Wonder

Few places are as woven into Melbourne's daily life as the Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria, which has occupied its site for 175 years. For many visitors the grounds offer quiet, a place to think, a source of ideas, a setting for discovery and for romance, and at times a sanctuary. Everyone who walks through them carries a memory of their own, and this volume gathers many of those memories.

The contributors come from a wide range of professions and backgrounds. Writers Sophie Cunningham and Peter Wilmoth guide the book through conversations with them. Among the people they speak with is Nick Cave, who began drafting the opening lines of a novel while in the Gardens, and actor and writer Michael Veitch, who was taught the classics on the lawns. One account recalls a wedding held only days before COVID-19 spread across the globe and forced the Gardens, along with other sites, to close for the first time in history.

Other voices reach across different timescales and disciplines. Boonwurrung Elder Aunty Carolyn Briggs shares stories of Country that stretch back thousands of years. Landscape architect Andrew Laidlaw explains the inspiration behind some of the Gardens' more recent landscapes, horticulturist Gemma Cotterell describes her work on the Australian Forest Walk, architect Kerstin Thompson considers the secrets the Gardens keep and how they turn the landscape into something closer to a dream, and botanist Neville Walsh recounts the excitement of identifying a new species of wattle.

The book also takes up pressing environmental questions, including plant extinction, climate change and water use. It examines how public gardens help secure the planet's future through science, irreplaceable plant collections and conservation action. Illustrated with photography by Leigh Henningham, it is a book about gardens that belong to the people, and it will speak most strongly to readers who already hold their own experiences of the place.