in 1947, Tom Mitchell was appointed to the curator's position. He held this position until his death in 1953. A red brick house was built for Mitchell in the early 1950s. This house today houses the Garden's information centre and administration offices. Mitchell died in 1953 and the position was taken up by Jim Gould until 1966. In 1966 Cairns City Council appointed Vince Winkel as Curator of Parks, Gardens and Reserves, a position he held until 1984, and in March 1967 adopted a five-year plan to develop in the northwest of the Edge Hill reserve as a small botanical gardens. Collins Avenue and McCormack, Goodwin and McDonnell streets bordered the site. Winkel designed the new garden, laying out a figure-of-eight walkway. The site was cut diagonally by a small creek over which a bridge was erected, and the banks of the creek were planted with various trees including Cassia, Bauhinias, Parka, Caesalpina, Tabebuia and Semecarpus australiensis, known as the Tar tree. Galvanised pipe railings were placed as needed and where necessary banks were retained with a variety of materials, predominantly small concrete slabs. Garden beds and path edges were built up and retained with flat and smooth river stones. A variety of materials were used for paving in this area: bricks, broken concrete slabs set into the path, and concrete "crazy paving". Walking areas such as footbridges and steps were rendered "non-slip" with the application of exposed aggregate concrete. The focal point in the centre of the figure of eight was a fernery, constructed in 1968 to house the fern collection of the early and influential Munro-Martin family. It featured a miniature waterfall and pond with water lilies and fish. Near the fernery was the Curator's office which housed the Flecker Herbarium, a grass hut used as a shelter shed, and a picnic area with swings and a large dug out canoe for children to play in. In 1971 the Cairns City Council named its new garden the Flecker Botanic Gardens to commemorate Dr Flecker's contribution to botany. (The name has since been applied to the whole of the recreation reserve). At this time there was a collection of over 100 different species of native orchids growing on a line of palms, and over 100 species of palms including oil palms and royal palms in the area facing Collins Avenue. North of this area and facing McCormack Street was