Capturing the climate of three different regions, including the Top End and New Guinea cloud forest, the Biome will be constructed on the site of the closed Sydney Tropical Centre.
“Biome’s role is to inspire a new generation of advocates for the environment by offering a unique and inspiring experience at the Botanic Garden,” Ms Parker said of the new centre.
“Inside futuristic biomes, visitors will be given a multi-sensory experience complete with plants, organic sounds, smells, insects, water and landscapes of Australia’s Top End, Malesia’s* tropical lowland rainforests and New Guinea’s cloud forests.
“Biome will be a terrific place for parents to take their children for an engaging, educational and fun filled adventure that has a far deeper purpose than simply entertainment.”
Funded in part by a $16.7 million NSW Government grant, Biome aims to teach visitors about the inter-relationship between plants and the land and people, offering an interpretation of Aboriginal culture.
“Biome will include billabongs complete with small birds, lizards and insects and visitors will see the rhizosophere and earth’s substratum-bedrock, subsoil, roots, topsoil, insects and humus layers in profile,” Ms Parker said.
“As well, there will be a breathtaking canopy walk that takes visitors from inside the Biome outside amongst treetops in the Royal Botanic Garden.”
Biome is expected to attract an extra 70,000 visitors a year to the Royal Botanic Garden, will start at the end of the year and be completed by mid 2015.
