Brisbane Botanic Gardens

I didn’t have much time after getting back from my morning cruise to the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary to do much this afternoon. But I did have time to head up to Brisbane Botanic Gardens.

The Brisbane Botanic Gardens is not to be confused with Brisbane’s City Botanic Gardens, which I visited on my first day here. The former is located partway up, but still near the base of Mt. Coot-tha. The latter is near the city centre.

The full official name of the one I visited today is “Brisbane Botanic Gardens Mount Coot-tha.” But I usually see it referred to as just “Brisbane Botanic Gardens.”

Because that’s all I did this afternoon, this will probably be one of the shortest posts in this journal. So let’s get started and get this over with quickly so we can all go out and enjoy ourselves. Or, in my case, go to sleep.

Visiting Brisbane Botanic Gardens

The Brisbane Botanic Gardens, like Brisbane’s City Botanic Gardens, is run by the City of Brisbane and entry is free. Unlike the City Botanic Gardens, it’s beyond the generally populated area of the city.

I think a city bus goes there. But that would have required figuring out how to use the bus system here and finding the right bus. I didn’t have a lot of time. So I Ubered.

The City Botanic Gardens is quite big. The Brisbane Botanic Gardens is much bigger.

The latter’s gardens are divided into sections. There’s a Queensland section with local plants, an exotic rainforest, a Japanese garden, a bonsai house (with, obviously, bonsai plants), an American region* plants section, an arid region plants section, a dome with tropical plants, and a “kitchen garden” with fruits and vegetables.

(* “American region?” True, Canada is North American, but it’s not what people think of when they hear “American.” If you mean “North American,” say “North American,” dammit.)

There are probably a few other sections I forgot. This might come as a surprise to you, but I forget things sometimes, particularly on days ending in “y” on English-language calendars. (No, it doesn’t help when I’m in a country that uses a different language. Besides, they speak English here.)

The Brisbane Botanic Gardens also has a lovely lily pond with, of course, lilies, but also some other aquatic plants. I walked around the pond.

Walking a short way up Mt. Coot-tha to the upper reaches of the gardens brought me to a lookout that provides a great view of Brisbane’s skyline beyond some trees.

As I walked through the gardens, I spotted a few lizards. A couple of them crossed my path, a couple sat just beside the path, and one sunned itself on a path-side statue of what looked like a very much larger-than-life beetle or some other such insect. (I’m not an entomologist. How the heck would I know what the ugly creature was supposed to be?)

I also saw an ibis. I don’t recall ever in my life seeing an ibis even in a zoo until I came to Brisbane. But they’re everywhere in this city.

I won’t try to weave a rhapsodic narrative about the beauty of the park and its plants, primarily because I thoroughly suck at that sort of writing. I don’t want people to mock me more than they already do. Instead, I will simply say the Brisbane Botanic Gardens and its plants are very beautiful and a pleasure to walk through, post a lot of pictures, and leave it at that. Feel free to mentally fill in the missing literary yada, yada, yada when you look at the pictures.

There. Done. Until tomorrow. Now, go off and enjoy yourself while I try to grab some sleep and ameliorate my jet lag.

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Well, are you out having fun yet? If not, maybe these other pictures from the Brisbane Botanic Gardens will brighten your day: