 Fitzalan developed about 5 acres (2 hectares) in the northeast of the reserve as an ornamental botanic garden (then 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.