Customer charter

Botanic Gardens of Sydney encompasses three world-leading botanic gardens, Australia’s premier botanical research institute, and Sydney’s leading outdoor activation precinct.  

We are committed to delivering safe, accessible, and sustainable world-class public spaces that exceed visitor expectations.

We respect the history and heritage of our sites, while remaining responsive to the evolving needs of the community.

With almost 12 million annual visits to our sites, we recognise that we need to get the basics right, every single day. We can only achieve this by working closely with, and listening to, our visitors, neighbours, and stakeholders.

This customer charter outlines our commitments to you and what you can expect when interacting with us.

We have four core values that guide everything we do. We are:

Innovative: Whether we’re solving an urgent environmental problem or developing a long-term program, we seek new solutions, chart new paths, and responsibly lead the way.

Imaginative: We leverage our creativity to drive engagement and enrich people’s experiences and connection to nature.  

Curious: We’re open and eager to learn, discover and understand — it’s how we increase and share knowledge, and identify effective solutions.  

Purposeful: The vision for the world we want to live in is our north star and we work every day with enthusiasm and dedication to achieve it.

• We will treat you with courtesy and respect, listen to you, recognise the diverse needs and views of the community, and uphold the values of the NSW Public Service. 
• We will ensure the welfare of our own staff by not tolerating verbal, written or physical abuse at any time. 
• We will maintain a direct mobile line for visitors to contact our Rangers, for any emergencies that arise on our sites (see below for contact details).
• We will consult with the community on major issues affecting the future of our sites and provide timely, efficient, and appropriate consultation processes with genuine opportunities to have your say. 
• We will endeavour to respond to written correspondence within ten (10) working days, however we do recognise that some matters may take longer to resolve. 
• We will respect your personal information and treat it with the utmost security and privacy. We will only collect personal information that is necessary for us to conduct our normal business. We will ensure that the information we keep is accurate, secure, and confidential. 
• We will uphold and enforce relevant legislation and regulations and comply with Australian and NSW state Laws.

Feedback can be given, and complaints can be made by email, phone, or in writing. Find out how to contact us here.

Please provide as much specific information as possible so that we can address your concerns promptly and appropriately.

We will aim to resolve all complaints as soon as possible, however depending upon the nature of the complaint we acknowledge that response times may vary. In such instances we will endeavour to keep you informed.

We are committed to ensuring all complaints received are taken seriously and handled efficiently, fairly, and confidentially.

Unreasonable conduct

Unreasonable conduct by complainants is defined as behaviour which raises substantial health, safety, resource or equity issues for our organisation, our staff, other stakeholders, or the complainant themselves.

This may include being aggressive and/or verbally abusive towards our staff, threatening harm and violence, bombarding our offices with unnecessary and excessive phone calls and emails, making inappropriate demands on our time and our resources, and refusing to accept our decisions, recommendations and information provided in relation to their enquiry.

Such instances will be handled in line with the NSW Ombudsman’s framework for managing unreasonable conduct by a complainant.

NSW Ombudsman

Botanic Gardens of Sydney is a public authority covered by the NSW Ombudsman Scheme.

If we have not been able to resolve your complaint, and you believe we have done something wrong, you may be able to take your complaint to the NSW Ombudsman.

The NSW Ombudsman is an independent integrity agency that pursues fairness for the people of New South Wales. It strives to ensure that those entrusted with public power and resources fulfil their responsibilities and treat everyone fairly.

For information about the NSW Ombudsman, including when and how you can make a complaint, visit www.ombo.nsw.gov.au.