page_title: City Botanic Gardens
section_title: Description
hierarchical_section_title: City Botanic Gardens / Description
caption_attribution_description: English: Riverstage in Brisbane, Australia.
context_page_description: The City Botanic Gardens is a heritage-listed botanic garden on Alice Street, Brisbane City, City of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. It was also known as Queen's Park. It is located on Gardens Point in the Brisbane CBD and is bordered by the Brisbane River, Alice Street, George Street, Parliament House and Queensland University of Technology's Gardens Point campus.
  The Gardens include Brisbane's most mature gardens, with many rare and unusual botanic species. In particular the Gardens feature a special collection of cycads, palms, figs and bamboo.
  The City Botanic Gardens was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 3 February 1997. The Queensland Heritage Register describes the Gardens as "the most significant, non-Aboriginal cultural landscape in Queensland, having a continuous horticultural history since 1828, without any significant loss of land area or change in use over that time. It remains the premier public park and recreational facility for the capital of Queensland, which role it has performed since the early 1840s."
context_section_description: The Brisbane Botanic Gardens, occupying 20 hectares (49 acres), is bounded by George and Alice Streets and the Brisbane river. They comprise three major sections: the former Queen's Park along Alice Street, the Botanic Gardens proper (adjacent to the river), and the former Government Domain at the rear of the Queensland University of Technology (formerly part of the grounds to Old Government House).
  Set in undulating grounds, the gardens are bordered by mature shade trees which also create avenues and groves. A lake and formal lawns, gardens and structures provide a diversity of passive recreational activities. A series of interconnecting paths link a riverside concourse with other perimeter paths.
  The gardens contain an avenue of Bunya Pines (Araucaria bidwilli) planted in the 1850s and an avenue of Weeping Figs (Ficus benjamina) planted in the 1870s. It also contains a number of other rare plants, particularly palms and figs – some in formal planting arrangements within the lawns, others within mass planted gardens – and an avenue of Cook Pines (Araucaria columnaris formerly A. cookii).
  A low stone wall (1860s) surmounted by an iron railing fence runs the length of Alice Street and extends into George Street. Large iron gates provide entry at George, Albert and Edward Streets. A cottage c. 1900s, with Arts and Crafts decorative elements, is located at the southern end of the gardens on a hill known as Residence Hill. This building is surrounded by trees and shrubs, some of which are survivors of late 1850s and early 1860s plantings. The City Gardens Cafe operated from the house for many years; in 2016 it is operated as The Garden Club.
  In a hollow to the north of Residence Hill, is the Walter Hill fountain. It stands on a stepped octagonal base of three tiers. The body of the fountain continues this shape but tapers towards its top. The lion shaped drinking fountains, presently not functioning, and basins are of white marble in contrast with the freestone of the rest of the structure.
  To the south of Residence Hill is a 1980s grassed amphitheatre known as Riverstage facing a stage beside the river. Other structures for public convenience and recreational use are dispersed throughout the gardens.
caption: Riverstage, 2014
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