Canberra

Cockington Green Gardens – Canberra – Australia

Cockington Green Gardens is one of Canberra’s landmark attractions, it was opened to the public in 1979. It is delightful and fascinating display of meticulously crafted miniature buildings set within beautifully landscaped gardens, the buildings and houses are scale models of their full-size counterparts in Great Britain.

The idea of a miniature garden came to Doug & Brenda Sarah in 1972, after visiting miniature villiages while on an extended family holiday in the UK and when they returned to Australia, they undertook a feasibility study to developing a villiage of their own. Eighteen months later, they invited other family members to participate in the project. Cockington Green was opened to the public on 3rd November 1979.

The main displays are featured in two sections: The Original Display Area and the International Display.

Original Display Area

The English Village, is the original display area, it is an amazing, colourful miniature British village depicting their daily life, sprawled on a beautiful manicured gardens. There are collection of miniature houses, with tiny people and farm animals, trees, match of cricket and a local footy match in a spectacular landscape, you will find a lot of surprises as you stroll along the path. It is an amazing showcase of the very best & unusual styles of architecture found in various areas throughout Great Britain.

International Display Area

In recent years with the support of Canberra’s foreign embassies, Cockington Green Garden have added an extraordinary collection of buildings from around the world. the project has gradually grown into a wonderful multicultural display with over twenty-one countries currently represented.
It becomes a popular area and participating Embassies have taken the opportunity to sponsor a site and select a building to represent their country.

More to see

There are thousands of flowers planted each year to add colour to the display. These annuals are propagated and grown on the premises. New varieties are trialled each season and plantings are staged to allow for the longest possible flowering period.

The almost two-acre display area also features many trees and shrubs with miniature growth characteristics. There is also an indoor display of Georgian Style Dolls House in the Rose Room Indoor Display. Within the grounds of Cockington Green Gardens, there is the Garden Cafe, which serve light lunches, morning, afternoon teas and refreshments. These can be enjoyed either inside the old English styled building or outside in the lovely garden settings.