Historical information

Thomas Rooney was born in Den Carvan, Ireland, spent 36 years in Australia. Tom was married with nine children, he died 6th May 1914, aged 57 years, and at that time he was the Curator of the Ballarat Botanical Gardens.

Significance

As Curator of the Ballarat Botanical Gardens Thomas Rooney made the begonia and orchid houses famous throughout Australia, which was part of his valuable contribution to the development of the Gardens.

Physical description

Black and white reproduction of an old photograph of T.Rooney in an oval frame with a black background

Inscriptions & markings

T.Rooney is printed at the bottom of the photograph and underlined.