Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria, Botanical garden in Melbourne, Australia.
Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria is a botanical garden in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, covering 38 hectares and featuring collections of native Australian plants, lakes, lawns and themed garden zones. The grounds are divided into several areas, including tropical glasshouses, meadow spaces for resting and winding paths that pass through shaded avenues.
Charles La Trobe established these gardens in 1846 and transformed marshland into a scientific and recreational space for the growing colony of Melbourne. Over the following decades different directors shaped the site, with Ferdinand von Mueller expanding the botanical collection from 1857 and William Guilfoyle reshaping the terrain with curving paths and artificial mounds from 1873.
The Aboriginal Heritage Walk presents First Peoples knowledge of plants and shows which traditional food sources, medicines and tools the Kulin Nation relied upon. Visitors learn how the original inhabitants connected deeply with the landscape and what role individual species played in their daily routines.
Visitors can enter the grounds daily between 7:30 and 19:30 without an entrance fee, with several access points along Birdwood Avenue. Most paths are paved and suitable for wheelchairs, though some steeper sections and lawn areas are more difficult to navigate.
The grounds hold over 8,500 plant species, including rare specimens in specialized collections such as the Californian Garden and Guilfoyle's Volcano. The artificial volcano mound was built in the late 19th century and now serves as a viewpoint from which visitors can look across the entire site and parts of the Melbourne skyline.
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