This exotic garden is located near Byron Bay. Sea Peace cycad garden is approximately seven acres within a much larger property. In its entirety the overall site is dedicated to the conservation and regeneration of the land and the preservation of an extremely diverse collection of flora and fauna.

Located within this larger context of a significant and ongoing re-forestation, wetland and coastal swamp rehabilitation, lies this exotic garden dedicated to the many biological genera of cycads and associated vegetation.

Cycads, or gymnosperms or naked seeded plants with an ancient fossil history, were formally great in number and found in a wide variety of locations around the globe. However, today their numbers and diversity is much reduced. This garden is dedicated to their preservation and includes some of the most rare and endangered of these extraordinary gymnosperms.

The cycads are placed in a framework of other ancient and prehistoric vegetative species such as Adansonia spp (boab), Agathis spp (kauri), Podocarpus spp (plum pine) and Chorysia spp and interspersed with segments of endemic bushland that stretch across the hillside blending the exotic vegetation with the native.

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The cycad garden is linked to an existing orchid house, a timber structure containing the state’s most diverse collection of orchids. This timber slatted building is surrounded by spiraling Corten steel steps which merge the sun-loving orchids, placed externally to the timber structure, and the shade loving orchids and exotic flora within into the cycad area extending the steel detailing as it unfolds from one area to the other. The raw hardwood and Corten form a bold contrast and accentuate this exotic primordial palate of vegetation.

Location: Ewingsdale, Byron Bay  NSW