The attached brief history is taken from the Friends newsletters and the WBG1995 Management plan

Overall, the gardens are highly valued by the community for their recreational and cultural associations from the past and their potential for the future. (1995 MP)

For its ability to demonstrate a nineteenth century context of hardship and effort (hence cultural values) in establishing a public garden at the time e.g. primitive watering system, horse-powered maintenance, on-site seed germination, the unknown acclimatisation problem of distance in obtaining plant material and problems of dealing with grazing animals and unknown acclimatisation....  (1995 MP)