Boyce Gardens is a heritage-listed garden and citrus farm at 6 Range Street, Mount Lofty, Toowoomba, Toowoomba Region, Queensland, Australia. It was built from to 1950s. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 25 January 2001.
History
Boyce Gardens was named for Leslie and Margaret Boyce, who established the garden following their arrival in Toowoomba after their wedding in April 1930. A number of extensions were added to the house in 1940 and in 1955. The tennis court was constructed in 1937 and a swimming pool was constructed in 1947.
Harriet Margaret Rose Hall, of Silverspur in southern Queensland, purchased Portion 601 in 1929 The six hectares of land was located in an area that was, at the time, the north-eastern outskirts of Toowoomba. In the same year, Margaret became engaged to Leslie Atherton Gerard Boyce, a business executive at the Toowoomba Foundry (now Southern Cross Corporation). The land that Margaret had bought comprised a spur of eucalyptus woodland running south from Mt Lofty on its northern border, a section of natural rainforest and a run-down dairy farm, including one cultivated paddock. Portion 601 formed part of an area which was originally covered by a dense forest of Eucalypts and Scrub Box trees. The Eucalyptus forest originally covered most of the area on which Toowoomba stands. In the 19th century, the rainforest area was known as the Fairy Glen Scrub.
When Margaret Hall purchased Portion 601, all of the rainforest had been cleared east of Mackenzie Street. Margaret had designed the house site, drive and surrounding terraces, the spur was remoulded, every metre of top soil was removed, stored and later re-spread over the shaped terraces. The house was built and the Boyces moved in after their wedding on 29 April 1930. They lived and gardened on their property for the rest of their lives, and after their deaths (Margaret in 1984 and Leslie in 1988) their ashes were scattered in the garden.
Initially, the Boyces did not have it mind to restore the scrub. The house was constructed on higher ground on the side of Tick Hill (now known as Mt Lofty), looking east down towards what was then around four acres of scrub. Much of the timber had been cut out and stumps from eucalypts remained. Much of the natural vine scrub was heavily infested with lantana, blackberry and trees such as camphor laurel, celtis and Japanese laurel. The Boyces spent time in the mountain and rainforest country of south-east Queensland, including camping in the Canungra Valley and Lamington National Park. Following these visits, the Boyces made the decision to "restore, regenerate and preserve" the remnant rainforest on their property.
The garden commanded much of the Boyces' activity and much of their leisure time. At first, the lantana and blackberry was cleared, however, not wanting to make too many sudden gaps, not all the camphor laurels, celtis and other exotics were removed. Instead, they were ringbarked and poisoned and let to die where they had sprung up. Seedlings began to sprout, these were then pulled out to keep them from reinfesting the rainforest.
Upon beginning the restoration and preservation of the remnant rainforest, the Boyces had questions such as whether such a small area of native forest could maintain itself and whether or not to introduce new native species to the area. In all, around fifteen new species were introduced, all native to Queensland, though not present in the scrub when the Boyces purchased the property. Before the Boyces' time, most of the orchids, stag and elkhorns and tree ferns, as well as larger trees, had been milled.
After the exotics were removed a canopy of only about remained. A plantation of hoop pines was established on the eastern border to provide initial protection and the Boyces began reintroducing indigenous trees, shrubs, vines and ferns, encouraging their growth with a built-in rain-like fine spray watering system, many years before such devices were common. Today the rainforest canopy is more than thirty metres high.