of music at the University of Sydney. Early life Boyd was born in Sydney to James Boyd and Annie Freda Deason Boyd (née Osborn). Her father died when ...

's orchestral composition ''Olive Pink's Garden'' (2017). Boyd's 2022 opera, ''Olive Pink'', was premiered in the garden.

References

External links

* {{Authority control Botanical gardens in Australia Tourist attractions in Alice Springs 1956 establishments in Australia Gardens in the Northern Territory Northern Territory places listed on the defunct Register of the National Estate Northern Territory Heritage Register