What can you do at Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne?
The Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne was established in 1846 on a bend of the Yarra River south of the CBD, where the land's natural drainage created a microclimate rich enough to support both temperate and subtropical collections. The site was selected by Governor Charles La Trobe and the gardens' first director, Ferdinand von Mueller (appointed 1857), a German botanist who transformed the collection into one of the most scientifically significant in the Southern Hemisphere — documenting and classifying thousands of Australian plant species for European botanical science and corresponding with Charles Darwin on evolutionary botany from this site.
Mueller's successor, William Guilfoyle (director 1873–1909), redesigned the gardens in the English landscape tradition, creating the sweeping lawns, serpentine paths, and ornamental lake that define the contemporary visitor experience. Guilfoyle's design incorporated the Fern Gully — a cool, shaded ravine planted with Australian and New Zealand tree ferns that creates a remarkably primeval atmosphere in the middle of a metropolitan park. The lake, fed by the Yarra's historic seasonal flooding, supports a colony of Australian black swans and thousands of migratory water birds.
The gardens cover 38 hectares and contain over 8,500 plant species in collections that include the Arid Garden, the Herb Garden, the Succulent Garden, and the Children's Garden. The Observatory at the gardens' centre, used for public astronomy events, was established in 1863 and is among the oldest continuously operating observatories in Australia. An Aboriginal Heritage Walk through the Jungle Walk section, guided by Boon Wurrung and Woiwurrung cultural practitioners, reveals the ceremonial, medicinal, and food significance of specific plants along pathways used long before European settlement.