Melbourne Plants & Animals

Naturally, in keeping with most Australian cities, Melbourne has its own Botanic Gardens - the Royal Botanic Gardens, no less. You may recall that back in Adelaide I explained how each city seems to have its own theme for their gardens - in Brisbane, you get to walk through dense woodland down by the river and feel as though you're actually getting back to nature, whereas in Adelaide the gardens are more formal. Well I think Melbourne has got the balance just right, although I would be hard pressed to choose between Brisbane and Melbourne if there was a best gardens contest. It's possible to spend an entire day in the Botanic Gardens here, and if I lived in the city I'd probably spend most of my evenings sitting at the lakeside cafes or wandering through Fern Gully - an entire section of the park which has been set aside as a tropical rainforest complete with meandering stream and the sun filtering through the branches to fall on the ground in puddles of light. The Oak Garden, a major area of the park, is a great place to see parrots wandering around - something which always catches me by surprise as I've never before seen them outside of cages in people's living rooms. Each section of the park is set apart from the others and almost enclosed in its own habitat, so you can walk about without ever feeling that you're within a formal garden unless you visit any of the conservatories or the Herb or Rose Gardens. Although I'm not a big fan of formal layouts, the Herb Garden is one of my favourite parts of the park - built around a curious globe shaped sundial, this enclosed area contains paths leading off from the centre through beds of herbs from all over the world - the mix of smells as you wander through this area is just amazing, and something which I've not encountered anywhere else before or since. The gardens are centred around a huge ornamental lake by which I sat with Tanya at the Terrace café and restaurant in 2003. The place was covered in birds of all varieties - a flock of them were crowding together on the adjoining table waiting for any opportunity for free food. Every time we turned our heads in the opposite direction, one of them would flutter over to our table, peck at our sandwich and then flutter off again before we turned back. Cockatoos wander freely around the gardens, coming right up to peck at your fingers if you bend down - despite the fact that the guidebooks speak very sternly about not feeding the birds, its not easy to deduce that nobody takes the slightest notice as the birds here are clearly very happy to be around humans. On the lake black swans glide gracefully up and down with their cygnets, a very rare sight which probably brings many tourists here on its own - again, wandering casually over to the edge of the water results in two or three coming over to see you to see if you're going to feed them. Swans, not tourists.

You can read my full travel journals at http://www.offexploring.com/globalwanderer and http://www.offexploring.com/globalwanderer2

On the 15th November 2007 one of Melbourne's most iconic great oak trees unexpectedly crashed down on Oak Lawn. The Lady Loch Oak, which had a canopy which spanned forty-three metres, had been planted by the wife of the governor of Victoria in 1889, exactly 118 years to the day before it fell. Oak Lawn is now without one of its favourite meeting spots and one of the oldest and most imposing attractions of the gardens. On the other hand, we can only be thankful that nobody was waiting underneath it at the time it fell.

Naturally, in keeping with most Australian cities, Melbourne has its own Botanic Gardens - the Royal Botanic Gardens, no less. You may recall that back in Adelaide I explained how each city seems to have its own theme for their gardens - in Brisbane, you get to walk through dense woodland down by the river and feel as though you're actually getting back to nature, whereas in Adelaide the gardens are more formal. Well I think Melbourne has got the balance just right, although I would be hard pressed to choose between Brisbane and Melbourne if there was a best gardens contest. It's possible to spend an entire day in the Botanic Gardens here, and if I lived in the city I'd probably spend most of my evenings sitting at the lakeside cafes or wandering through Fern Gully - an entire section of the park which has been set aside as a tropical rainforest complete with meandering stream and the sun filtering through the branches to fall on the ground in puddles of light. The Oak Garden, a major area of the park, is a great place to see parrots wandering around - something which always catches me by surprise as I've never before seen them outside of cages in people's living rooms. Each section of the park is set apart from the others and almost enclosed in its own habitat, so you can walk about without ever feeling that you're within a formal garden unless you visit any of the conservatories or the Herb or Rose Gardens. Although I'm not a big fan of formal layouts, the Herb Garden is one of my favourite parts of the park - built around a curious globe shaped sundial, this enclosed area contains paths leading off from the centre through beds of herbs from all over the world - the mix of smells as you wander through this area is just amazing, and something which I've not encountered anywhere else before or since. The gardens are centred around a huge ornamental lake by which I sat with Tanya at the Terrace café and restaurant in 2003. The place was covered in birds of all varieties - a flock of them were crowding together on the adjoining table waiting for any opportunity for free food. Every time we turned our heads in the opposite direction, one of them would flutter over to our table, peck at our sandwich and then flutter off again before we turned back. Cockatoos wander freely around the gardens, coming right up to peck at your fingers if you bend down - despite the fact that the guidebooks speak very sternly about not feeding the birds, its not easy to deduce that nobody takes the slightest notice as the birds here are clearly very happy to be around humans. On the lake black swans glide gracefully up and down with their cygnets, a very rare sight which probably brings many tourists here on its own - again, wandering casually over to the edge of the water results in two or three coming over to see you to see if you're going to feed them. Swans, not tourists.

