It was overgrown with weeds, huge logs of felled trees had been left lying around, and old cars and other rubbish littered the area. As well as the mess, numerous snakes had made the site their home.

"Where the lake is now, there was a bottleneck in the creek," Mr Woodgate said in Dena Leighton's 2004 book Wollongong Botanic Garden - A Story of Beauty And Diversity.

"I had to clear the bank along Murphy's Avenue myself and trucks were brought in to get rid of the cars."

Mr Woodgate was on his own initially, clearing and preparing the site in readiness for planting.

The concept was born when Sidney Hoskins, one of the managing directors of Australian Iron and Steel, donated 10.58 ha to Wollongong City Council in 1954 for a botanic garden.

The first plantings on the azalea bank were installed in 1964, following design plans drawn up by Professor Peter Spooner of the University of NSW.

Prof Spooner had designed a zonal system, with each area representing a part of the world. Plants were grouped according to their country of origin.

After 12 months of Mr Woodgate working on his own, council employed a junior gardener to help him. A significant number of plantings took place.

The work, directed and overseen by council's director of parks and gardens Bill Mearns, included the construction of the lake. By 1968, the staff had increased to one leading hand and four junior gardeners.

Ms Deighton writes in her book that by 1969, 4000 trees and shrubs had been planted and a further 2000 were being grown from seed in the nursery.

But it was not until September 26, 1970 that the garden opened officially.

In the first year more than 6000 visitors came to the garden. The peak visiting time was in September when the azaleas, camellias and rhododendrons were in bloom.

The 27.41ha botanic garden now has more than 340,000 visitors each year, and provides conservation, education, recreation and cultural opportunities with an impressive array of native and flowering plant life from around the world.

Apart from a few remnant turpentine trees, the garden landscape has been constructed, including the spectacular rainforest garden with around 80 species of trees and 15 species of ferns.

The botanic garden also maintains three natural annex gardens including Puckey's Estate at Fairy Meadow, The Mount Keira Summit Park and Korrongulla Wetlands at Primbee.

Wollongong Botanic Garden curator Paul Tracey said the primary role of the garden, as with botanic gardens around the world, was plant conservation.

Botanic gardens were the last chance for many plant species facing extinction, and Wollongong was no exception.

Mr Tracey said the garden was in partnership with the Australian National Botanic Garden to conserve the Zieria baeuerlenii (Bomaderry Zieria), a local species with less than 900 left in the wild.

The Bomaderry Zieria was no longer producing viable seed in the wild and a propagation system had been developed to ensure its survival.

He said cuttings had produced around 300 specimens held in the garden's nursery for reintroduction to the garden and its native habitat.

The garden also has local and exotic species listed as rare and threatened within its living collection, he said.

Mr Tracey said globally there were many threats to natural plant populations including expanding urban development, mining, agriculture and natural disaster.

"When natural habitat is adversely affected, botanic garden propagation programs, seed banks, and living collections are sometimes the only way certain plant species survive," he said.

Another component of the garden's conservation focus, the Greenplan Program, was started in 1988 by then Wollongong Lord Mayor Frank Arkell.

Initially it was a city-wide tree planting project, involving schools, industry, community groups and households. Each ratepayer was entitled to 20 free trees delivered by council staff.

Ratepayers can now buy a wide range of ground covers, grasses, trees and shrubs indigenous to the Wollongong area, at a subsidised price.

"We focus the Greenplan Nursery on local Illawarra species, so we collect seed and cuttings from natural areas and the plants have provenance," Mr Tracey said.

"It's a service that is focused on biodiversity improvement. More than three million plants have been distributed throughout the city through our public plant sales."

The need for plant material increased in 1994 with the Bushcare program, joining the council and community to conserve and restore natural areas.

The work is done by council, bush regenerators and volunteers.

"Bushcare volunteers are active on 60 sites across Wollongong and the botanic garden produces around 25,000 local plant species each year," Mr Tracey said.

"We also have a long established schools donations policy in which we donate about 9000 local plants a year to schools each year for their biodiversity projects."

In Ms Leighton's book, Bill Mearns, who was also the garden's first curator, described why Wollongong should have a botanic garden.

"A garden provides the ideal place for passive leisure," he said. "It is good for the soul."

