by Loine Sweeney

The Director of SA’s Botanic Gardens, Michael Harvey says, “there are no concrete plans on the table at the moment” to transform the use of the Bicentennial Conservatory away from its purpose-designed role to conserve tropical plants.

In its current 5-year Strategic Plan, the Board of the Botanic Gardens and State Herbarium has flagged that a Space Botany Digital Education Program “reimagines the Bicentennial Conservatory as a Martian biodome.”

The Strategic Plan goes on to say that the Space Botany program “invites students to explore botanical science as it will be practiced in the future, when humans explore options for life beyond Earth.”

In a History Festival tour, ‘Gardens of the Future’ conducted in May 2023, Dr Leonie Scriven, Deputy Director Living Collections, indicated that the Botanic Garden was looking at future options for use of the Conservatory building, such as linking its use with the work of the Australian Space Agency, located in the adjacent Lot Fourteen.  

In an interview this week, Botanic Gardens Director, Michael Harvey told us, “I’m not seeing significant changes in the current plant collection we have inside the Bicentennial Conservatory.”

When asked about the vision of a “Martian biodome,” Mr Harvey clarified that the Space Botany program was a new education program run by the University of Adelaide and that this re-imagining of the Conservatory “exists only on an iPad” as a student exercise.

The 5-year Strategic Plan says: “Using gamification and the unique assets of the Adelaide Botanic Garden, the (Space Botany) program leads the way for digital learning opportunities.”

Mr Harvey emphasized that he is “keen to speak to the future of botany.”

“A building such as the Conservatory could allow you to take plants out of their natural environment to run experiments on plants that could live on other planets. But we could also do this in other locations across the Garden. It could be a fantastic public showcase for running experiments.”

The Conservatory was designed and engineered to house a lush display of lowland rainforest plants from northern Australia, Papua New Guinea, Indonesia and the nearby Pacific Islands, many of which are at risk or endangered in their natural habitats. 

The multi-award winning building, declared the best tropical conservatory in the world, was designed by celebrated architect, Guy Maron. This week, Mr Maron said the building’s design and precision engineering was entirely focused on the conservation of tropical plants.

“This vital contribution being made in Adelaide is more important than ever, at a time that the Amazon is culling one billion trees of endangered species per year to make way for Palm Oil,” he said.

“Any thoughts of removing the tropical plants from the Conservatory would be a grave mistake.”

The Bicentennial Conservatory was voted in a national newspaper poll, to be amongst Australia’s top 10 buildings. In its full early operation, the tropical plant world it showcased was particularly beautiful and a joy for visitors to experience, while they appreciated the important contribution it was making to world tropical plant conservation.

However, in a partial retreat from its intended purpose, the Botanic Gardens Board decided in 2012 to reduce energy costs and switch off the heating, to transition the collection towards a warm temperate forest. 

“Fortunately many plants survived, but I very much hope that the care of plants is not compromised by resourcing issues or neglect of the original purpose, for which the Conservatory was designed,” Mr Maron said.

Visitors to the Garden looking forward to experiencing the Bicentennial Conservatory can at times be disappointed to find it closed to garden visitors, often due to ticketed shows being held inside or for the set up and dismantling of free shows. 

The health of the plants were observed to have deteriorated in places in between recent art exhibitions held in the Conservatory, with the upper pathway closed to the public for some time for the removal and cutting back of some of the plants.

Mr Harvey said: “living collections evolve and it’s to be expected that there will be some natural aging of the plants.”

It’s understood that engineers have been asked to consider the Bicentennial Conservatory’s potential capacity to be used for other than its designed purpose.

However, Mr Harvey says engineers have not been engaged to undertake anything other than regular maintenance. “All buildings need ongoing investment,” he said.

As the largest single-span conservatory in the southern hemisphere, the tropical Conservatory was opened to great acclaim in 1989 to mark Australia’s Bicentenary. It became the youngest building to win State Heritage listing, went on to win 12 designs awards including the Asia-Pacific Gold Award for architecture and landscape and the Sir Zelman Cowan Award - Australia’s leading award for public buildings.

The distinctive curvilinear shape of the Bicentennial Conservatory has made it a landmark, particularly for airline passengers looking down at the city as they fly into Adelaide.

Loine Sweeney is APA’s Park Ambassador for Park 11 of your Adelaide Park Lands.