reserve, including an area at the foot of Mount Islay, west of Saltwater Creek, previously cultivated by Chinese market gardeners under special lease. In December 1886 the Cairns Municipal Council came to an agreement with Eugene Fitzalan, a trained botanist, to establish an ornamental garden on the recreation reserve, sufficiently attractive to entice the public. In return Fitzalan was permitted to sell refreshments (which would enhance the public appeal of the gardens) and to operate a private commercial nursery from the reserve. He was appointed caretaker of the reserve with a nominal annual salary of . Eugene Fitzherbert Albini Fitzalan (1830 - 1911) was born in Derry, Ireland and was a botanical collector in England and Mexico before arriving in Australia in 1849. He was a keen orchid collector, and on at least one occasion collected with Baron von Mueller, who regarded Fitzalan's specimens very highly. Fitzalan had at least two orchids named after him by von Mueller. He made many botanical expeditions in Victoria and along the Queensland coast on the Spitfire in 1860, at Mount Elliot with botanist John Dallachy in 1863 and in the Daintree area in 1875, before arriving in Cairns in 1886. He developed nurseries in Geelong, Brisbane and Bowen and collected specimens for the Herbarium of Victoria. A number of Fitzalan's specimens were sent to Kew Gardens, London, where they were examined by taxonomist George Bentham for inclusion in the botanical volumes of Flora australiensis. At least nine plant specimens were named after him: Pinalia fitzalanii, Eulophia fitzalanii, Lepistemon fitzalanii, Macropteranthes fitzalanii, Musa fitzalanii, Psychotria fitzalanii, and Atractocarpus fitzalanii. The last of these is a native gardenia that has been extensively planted as a street tree in Cairns. Fitzalan developed about in the northeast of the reserve as an ornamental botanic garden (known variously as Rosebank or Fitzalan's Botanical Gardens), largely on the site of earlier Chinese market gardens. An 1891 survey plan indicates that Fitzalan's early gardens were located on section 75, just south of Collins Avenue, below what is now the Tanks Arts Centre. This was a short distance from the railway line near the cutting at the Three Mile, where the Edge Hill railway station was constructed in 1888–1889. Access to the gardens was made easier in 1887 when a crossing was made over Saltwater Creek. Between 1887 and 1891 Fitzalan landscaped the ground, planted colourful garden beds and constructed a