You can read my full travel journals at http://www.offexploring.com/globalwanderer and http://www.offexploring.com/globalwanderer2

On the 15th November 2007 one of Melbourne's most iconic great oak trees unexpectedly crashed down on Oak Lawn. The Lady Loch Oak, which had a canopy which spanned forty-three metres, had been planted by the wife of the governor of Victoria in 1889, exactly 118 years to the day before it fell. Oak Lawn is now without one of its favourite meeting spots and one of the oldest and most imposing attractions of the gardens. On the other hand, we can only be thankful that nobody was waiting underneath it at the time it fell.

Naturally, in keeping with most Australian cities, Melbourne has its own Botanic Gardens - the Royal Botanic Gardens, no less. You may recall that back in Adelaide I explained how each city seems to have its own theme for their gardens - in Brisbane, you get to walk through dense woodland down by the river and feel as though you're actually getting back to nature, whereas in Adelaide the gardens are more formal. Well I think Melbourne has got the balance just right, although I would be hard pressed to choose between Brisbane and Melbourne if there was a best gardens contest. It's possible to spend an entire day in the Botanic Gardens here, and if I lived in the city I'd probably spend most of my evenings sitting at the lakeside cafes or wandering through Fern Gully - an entire section of the park which has been set aside as a tropical rainforest complete with meandering stream and the sun filtering through the branches to fall on the ground in puddles of light. The Oak Garden, a major area of the park, is a great place to see parrots wandering around - something which always catches me by surprise as I've never before seen them outside of cages in people's living rooms. Each section of the park is set apart from the others and almost enclosed in its own habitat, so you can walk about without ever feeling that you're within a formal garden unless you visit any of the conservatories or the Herb or Rose Gardens. Although I'm not a big fan of formal layouts, the Herb Garden is one of my favourite parts of the park - built around a curious globe shaped sundial, this enclosed area contains paths leading off from the centre through beds of herbs from all over the world - the mix of smells as you wander through this area is just amazing, and something which I've not encountered anywhere else before or since. The gardens are centred around a huge ornamental lake by which I sat with Tanya at the Terrace café and restaurant in 2003. The place was covered in birds of all varieties - a flock of them were crowding together on the adjoining table waiting for any opportunity for free food. Every time we turned our heads in the opposite direction, one of them would flutter over to our table, peck at our sandwich and then flutter off again before we turned back. Cockatoos wander freely around the gardens, coming right up to peck at your fingers if you bend down - despite the fact that the guidebooks speak very sternly about not feeding the birds, its not easy to deduce that nobody takes the slightest notice as the birds here are clearly very happy to be around humans. On the lake black swans glide gracefully up and down with their cygnets, a very rare sight which probably brings many tourists here on its own - again, wandering casually over to the edge of the water results in two or three coming over to see you to see if you're going to feed them. Swans, not tourists.

You can read my full travel journals at http://www.offexploring.com/globalwanderer and http://www.offexploring.com/globalwanderer2

On the 15th November 2007 one of Melbourne's most iconic great oak trees unexpectedly crashed down on Oak Lawn. The Lady Loch Oak, which had a canopy which spanned forty-three metres, had been planted by the wife of the governor of Victoria in 1889, exactly 118 years to the day before it fell. Oak Lawn is now without one of its favourite meeting spots and one of the oldest and most imposing attractions of the gardens. On the other hand, we can only be thankful that nobody was waiting underneath it at the time it fell.

A visit to Melbourne zoo is a must! A world class zoo and a leader in conservation. The enclosures are animal friendly and dipict natural habitat. Whenever I go to Melbourne I always have to try and fit in a trip to the zoo.

A visit to Melbourne zoo is a must! A world class zoo and a leader in conservation. The enclosures are animal friendly and dipict natural habitat. Whenever I go to Melbourne I always have to try and fit in a trip to the zoo.

A visit to Melbourne zoo is a must! A world class zoo and a leader in conservation. The enclosures are animal friendly and dipict natural habitat. Whenever I go to Melbourne I always have to try and fit in a trip to the zoo.