REVEALED: A hidden slice of Parkhurst paradise

McMillan Avenue gardens boast much more than meets the eye.

BEHIND the gates of Ross and Carol Mylrea’s property on McMillan Avenue in Parkhurst is a slice of botanical paradise - arguably Rockhampton’s best kept secret.

For the past 14 years, Ross and Carol have travelled the world collecting seeds, plants and trees as they worked to create an absolutely phenomenal garden.

And now they’re ready to show it to the world.

Mylrea Gardens

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Today, Rockhampton Regional Council is expected to officially grant the gardens botanical gardens status and to allow Ross and Carol to run tours.

“We put plans to the council because want to have it as a proper botanical gardens and we don’t want the thought of it being sub divided, that was our main thing,” Carol said.

“We’ve put too much work into it and have collected too many rare trees to have it broken up, that was our biggest worry. It deserves to be a botanical gardens, it’s beautiful.

“We don’t want to be selfish about it, we want to share. Other people who are into gardening want to see what we have and we love going and visiting other gardens and we love having other gardeners come here.

Carol said she and Ross had travelled far and wide to create the oasis, as well as hiring a full time gardener from France and a propagator. “We went right a cross Cuba and got all the Cuban palms that most people don’t have, we’ve just got a beautiful vine from Darwin that’s not even on Google; a big yellow vine that is just the most amazing thing you’ve ever seen,” she said.

“As we come across things we try to get them and we’ve brought a lot of seeds in and grown a lot of things by seed.

“It’s getting very hard to bring plants in now so we tend to bring seeds in, we’re patient.

“We have a propagator, a man that used to work at Fitzroy Nurseries who now works for us a couple of days a week.

“We have a full time gardener and Ross and I work, I work nearly full time in the garden.”

Carol said the gardens were even benefiting other botanical gardens around the world.

“I had a Gymea Lily that shouldn’t even grow up here because it’s too humid and I tried so many of them planted in all different positions in the garden and I finally got one to actually flower, probably the only one in Rockhampton to flower,” she said.

“It had hundreds of seeds and I sent them to the botanical gardens in Spain and to two botanical gardens in America.

“People that on our travels we’ve met had given us things, so I was able to give something to them and they were really excited about it. I think that’s a really wonderful thing.

“We’re lucky enough that we are getting to know lots of people now and they come and stay with us as well and that’s really fun because 99.9% of gardening people are fabulous people.”

The gardens are made more magical by the various statues hidden around the property, including a dragon on the roof of the house which Carol explained fend off evil spirits.

So it is no wonder gardening enthusiasts, and those who are just a bit curious, have ventured to the property from all across the country.

“We’ve had buses come from Sydney to see our garden, a lot from Brisbane, the Gold Coast and north and hopefully we can improve that and have lots of people come,” Carol said.

“Now that we’re going to be officially a botanical gardens, that’s what we’re aiming for. I think we’re ready to go now.

“We’ve just been on a tour with a lot of gardeners and we actually brought some Americans back here that were on the tour with us to see our garden and they were blown away.

“It’s a private botanical gardens, you can’t just wander in. But small groups are fabulous.

“Anyone who wants to see the garden will have to contact us and we’ll work out a time.”

Carol and Ross also plan to enter the 2016 ABC Best Garden competition with hopes of appearing on Gardening Australia.

Originally published as REVEALED: A hidden slice of Parkhurst paradise