The Wirreecoo Wildflower Garden

The Wirreecoo Wildflower Garden was established by members of the Australian Plant Society, Nowra Group, in 1985.

On 2 July 1985 the Lady Denman Committee welcomed Mrs Green and Graham Gall, representing the Society for Growing Native Plants, and an agreement was made to establish a native garden within the Lady Denman site.

Although the location of the garden has remained unchanged throughout, until major redevelopment of the Lady Denman Maritime Museum, 1999-2002, the garden was located roughly at the back of the museum buildings, as they were then laid out. The site, on a clay slope under a stand of spotted gums, proved difficult, with new plants competing with the existing trees for light and nutrients.

On Christmas Day 2001 the garden was virtually wiped out by a disastrous bushfire. Raging winds swept the fire through the Lady Denman site, burning fiercely in some spots and missing others (thankfully including the buildings). The Wirreecoo Garden suffered the worst damage of any area, because the fire particularly loved the wooden borders and bark mulch.

The Australian Plant Society (Nowra) thought hard about what to do with the ruins of their Lady Denman Garden. All the infrastructure they had laboured to install over fifteen years had been destroyed and the site was acknowledged to be far from ideal.

In the months after the fire, however, as some of the plants began to miraculously regenerate, so did enthusiasm for the project.

The disaster provided an opportunity to think and revamp. The team decided to concentrate on the plants that grew naturally in the area - to encourage the survivors and their relatives. Badly damaged trees had to be removed thus allowing more sunlight to enter the garden area. A mounded garden was formed at the front to display plants at their best and catch much needed water.

Throughout the hot summer of 2002 /2003 Norm Webb and members of the Wirreecoo team built the grand stairway through the garden to link the carpark on Woollamia Road to the Museum entry foyer and the Fish Pond beyond.

In 2003, as the resurrected garden began to thrive, the garden team decided to give the garden a new name and a new theme. The garden was named the "Wirreecoo Wildflower Garden" - the theme of which was to "Link Local Flora to Fauna". After adverse beginnings, the Wirreecoo Wildflower Garden has become an important attraction in its own right and one of the Lady Denman's important outdoor environmental exhibitions.

See the Fact Sheet for a list of natives planted in the Wirreecoo Garden.

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