After the Queen Victoria Market we rode a tram to the Royal Botanic Garden. If you enjoy gardens, this is a highly recommended activity while in Melbourne. With Jeff being the Chief Horticultualist and President of our Association’s Garden Committee we had to make a stop here and I’m really glad we did.
They’re large and incorporate a lot of native Australian flora, in fact one of the tracks you can walk is the Australia Forest track. Since we’re in Australia, that just seemed like the right thing to do. Here is an incredible tree that we saw as we walked.
It is a Queensland Kauri and the tree pictured here was planted in the mid 1800s.
Another tree we saw was the famous (in shampoo circles anyway) Lilly Pilly, so tall I couldn’t fit it into a frame. One more interesting tree picture is of a Banksia.
The equivalent of a pine cone is pictured here. The spikes are there to deter animals from eating them and the seeds are only released when the tree burns in a fire. With bush fires a common occurrence, this is a handy way to propogate the species.
On to the lovely grounds of the Botanic Gardens. Almost looks like Giverny here.
Lovely lawns where you’re encouraged to walk and sit on the benches.
And then the birds. It’s funny how unnerving it is to see birds you’re just not accustomed to seeing. We saw an Australian Magpie just walking around.
A flock of Peahens (the, ahem, lady version of a Peacock). Not the least bit bothered by us approaching them.
A Mangrove Heron.
And this little oddity. As we were walking around the park you would hear what sounded like someones smoke detector alarm sounding off over and over again, except there were lots of them. Sounded like this.
Turns out they are Bell Miner birds. Here’s a little plaque describing them.
Over all a wonderful, wondrous stop on our day tour of Melbourne. Just a couple of last shots of flowers and berries.
And then these berries.
Gorgeous!
