Tropical Display Dome

The Brisbane Botanic Gardens at Mount Coot-tha were established by Brisbane City Council in 1970 and officially opened in 1976. They cover 56 hectares of the Mount Coot-tha reserve and hold more than 200,000 plants from around the world.

The Tropical Display Dome was among the site's first major facilities. It opened in December 1977, barely a year after the gardens' official opening. Brisbane City Archives hold a council photograph dated 15 December 1977 showing the crowds who came to the opening of the 'Tropical Dome', catalogued as BCC-C35-821-12. The building gave the gardens a sheltered space devoted to the flora of the tropics.

Almost half a century later, the council still names the dome among the gardens' most popular attractions, together with the Japanese Garden and the Bonsai House. For the gardens' fiftieth anniversary it invited the public to share memories and material for a 'Then & Now' exhibition intended to bring their history to life; the call for contributions has since closed.

The dome measures 28 metres in diameter and stands 9 metres high. Much wider than it is tall, it forms a shallow cupola quite unlike the gabled or aisled glasshouses of older botanic gardens, and gives the planting a single, uninterrupted volume.

Inside, the space is divided in two: the main tropical hall, where the planting grows beneath the cupola, and a temperature-controlled section reserved for tropical food crops. The building is wheelchair accessible.

Brisbane City Archives catalogue it simply as the 'Tropical Dome'.

Beneath the cupola, the council displays plants from the tropical regions of the world. Aroids, calatheas, heliconias, caladiums, palms and epiphytes grow side by side, combining into a rainforest-like interior.

The temperature-controlled section is devoted to tropical food crops. Among them are Indian arrowroot, African nutmeg and cocoa, a way of connecting the exotic planting with familiar ingredients.

The dome is one part of a much larger living collection: across their 56 hectares, the Brisbane Botanic Gardens hold more than 200,000 plants from around the world, including tropical and subtropical rainforest plantings grown outdoors along several trails.

The dome stands in the Brisbane Botanic Gardens at the foot of Mount Coot-tha, west of central Brisbane, near the Japanese Garden and the Bonsai House. A visit pairs naturally with the gardens' other sheltered collections: the Fern House, with more than 80 fern species and varieties, and the Bonsai House, one of the largest publicly owned bonsai displays in Australia. The Japanese Garden designed by Kenzo Ogata, the arid-region plants, the rainforest trails and the Sir Thomas Brisbane Planetarium near the entrance make it easy to spend a full day. Volunteer guides lead booked walks from March to December.