page_title: Government House, Canberra
section_title: Gardens
hierarchical_section_title: Government House, Canberra / Grounds / Gardens
caption_attribution_description: Government House at Yarralumla, Canberra
context_page_description: Government House, commonly referred to as Yarralumla, is the official residence of the Governor-General of Australia. It is located in the suburb of Yarralumla, in the City of Canberra, in the Australian Capital Territory. The house is set amid 54 hectares of parkland. The house and associated grounds were added to the Commonwealth Heritage List on 22 June 2004.
  At Government House, the Governor-General of Australia presides over meetings of the Federal Executive Council, and holds investitures to present honours within the Order of Australia and associated Australian military, bravery and civil decorations. The governor-general also receives visiting heads of state and other dignitaries and the credentials of ambassadors to Australia, and entertains people from all walks of life.
  The Queen of Australia, Elizabeth II, and foreign heads of state stay at Government House when on official visits to Canberra.
  The adjacent suburb of Yarralumla is the site of many foreign embassies.
context_section_description: Extensive landscaped grounds surround the house. They were first devised and put in place by the horticulturalist Charles Weston. Many of the trees in the gardens have been planted by visiting dignitaries.  The grounds include extensive plantations of trees and sweeping lawns, which provide vistas towards Black Mountain in the north and the Brindabella Ranges in the south.
  The "Wild Garden" or "English Garden" was laid out by Lady Gowrie, and includes a memorial to Patrick Hore-Ruthven, the only surviving son of governor-general Lord and Lady Gowrie, who was killed in the Second World War. The design of this garden was influenced by the work of Edna Walling and Paul Sorenson.  Other gardens have been laid out by successive governors-general and their spouses. The lakeside lawn and terraces, for instance, were developed at the time Lake Burley Griffin was filled with water in the early 1960s, during the vice-regal tenure of Lord De L'Isle. Further developments to the terraces were undertaken during the term of Sir Ninian Stephen in the 1980s.
  A rhododendron grove was designed and planted in the 1970s by Otto Ruzicka, and is called the "Hasluck Garden" after governor-general Sir Paul and his vice-regal consort, Dame Alexandra Hasluck. In addition, large numbers of bulbs were planted along the eastern side of the "Vista Lawn" to the south of the house in the 1990s at the suggestion of Dallas Hayden, wife of governor-general Bill Hayden. A "Garden of Bravery" was established in the grounds of Government House, suggested by Sir William and Lady Deane and inspired by John Thurgar OAM, MBE and Hedonna Thurgar, founders of the Australian Bravery Association. The garden displays different Australian civilian and military decorations, including the Victoria Cross, and the civilian equivalent, the Cross of Valour.
  About 100 metres (330 ft) south of the house there is a slight depression in Yarralumla's "Vista Lawn". It marks the location of a filled-in brick and cement vault which once contained the bodies of two of the property's colonial-era inhabitants, Elizabeth Gibbes (c. 1790-1874) and her husband, Colonel John George Nathaniel Gibbes (1787-1873). Originally, the subterranean vault was surrounded by a stand of yews and hawthorns. In 1880, the coffins containing the remains of the Colonel and Mrs Gibbes were removed from the vault by their son "Gussie" Gibbes and reinterred at St John the Baptist Church, Reid. In the same churchyard, just a few paces from the Gibbes' burial plot, lies the grave of Lord Dunrossil (1893-1961), Australia's 14th governor-general, who died during his Yarralumla tenure.
  The current Head gardener is Norman John Dunn, RVM.
caption: The grounds of Government House includes an extensive, sweeping lawn
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