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27 JANUARY 2005

Garden finally joins espresso lane

By Anthony Field

Visitors to Wollongong Botanic Garden who have lamented the lack of refreshments can now buy a cup of coffee and some cake.

A café on wheels was set up near the lake a few weeks before Christmas and it has been very successful as more people hear about it, according to the gardens curator Jason Brown.

Mr Brown said the café idea came from a garden’s master plan about five years ago. “We identified we really did need a café in the garden and the community agreed with that,” he said.

The council has contracted Espresso Mobile Café to operate the business and it is open from Wednesday to Sunday, between 11am and 4 pm.

The hours will be extended next month when University of Wollongong classes resume. Mr Brown said 700 Students crossed the gardens between 7am and 11am every day.

Last October, Wollongong Lord Mayor Alex Darling got the ball rolling for the café by stating there was a need for such a facility, so the gardens did not miss out on the busloads of tourists who visited the city every week.

Councillor Darling said the café was a first attempt to address that demand and was pulling visitors back to the gardens.

Mr Brown said the long-term plan was to create a permanent café in the garden’s discovery centre, but his would take up to two years. He said design work had already started.