A campaign running more than four decades that would see a permanent cafe built in Wollongong's Botanic Garden appears to be edging closer to reality.
This story dates back to the 1970s and the Illawarra Flame thanks members of the Friends of Wollongong Botanic Gardens for their research assistance.
Lost opportunity
It's been described as the Illawarra's missing architectural gem. In 1984, at the request of supporters of the Botanic Garden, Australia's greatest living architect, the internationally recognised Glenn Murcutt, drew up a design for a visitors centre and tea house at the Garden. As history reveals, that plan never became a reality and the Garden still relies on temporary coffee carts for the thousands of visitors looking for a cuppa.
Barry Baird, a Friend of the Wollongong Botanic Garden (WBG), believes other than the Garden's older staff, he is one of the few people to have viewed the ambitious 1984 Murcutt design. It is understood the only design in existence is located within the State Library under limited access.
Barry says the original master plan design for the garden from Professor Spooner in the 1970s included a tea house but 50 years on it's never been built.
"The Glenn Murcutt design for a visitors' centre/tea house, which also included a magnificent herbarium, was as close as we got but it only reached concept stage," Barry said.
$1m allocated as a Bicentennial project
The project was planned to be built as a 1988 Australian Bicentennial project and the NSW Government provided a $1m grant in June 1985 to progress the plans. The Illawarra Mercury story on the project was headlined "City to build flora centre".
A Friends of the Wollongong Botanic Gardens newsletter from the mid 1980s said Murcutt "produced an outstanding design for ... an iconic building."
The Friends' newsletter reveals why the Murcutt cafe proposal failed to materialise.
Dreams became a nightmare
"Then the dream turned into a nightmare," the Friends' newsletter read. "The Illawarra Performing Arts Centre (which was also a Bicentennial project) was in financial trouble and Council decided that the $1m be transferred to the IPAC."
The newsletter for May 1987 reads: "April 13th – a fateful day. After two years of indecision, Council resolved to transfer $1m Bicentennial Grant for the Visitors Centre to the Performing Arts Centre."
"The Friends tried desperately to obtain another grant, at all levels of government – federal, state and local – to allow the project to go ahead. No funding was available," the newsletter reports.
"With the herbarium as planned, Wollongong Botanic Garden would have been recognised as the principal regional botanic garden in Australia and in the same category as the Sydney Botanic Garden."
Over the years the Friends have constantly brought the need for some form of refreshment facility to Council's attention.
Their newsletter in July 1989 reported that "outside interest has been invited for the building and conducting of a tea house in the Garden, to be entered from Murphy's Avenue." Still nothing happened.
An Illawarra Mercury article in December 1990 highlighted the growing demand for food and drink facilities. "Visitors to the Garden are always asking for directions to the kiosk," said the Friends' president at the time, Lorna Fairley. "It is essential to have something soon."
The saga continues
And so the saga of the missing visitors centre/cafe/kiosk/herbarium continues.
The Friends' newsletter revealed: "Action seemed to be happening, when in 1991, an innovative glasshouse style building was designed which only required Council acceptance before 'it would be ready for opening during the Floral Festival.'
"This never happened, despite the attractive proposal, with the building to be sited with an open vista over the Garden from its balcony and from within the restaurant.
"Cost seems to have been the deciding factor. In 1993, under the headline 'Garden tea house plan brewing again' the Illawarra Mercury reported 'aborted plans to establish a tea house at Wollongong Botanic Garden may have been revived this year at a fraction of the original $300,000 cost."
No business plan came forward and the years of inactivity continued until a new Draft Plan of Management in 2000 stated the firm objective of relocating the Discovery Centre and developing a cafe/tea house in the cottage 'Cratloe'.
Fast forward 40 years and the Friends remain frustrated. In the past 12 months the coffee cart that regularly visited the Gardens in the past has disappeared.
Friends of Wollongong Botanic Garden are convinced the popular visitor space will never reach its full potential until a cafe and visitors centre is built.
Glimmer of hope
A quarter of a century later, Wollongong City Council has given the Friends a glimmer of hope, saying "we have prepared a new Draft Masterplan for the Wollongong Botanic Garden for which we expect to seek Council endorsement in early 2025.
"The Draft Masterplan has considered opportunities for a cafe on the site," a Council spokesperson said.
"Further information regarding the Draft Masterplan will be available in 2025 as part of community consultation to be undertaken prior to seeking Council endorsement."
