The Geelong Botanic Gardens is a botanical garden in the city of Geelong, Victoria, Australia. The gardens are located within Eastern Park on the eastern outskirts of the central business district. They were established in 1850 and are the fourth oldest botanic garden in Australia. History The gardens were first set aside as a public space in 1850, taking up the whole of today's Eastern Park. The botanic gardens were later isolated to a fenced-off area in the center of the park. While the origin story of the Geelong Botanic Gardens can be traced back to as early as 1850, the land it was built upon has an even richer history. This history of the land dates back over 25,000 to 60,000 years ago when it was under the care of the Wathaurong people, an indigenous Australian community who are the traditional owners of the land. Despite being cleared for public use in 1850, a committee of management wasn't formed until 1852, and its first curator wasn't appointed until 1857. The first appointed curator was a 19th-century explorer known as Daniel Bunce who tended to it for 14 years before his death in 1872. In that time, Bunce developed the land to contain a conservatory, a glasshouse, an aviary, and an inbuilt lake. Furthermore, Bunce planted a vast network of shrubberies along the carriageways to serve as a windbreak for the attendees. The next curator was John Raddenberry who served the gardens from 1872 till 1896. In his term as curator, he implemented a thatched summerhouse and some rotundas. Yet the most iconic inclusion during his time as curator was a timber fernery, complete with an inbuilt pond surrounded by various foliage and ferns. This Fernery was opened in October 1885. It was long, wide and was located where the George M. Hitchcock Fountain now stands. The fernery was extended in 1886 by an octagon high, with a pond located underneath. A third section was added in 1887, taking the total length to . By 1920 the ferns were becoming overgrown, and the fernery was demolished some time after World War II because the wooden structure was falling into disrepair. By the late 1800s facilities included a large wooden fernery, of carriage drives, an aviary, monkey house, and a fish hatchery. The original park was much larger than its current form, spanning the full 200 acres of eastern hill as