Begonia House, Machattie Park

Machattie Park occupies the site of Bathurst's old gaol, built around 1847 and demolished in 1888. Created in 1889, the public park is named after Dr Richard Machattie, one of the town's early doctors, who served several terms as mayor. Its layout was drawn up by the local architect James Hine through a community competition, then brought to life by the horticulturist Alfred Patterson, its head gardener for seventeen years. The band rotunda, also designed by Hine, was built in 1890, and the great fountain known as the Crago Fountain was installed in 1891.

The Begonia House, opened in 1936, was the last large structure added to the park. According to the regional tourism office, the first begonia tubers are believed to have been a gift from Ballarat Council. The council's heritage register sees this traditional-style glasshouse as a reflection of the Bathurst community's inter-war interest in hothouse gardening; it is listed in the State Heritage Inventory, although it has not been assessed in detail. The park itself is regarded as one of the most intact Victorian-era parks in Australia.

Bathurst's heritage register describes the Begonia House as an attractive, traditional-style hothouse building. Light and airy, it is laid out on an L-shaped plan. Along its walls, stands carry the pots on two tiers; in the centre a second stand, also L-shaped, carries four, so that the flowers rise in successive banks through both wings of the building.

The glasshouse is unheated: the begonias are on show from February to April, while their tubers spend the winter dormant. It forms a group with the adjoining fernery and the park nursery, both looked after by the same council horticultural team.

The house is devoted to large-flowered tuberous begonias of the Begonia Tuberhybrida group, derived from species of the subtropical Andes of Bolivia and Peru; some varieties show purple foliage. It is said to hold one of the best collections of these begonias in the country. Some 300 plants bloom there each year; the display is ready from early February and lasts until April.

Rob Wootton, the council's horticultural services supervisor, who has worked in Machattie Park since starting as an apprentice in 1981, propagates the begonias by hand from stem cuttings with three to four leaf nodes, taken in late November and December. After flowering the tubers are lifted, repotted and stored dormant over winter, then brought back into growth in spring.

The Begonia House stands in Bathurst's Machattie Park, next to the park's fernery. The best time to come is the begonia season, from February to April; the glasshouse's opening follows that season, which ends in late April, so it is worth checking opening days with the council before travelling.

The house itself takes little time, but a visit extends naturally into the park, one of the most intact Victorian-era public parks in Australia, with the fernery, the band rotunda designed by James Hine in 1890 and the Crago Fountain, installed in 1891.