While thousands of people still visit the garden purely for the purpose of relaxing in an atmosphere of peace and quiet, it attracts a growing number of visitors for many reasons.

Mr Tracey said the on-site discovery centre provided environmental educational services and programs to 20,000 people each year.

"We run programs on horticulture and sustainability with a particular focus on landfill waste avoidance, so the importance of composting, produce gardening and recycling are really strong messages for us," he said.

In the past 12 months, the council has also introduced two popular programs that have increased visitors to its Keiraville and Fairy Meadow sites. Last May, the Step Back in Time at Gleniffer Brae tours were held in which actors explained the history of the site by playing the roles of the property's original owners, Mr and Mrs Hoskins, and acclaimed landscape artist Paul Sorensen. Recently, The Ghost of Courtney Puckey Tour was staged at Puckey's Estate which used to be the home of the eccentric salt maker, who lived there during the early part of the twentieth century.

In addition, visitors participate in nocturnal walks and guided garden walks which focus on the native flora through the botanic garden, he said.

"In terms of recreation, we went through a survey in 2011 and we know that the majority of visitors come here to just enjoy the facilities," Mr Tracey said

"We've been working harder in the past five years with a new duck pond viewing area, and all-abilities playground which is really popular, barbecues and the introduction of a coffee cart.

"Like botanic gardens worldwide we have all come to the realisation that we have to be about more than just plants. Visitor needs are changing and they are expecting more in their visits and we are responding to that while not reducing our focus on plant conservation."

The botanic garden's visitation figures have grown from 250,000 in 2010 to more than 340,000 in the last financial year.

"That's primarily due to the new facilities and the new events we are bringing to the garden and better promotion of what we do," he said.

Mr Tracey said the botanic garden website was kept current, social media was being used to disseminate information in the community, and a new magazine had just been produced.

A program of popular activities including the Our Backyard Festival, Sunset Cinema and outdoor theatre productions had drawn large numbers.

This year the botanic garden will also be the venue for the City of Wollongong Christmas Carols.

An important date in the history of the botanic garden was March 25, 1981 - the first meeting of the Friends of the Wollongong Botanic Garden.

"They provide a lot of support in terms of research and have a propagation group. They produce plants sold in the Greenplan Nursery," Mr Tracey said.

"They foster an interest in the activities and development of the botanic garden and they advocate education and participation in the garden."

The botanic staff also maintain the historic Gleniffer Brae Manor House Sorensen Garden, designed by the late Danish-born landscape architect, which features his distinctive dry stone walls and gardens designed on terraces.

The council-owned manor house and surrounding gardens were in excellent condition for their age and were a prominent feature of the site, he said.

Mr Tracey, who was born and bred in Wollongong, began his curator role at the Wollongong Botanic Garden in 2010.

Previously he worked in Sydney as Centennial Park's horticulture estate manager and manager visitor programs for Centennial Parklands.

"When this opportunity came up, I had eyed this job off for a long time being a local, and with a young family and with it being close to home, it was too good an opportunity to refuse," he said.

The best part of his job, he says, is working with a wonderful team of experienced and skilled horticulturists.

What he loves about the garden?

"I'm very proud of the work that we've done on the Drylands Garden and the Towri Bush Tucker Garden," he says. "I think that's going to be a pretty significant collection in years to come."

Staff are currently working on the creation of an exotic palm collection which will see the transformation a former 6000-square-metre operational area into public open space.

Mr Tracey is hoping the palm collection will be launched when the Botanic Gardens Australia and New Zealand Congress is hosted in Wollongong in October 2015.

He says some of the significant future issues for the botanic garden will be replacing critical infrastructure such as the paths which were constructed more than 40 years ago.

Banking on seeds

More than three million plants have been distributed out of the Wollongong Botanic Garden Nursery in the past 25 years.

• The first collections planted in the garden were azaleas and camellias in 1964.

• The latest collection is the Towri Bush Tucker Garden completed in 2012.

• The seeds of more than 900 native species are held in a seedbank.

• There are more than 1200 herbarium specimens.

• It’s home to one of the largest known botanic collections of the genus Haworthia, a group of small succulents from southern Africa.

• More than 75 weddings are held in the garden each year.