The Southern and Western parts of the general area were covered by a dense forest of big Eucalyptus an Scrub Box trees. The remains of this forest can still be seen on the Gardens and on the Southern slope of Mount Lofty (Tick Hill) and on the country to the north and north-east of it. This Eucalyptus forest originally covered most of the area on which Toowoomba stands and the remains of it can still be seen surrounding the city in most directions.
The Rain Forest
The north-eastern area, lying in a valley running down the south-east slope of Tick Hill, was covered with typical South Queensland rain forest.
This forest originally extended across Mackenzie Street almost to the edge of the range and must have had an area of some 50 to 100 acres or possibly more. Its probable limits can be set, however, by the Eucalyptus still standing on land to the East of Mackenzie Street.
This rain forest or scrub was known in the Nineteenth Century as the Fairy Glen Scrub. This was recorded by Mrs L.A. Boyce, mother of L.A. Boyce, who came to Toowoomba as a girl of 2½ and died in Toowoomba aged 100 years early in 1969. Mrs Boyce's memory was confirmed by Dr E.A. Falkiner who practiced medicine in Toowoomba at the beginning of this Century.
In 1929 when part of the general area was bought by Miss Harriet Rose Margaret Hall (now Mrs L.A. Boyce), all the rain forest had been cleared east of Mackenzie Street. Dr E.A. Falkiner said this clearing had been before he came to Toowoomba but he remembered Mr Sydney Roberts, a naturalist who lived at Alloway Park near the East end of Jellicoe Street telling him of it as "an act of vandalism"
In 1929 the eastern parts of the Gardens 600 were still covered with rain forest, but it had been robbed of all the Orchids, Staghorns, Elkhorns and Birds Nest Ferns which are natural to it. The larger trees had been taken, and there had been much invasion of introduced trees such as Camphor Laurel, Ligustrum, Celtis and of shrubs and vines such as Blackberry and Lantana.
The scrub was cleared so that only four or five acres remained of the original very much larger Fairy Glen Scrub.
Much of the general Gardens area had been cleared or cultivated . Judging by the dead tree stumps, the area had originally been covered by very large trees which must have been felled for fence posts and rails or for timber. The trees standing on the land in 1929 and most of which remain today must have been the younger or re-growth trees.