Green Fingers at the Botanical Garden

The Royal Botanical Garden in Sydney is a must-see for visitors and a must-return for locals. It opened in 1816 and is the oldest scientific institution in Australia, alongside being one of the most important historic botanical institutions on the globe. The best part – it’s free and open 365 days a year or 366 in a leap year!

 

Located by the Sydney Harbour, guaranteeing jaw dropping views, it is one of the most visited attractions in the city. Covering an impressive 74 acres (around 57 football fields), it’s cleverly divided into four main areas: The Lower Gardens, Middle Gardens, Palace Gardens and the Bennelong.  If you’ve visited the Gardens before 2010, you may have remembered the pesky flying foxes. These fruit bats caused havoc to the natural surroundings so by 2013, they were evicted and thankfully, the damaged trees have come out of intensive care and back on the mend. 

The Gardens host an excellent series of ongoing tours and activities. These include workshops on plant identification to bush foods and guided tours of the Gardens or select regions. There are fees for additional tours such as the Garden Mount Annan ($77 per group), the Blue Mountains Botanic Tomah ($10 per person) and the Eco tours in the Conservation area (fees vary).  One of our favourite attractions are the Aboriginal Heritage Tours ($36.50 per person) so you can learn how the natives lived off the land. 

If you’re interested in learning about helping the ecosystem, the Royal Botanical Trust encourages you to contact them about their Community Greening efforts.  All locals reading this blog post; consider contributing seeds, plants and landscape materials to the Trust so the sub-organisations can utilize the local community support. Additionally, contact the Trust to set up a community garden in your own hood and see how they can provide resources and advice.

Since our boutique Sydney hotel is only a short ferry ride away, you can put your green fingers to rest for the night and marvel at the stunning skyline from Cremorne Point Manor. Recently being honoured with our fifth consecutive Certificate of Excellence Award by Tripadvisor, have a sneak peek at our home page video and check out the views we see every day from the Manor.  If you’re green with envy, then isn’t it about time you planned a trip to Sydney?