Mount Gambier Cave Gardens and Environs State Heritage Area
LocationThe Mount Gambier Cave Gardens and Environs State Heritage Area is located within the City Centre Zone of Mount Gambier, approximately 480 kilometres south-east of Adelaide. The precinct, bounded by sections of Watson Terrace, Commercial Street East and Bay Road, encompasses a number of prominent, early commercial and government buildings grouped around the central Cave Gardens Reserve. View Public Notice (100Kb PDF). Significance
The Mount Gambier Cave Gardens and Environs State Heritage Area, authorised on 2 August 2001, encompasses the site of the original settlement and civic centre of South Australia's major regional centre. The authorisation also acknowledges the Cave Gardens Reserve as a unique urban park and a significant recreational and tourism site within the city centre. The original settlement of this regional community was centred around the abundant fresh water supply from the cave, which has influenced the overall development and city-plan of Mount Gambier. As the town's population increased, an area including the cave became a Public Reserve and gardens and other community facilities were established. In 1925 William Denham Robinson introduced a landscape proposal that displayed the geological and aesthetic features of the area, and provided an urban park that is still a showcase of his design and construction. This landscape is an outstanding example of cave gardens in Australia, with many historical elements still evident, including rose gardens and the marble Gardiner Fountain.
Today, the Cave Gardens Reserve is a significant feature in the city centre, not only as relief to the commercial and civic buildings that surround it, but also as a popular tourist destination and a passive recreational centre for residents. It is also the 'civic square' - the venue for most of the city's community celebrations. Prominent buildings within the boundaries of the State Heritage Area, including the Telegraph Office (1865), Institute (1868), Town Hall (1882) and Jens Hotel (1884), represent this precinct's historic importance as the commercial and civic hub of the district. History of the Cave GardensThe Garden today is largely as designed, constructed and planted in 1925. It reflects the strategy established and maintained by William Denham Robinson and conserved under his son Robert's curatorship. The Cave Gardens represents a creative approach to 1920s-30s landscape design, for a formal civic garden needing to respect an unusual geological feature. Changes over time have been due to plant and tree age, and to the progressive modernisation of gardening and irrigation practices.
The attraction of this site to early settlers was its reliable fresh water supply. In 1845-46 the first survey of the area secured three acres surrounding the sinkhole as a Government Reserve, and during 1847 the first commercial buildings (a hotel and a store) were constructed opposite. It was 1870 before the Government Reserve was vested in Council, but community interest to create a civic garden or park, in this central location of the growing town, began in the 1860s. In 1883 Captain Robert Gardiner donated funds for the erection of the present fountain. Described as the first marble fountain constructed in Victoria, it was seen as a symbol of Mount Gambier's prosperity. During the 1890s Council gardeners planted ornamental trees, installed gas lamps and seating and constructed a gravel path.
In 1906 the first community-based plantings were inspired by Paul Krummel and resulted in the quick creation of a formal garden and rosary. Krummel then supervised the establishment of an eclectic-styled garden around the sinkhole during 1906-1910. In 1925 Council looked towards the town's Jubilee Celebrations and initiated a competition to re-design the Garden. William Denham Robinson submitted the successful plan and a philosophy statement, and was commissioned to implement his design. In recognition of his work, Robinson was appointed Honorary Curator of Gardens. He continued his design and planting strategy to include the Cave area and also extended his responsibilities to other Council parks and reserves. With William Robinson's death in 1945, his son Robert became City Gardener and continued the Garden plan established by his father. He replaced and replanted numerous trees because of age and soil compaction, conserved the rosary as restructured by his father, and added several new trees and shrubs according to the plant fashions of the time. He retired in 1964. Since Robert Robinson's resignation, few changes have occurred to the structure and planting strategy in the garden. The new Civic Centre was opened in 1981, enabling Watson Terrace to be partly closed, with an extension of the reserve's eastern lawn. Community donations of plaques, roses and flowering shrubs continue, with many positioned in the Garden. For more detailed historic notes (50Kb PDF) about the Mount Gambier Cave Gardens and Environs State Heritage Area view this link.
Features of the Mount Gambier Cave Gardens & Environs SHAThe centrepiece of the city, and the most prominent feature of the State Heritage Area, is the State Heritage-listed Cave Gardens Reserve (150Kb PDF) - a shady, landscaped park surrounding a sinkhole, with steps leading someway down into the deep limestone cavern. The stream running through the cave eventually filters into the Blue Lake. An impressive marble fountain in the Reserve was a bequest of Captain Robert Gardiner in 1883.
The State Heritage Area also contains a number of prominent buildings that are predominantly of two-storey construction, in a grand architectural style and located on or immediately adjacent to the street alignment. Five of these historic commercial or civic buildings are State Heritage Places entered in the South Australian Heritage Register:
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