National Herbarium of New South Wales

The National Herbarium of New South Wales was established in 1853. The Herbarium has a collection of more than 1.2 million plant specimens, including scientific and historically significant collections and samples of Australian flora gathered by Joseph Banks and Daniel Solander during the voyage of the HMS Endeavour in 1770.

The Herbarium is a centre for Australian plant research. These specimens are used for studies of Australian native plants, their relationships and classification. A botanical information service is also provided including native plant identifications.

The National Herbarium is located in the Robert Brown Building at the Royal Botanic Garden on Mrs Macquaries Road in Sydney.

The Herbarium began in 1853 when Charles Moore, Director of the Botanic Garden, assembled approximately 1,800 native specimens.

1901 - 1982: A purpose built building to house the Herbarium collection and a botanical museum designed by the Government Architect opened in 1901. The building was known as Maiden's Herbarium. It is now known as the Anderson Building and is used for administration and contains the Maiden Theatre, in memory of Joseph Henry Maiden, a previous Botanic Garden's Director.

1982 - onwards: The Robert Brown Building opened in 1982. The new Herbarium building was named in honour of colonial botanist Robert Brown. It has three levels when it was opened in 1982 by Neville Wran, housing the herbarium collection, staff offices, a laboratory, scanning electron microscope and full drying room and library. A decade later, a fourth level was added to provide more work spaces and shelving and a sloping roof to stop leaks.

The collection has a worldwide scope with an emphasis on plants of New South Wales and Australian flora including flowering plants, conifers, cycads, ferns, bryophytes, lichens, macroalgae and fungi. The collection includes 805 of the specimens Joseph Banks and Daniel Solander collected.

Specimen records from the colleciton are contributed to Australia’s Virtual Herbarium (AVH), a collaborative project of the Commonwealth, state and territory herbaria in Australia.

More than 7,000 of the specimens have been digitised as part of the Global Plants Initiative.

The first botanical illustrator at the Royal Botanic Gardens Sydney, Margaret Flockton, was appointed in 1901 when the National Herbarium opened.

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