How our Quarry Garden project might turn out
THE 100-year-old Butchart Gardens is near Brentwood Bay, 23km north of Victoria on Vancouver Island.
They are open 365 days a year, with annuals in spring, roses and perennials in summer, coloured leaves in autumn, Christmas lights and ice skating in winter and mature trees all year round.
There are six garden styles, Japanese, Italian, Mediterranean, Rose, Bog and the famous Sunken Garden, which was constructed in the old limestone quarry.
The garden has many lights of different colours to show the plants off at night.
There is also a concert stage for special events.
It has ten ponds, three fountains, and there are fireworks every Saturday night during summer.
For children there is a old-styled carousel and two totem poles to recognise the original people of the area. With food outlets, gardeners, cleaners, reception, first-aid, traffic control and guides, it employs more than 500 people in the busy periods.
Because of the number of people and the owners want you to have a tranquil experience, there are some garden rules. Children and youths must be supervised at all times, no loud noise, no wheeled shoes, scooters or bikes, no selfie sticks, no balls or frisbees, no walking on the grass and limited use of camera tripods.
Dogs are allowed on a short leash.
The entry fees range from about $22 to $35 in the busy times and the average time in the garden is one and a half hours. Tours are also available from Victoria by bus for about $75.
Butchart Gardens covers 22ha, similar to Queens Park, which at 25ha has plenty of room for different gardens styles.
If you look at the all the parks and gardens in Toowoomba during the seasons, they have most of what Butchart Gardens has to offer. But the thing going for Butchart is that it is all-in-one place, so it’s easier to see.
If the Quarry Gardens, or similar garden, gets the money to be built and it gets half the visitors of the Butchart Gardens, it would be a major employer.
As the majority of people paying to visit it will be tourists, they will also be spending money in this area and creating more employment.
Victoria is the capital of British Columbia and is known as the Garden City.
It has an annual rainfall of 30 inches with mild summers and cold winters. The soil must be acidic as it grows beautiful azaleas and rhododendrons.
It has a population of 86,000, but in the Greater Victoria region, there is 386,000.
Victoria lies on a similar latitude to London, England, but if it were in the southern hemisphere it would be a couple of hundred kilometres south of Tasmania.
For sightseers there are many public gardens, old buildings, whale and seal watching, Chinatown, and to cater for the younger, more active demographic there are two adventure parks with multiple zip lines.
Much of lower Vancouver Island is national park. Captain James Cook sailed past in 1778 on his way to try and find the North West Passage. He named Cape Flattery over from Vancouver Island, on the US side of the Strait of Juan de Fuca.
The name was because he tried and tried to enter the strait, but was beaten back by wind and tides and he gave up, and sailed on.
Similarly he named the Cape Flattery in Queensland when he sailed out beyond the reef, after being beaten by the months of slow sailing and repairs to the Endeavour near Cooktown.
Close to Victoria, near Blaine in the US, is a natural harbour that was originally named Drayton Harbor. It was named by Commander Charles Wilkes after Joseph Drayton, the ship’s artist when they mapped the area in the 1841.
Maybe this is where the “Drayton Harbour myth” came from.
❝ If you look at the all the parks and gardens in Toowoomba, during the seasons, they have most of what Butchart Garden has to offer. But the thing going for Butchart is that it is all in one place, so it’s easier to see.