Nancy T Burbidge Memorial Amphitheatre

This memorial to the botanist Dr Nancy T. Burbidge takes the form of a small amphitheatre located in the eucalypt lawn of the Australian National Botanic Gardens, Canberra.

The memorial was opened in the presence of Her Excellency, Lady Cowen, C.St J. on 14 September 1980.

The amphitheatre is used as an open-air classroom and meeting place for students and other groups and is designed to assist in the education, conservation and scientific functions of the Gardens. It has seating capacity for about sixty people.

The memorial was proposed by the:

• Pan Pacific and South East Asia Women's Association, ACT
• National Parks Association of the ACT
• Royal Society of Canberra
• Australian Federation of University Women, and
• Australian Systematic Botany Society

The Canberra National Memorials Committee, chaired by the Rt Honourable J. M. Fraser, CH, MP, Prime Minister of Australia, approved the proposal as a fitting memorial to Dr Burbidge's outstanding contribution to Australian botany.

Construction was funded by the organisations that initiated the proposal, together with other friends and colleagues of Dr Burbidge.

The jarrah timber used in the lectern was donated by Mr and Mrs D. Cullity, of Perth, in recognition of Dr Burbidge's Western Australian background.
(This lectern was removed in about 1990 to allow for a wider range of uses for the Memorial.)
The plaque measures 410 mm by 305 mm.

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