wandering the various pathways. These include the red brick curator's office and information centre (1950s), a restaurant (1987) and two toilet blocks. The placement and scale of these buildings on the site is significant, rendering them unobtrusive in the landscape. However, the structures themselves are not considered to be of high cultural heritage significance. Fencing around this area of the gardens is not significant. Heritage listing Flecker Botanical Gardens was listed on the Queensland Heritage Register on 2 February 2007 having satisfied the following criteria. The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history. The place demonstrates the development and continued management of a botanic garden in a regional city as a theme in the evolution and pattern of Queensland's history. The Flecker Botanic Gardens (earlier Cairns Botanical Gardens) was established in 1886 as part of a recreation reserve. From the 1930s the Flecker Botanic Gardens has fulfilled the traditional functions of a botanical gardens, including increasing horticultural knowledge about local plants with a view to developing their economic potential, sharing of this knowledge and seed stock with like-minded institutions nationally and internationally, providing an attractive and educative venue for public recreation, and in some instances providing plant material to the public. The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places. The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a substantial wet tropics public botanical gardens that has evolved over time, including early groupings of exotic and indigenous plantings (early to mid 20th century) and the botanical display garden, designed and developed by curator Vince Winkel in the 1960s. Important characteristics also include: infrastructure associated with displaying the gardens, especially that dating from the 1960s-1980s (including the figure-of-eight walkway, other pathways, retaining walls, footbridges, paving, railings, drainage systems, and raised and built up garden beds); the provision of specialist displays; specimen plantings of trees and shrubs; and the incorporation of open lawn areas within the design. The current Gardens, developed during the 1960s demonstrate plantings, displays, plant collections, bridges and visitor facilities similar in concept to other regional botanic gardens. The place is important because of its aesthetic significance. The visual display of the plant material in the Flecker Botanic Gardens captures the exuberant ambience associated with imagery of the "lush tropics". Large trees, both native to this habitat and exotic, provide the planting structure and canopy