Melbourne Botanical Garden - 2 visits

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Royal Botanical Gardens Victoria Melbournehttp://www.heygo.com

We were close to the Melbourne Remembrance Shrine and Observatory so where was Alex taking us.

Well he took us to the beautiful botanical gardens as part of his Surprise Down Under programme.

Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria, Melbourne Gardens has been a treasured part of Melbourne’s cultural life for more than 170 years, it was founded in 1846.

These beautiful Gardens are home to amazing and diverse plant collections and we were able to discover just part of the 38 hectares. There is no entry fee & it usually would be buzzing with people but with the current lockdown regulations in Melbourne we almost had the place to ourselves.

We wandered through the different areas admiring all the wonderful trees and plants including the Cactus Garden, Fern Gulley & the Bamboo Forest, we passed the lake with it’s swamp chickens who seemed un-phased by Alex & his gimbal.

Another surprise was to see a volcano !!!

William Guilfoyle was born in Chelsea, England, a landscape gardener and nurseryman. His family migrated to Sydney in 1849.

In 1873 William became Director of the gardens and changed the style of the gardens quite dramatically.

The Volcano is just one of the changes William made, originally built in 1876 the volcano was built as a decorative folly and left abandoned for over 70 years. It was redesigned and repurposed as a water reservoir for the gardens in 2010 by landscape architect Andrew Laidlaw.

The lake in the centre of the volcano's crater is home to three floating islands.

Due to maintenance Alex was unable to reach the top of the volcano so another tour is on the cards, Can’t wait !

EARLY SEPTEMBER - Alex returned to the gardens, although Melbourne current in lockdown he lives just a few minutes from the gardens so was able to take the time as part of his daily walk. This time we were luck and the pathway to the top of the volcano was open so we could see the water reservoir for the gardens which we’re looking fabulous in the sunshine today.

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