George Pentland Gardens

Williams Street, Frankston

History
This reserve resulted from the closure of the Raglan and Dundas Streets (south of Nolan Street) and the east end of High and Nolan Streets, approved in May, 1938.1 This area was surveyed as 30 acres, 3 roods, 35 perches and gazetted in June 1938 as reserved for Public Recreation. An application by Frankston City Council to the Lands & Survey Department to construct a municipal golf links on the site was granted in the same month.2 Council was granted permissive occupancy, subject to the payment of an annual fee of £10.3 The Frankston Shire Council was appointed as a Committee of Management and Care and Maintenance Regulations were gazetted in August of that year.4 Seventeen years later in June, 1955, the Lands Department granted Council permission to build a clubhouse on the Golf Links.

In 1963 the old reservation was revoked and a new site of 37 acres, 2 roods and 29 perches was permanently reserved for public recreation.5 However, the excising of land in 1969 and again in the 1970s to meet the needs of the expanding Frankston Community Hospital led to the closure of the Municipal Golf Links at this site.6 In 1984 the remaining reservation was renamed the George Pentland Botanical Gardens. Gorge Pentland was Shire Secretary and then Town Clerk from 1949 until 1975.

The dominance of native planting invites comparison with the Frankston Golf Course (q.v.) which dates from c1916 and had the direct involvement of native plant enthusiasts such as Russell Grimwade.

Description
Planting of some sections of this reserve commenced in the 1970s after the golf course closed but much of t he course's former layout is still visible. Curving beds of native planting edge the long stretches (former fairways) of well manicured lawn which provide long view corridors through the site. A large collection of the genus Eucalyptus and Banksia are evident and many plantings are labelled with botanical name plates. The planting consists mainly of trees but beds of native shrubs are also cultivated within an ornamental setting. A small recreational area contains a barbecue and play equipment at the top of the reserve.

Significance
The collection of plants, many of which are labelled, is not sufficient to infer a high botanical significance for the reserve, particularly as the provenance of the specimens is unknown. The appear to be no plants of individual botanical or horticultural importance and the name 'botanical' gardens does not conform with the accepted standards for such a term.7

However the site does have local significance as an important reserve for passive recreation. The collection of native plants in an ornamental setting or layout is characteristic of the Grimwade influence on the appreciation and conservation of native plants. As there are few public parks other than the Maranoa gardens (Nth. Balwyn) which are devoted to the ornamental display of native plants (ie. formally planted, not remnant bush ares), the George Pentland Botanical Gardens provide a good local example of this rare type of cultural landscape.

Local significance, regional interest.