Document information

Physical location:

N66/2162, unit 200, VPRS 3991/P inward registered correspondence, VA 475 Chief Secretary's Department, Public Record Office, Victoria. 66.03.02b

Preferred Citation:

Ferdinand von Mueller to James McCulloch, 1866-03-02 [66.03.02b]. R.W. Home, Thomas A. Darragh, A.M. Lucas, Sara Maroske, D.M. Sinkora, J.H. Voigt and Monika Wells (eds), Correspondence of Ferdinand von Mueller, <https://vmcp.rbg.vic.gov.au/id//letters/1860-9/1866/66-03-02b-final.odt>, accessed June 13, 2026

1
MS is an annotation by M on a file cover enclosing a letter dated 27 February 1866 from E. FitzGibbon, Town Clerk of Melbourne, to McCulloch, as follows, that was referred to M on 2 March:
By direction of the Public Works Committee of the Council of the City of Melbourne, I do myself the honor to state that their attention has been drawn to the fact that a roadway is being metalled through the Botanical Gardens Reserve, and which is apparently intended to extend through that reserve and the reserve for the Governor's residence or from Anderson Street, South Yarra to the Old Military Barracks on the St. Kilda Road, south of Princes Bridge.
I am to express the regret of the Committee that these reserves should be intersected by what there may be early endeavours to convert into a public highway and thereby to destroy the quietness and privacy which might naturally be looked for in the immediate vicinity of the Governor's residence, and to generate dust and discomfort within the Botanical Gardens reserve.
Beyond this expression of regret however I am to point out that the roadway in question if opened for traffic would enable persons to evade the payment of toll at the toll-gate on the St. Kilda Road and probably give rise to legal difficulties with the toll contractor against which I have to ask that due precaution may be taken in the event of the metalling being proceeded with.
The road referred to is not open for general traffic, but simply the necessary means of access to the botanic Garden and has existed ever since the formation of the establishment many years ago. No thoroughfare on it existing, the St. Kilda toll cannot be evaded. One portion of the road, which was before in a most unsightly state received recently a thin stratum of basalt and a topdressing of gravel, while a few dying trees were removed from it, whereby a much more pleasing effect has been produced. The public works committee of the City Council must be conscious, that the whole alterations in the Gov House Reserves are the result of my active exertions and have already created a beautiful landscape in this part of the environs of the city. Many Citizens have expressed a wish that similar improvements might be determined on and carried out in other vast lands near the city.
Ferd. Mueller.
2/3/66.
2
McCulloch initialled M's comments on 6 March, and a letter was sent to the Town Clerk on 14 March.