NZ Visual Diary - entry 181
Auckland Domain Wintergardens
My grandson and his best mate, Henley, love the Auckland Domain. It is an embrace shared by all Kiwis.
Known reverently as The Domain, the park in Parnell is the oldest and one of the largest public parks in Auckland. Formally established as a public park in 1843, the Domain is both sylvan paradise and home to two of Auckland’s architectural and cultural jewels - the Auckland War Memorial Museum and Auckland Domain Wintergardens.
Today’s entry focuses on the Domain Wintergardens.
Built progressively across the first two decades of the 20th century, the Auckland Domain Wintergardens celebrate both architectural and natural splendour. On its website, the Heritage New Zealand Foundation ably exalts the dual celebration:
The structures were designed by William Henry Gummer and Charles Reginald Ford, who were among the leading architects of their day. The Temperate and Tropical houses are barrel-vaulted steel and glass structures, arranged symmetrically on either side of the complex. They are separated by the enclosed courtyard, while the Fernery occupies a more irregular grotto setting to the rear. The courtyard contains a number of statues, added in 1945, and a sunken pond that was modified in 1954. Each structure within the Wintergardens was designed to display different types of flora, the Temperate House having exotic potted plants and the Tropical House more permanent plantings, such as banana and ravanela (traveller's palm). The fernery is notable for its display of New Zealand plants, some of which may have come from a collection that won the first Loder Cup in 1926. The cup was established by the New Zealand Institute of Horticulture to encourage the appreciation and cultivation of native flora. 1
Built in 1929 and restored in 1994, the Fernery is a fitting tribute to New Zealand’s floral identity. New Zealand has some 200 species of ferns, including a host of varieties found nowhere else in the world. And against the backdrop of this profusion, the silver fern assumes a signal prominence.
The silver fern is a tree fern species found only in New Zealand. Known as the ponga in te reo Māori, the silver fern is revered among New Zealand’s indigenous people as a symbol of “strength, stubborn resistance, and enduring power.”2
Along with the Kiwi bird, the silver fern is the iconographic anchor of New Zealand’s cultural identity.
Heritage New Zealand website < https://www.heritage.org.nz/list-details/124/Domain%20Wintergardens >
Te Papa Tongarewa Museum of New Zealand website < https://www.tepapa.govt.nz/discover-collections/read-watch-play/ferns-new-zealand-and-pacific/significance-silver-fern >