Not the Australian National Botanic Gardens

You might be intrigued by the “Not the” in the title of this entry, “Not the Australian National Botanic Gardens.” I hope so because I’m not. One of us might as well be intrigued.

I arrived in Canberra this afternoon after a flight from Melbourne. By the time I got to my hotel, changed into some shorts, used the washroom, and was ready to head out, it was about 3:00 p.m.

As regular readers know, botanical gardens have become something of a thing for me on this trip. They have one here in Canberra, and it’s supposed to be a big one. As you no doubt cottoned on to from the title and first paragraph of this entry, it’s the Australian National Botanic Gardens. I decided to make that my first destination in Canberra.

Before I get into that, about “changed into shorts.” For the benefit of the people back home who might find the concept of changing into shorts discombobulating in the middle of December, when they’re putting on parkas, it was 24°C when I landed in Canberra and the temperature was forecast to quickly reach 29°C. It felt even warmer. When I left Melbourne it was “only” 17°C. It’s supposed to be even hotter over the next few days here.

More appropriately dressed for the hot weather, I headed out on what Google Maps told me would be a little over a 30-minute walk to the Australian National Botanic Gardens. But why the “Not the” in the title? It’s coming, dear reader. It’s coming.

The Way to the Australian National Botanic Gardens

The website for my hotel tells me it’s a short walk from the centre of the city. I can’t tell where the centre of the city is in Canberra. My hotel is among some very loosely packed mid-rise office buildings and another hotel or two. There is also a small area that has some low-rise buildings with ground-floor retail and restaurants.

Today is Sunday. I didn’t see any stores other than a convenience store and a drug store open in the area, although many of the restaurants did open today. The sidewalks were well-nigh deserted when I headed out to the botanical gardens*. I don’t think there is much, if any, permanent residential occupancy (as opposed to hotels) in this area. It will probably be busier tomorrow when the office workers are back.

(* The area with restaurants did get a little busier around dinner time, but I didn’t see any full restaurants.)

To be honest, I’m not impressed with the district. The buildings are, in my opinion, mostly boring. And they’re quite disjointed and don’t create a cohesive whole.

My walk to the Australian National Botanic Gardens took me through the sprawling campus of the Australian National University. (This being the national capital, there are a lot of “Australian National Somethings” here.)

I’ve got to hand it to the architects of the buildings of the university campus. If their goal was to design them to, when viewed as a whole, be a highly accurate replica in tone, massing, and form of a thoroughly mundane, large, sprawling suburban office park, they succeeded beyond their wildest dreams. Bravo.

Seriously. Until I saw some university signs I was certain I was in an office park.

That having been said, there is a very lovely park with a river, lawns, and lots of trees in the middle of the campus. So, that was good.

The Australian National Botanic Gardens, Not So Much

My guidebooks and walking tour app told me the Australian National Botanic Gardens is big and beautiful. I read a review on TripAdvisor from a couple of months ago that said that a section of the gardens was closed because they’re constructing a large, new conservatory. They probably wouldn’t build an old conservatory, now would they?

Fair enough. It’s supposed to be a big botanical garden, I figured there would still be more than enough for me to see.

One of my guidebooks told me that the Australian National Botanical Gardens is so big that the best strategy is to follow what’s labelled as the “Main Path,” a circle route around the gardens, and then do some more exploring if you have time. Sounds like a plan.

I easily found the “Main Path” sign, followed it, and quickly came upon a small pond with aquatic vegetation. Beside that is a very small rainforest. I walked through that for the minute or two it took to do so.

Then I resumed my walk along the wide main path. I soon saw where construction closed a section off to the side of the path. I didn’t amble far beyond that before being confronted by a chain across the path and a sign saying it was closed.

OK. No worries, as they say here. I turned around and walked the other way along the main path. I didn’t get far past my starting point when I saw that some smaller paths off the main path were also chained off. This time I looked more closely at the sign on the chain. It said:

NO ENTRY
Gardens closed due to hazardous conditions

Not that many more steps along the main path brought me to another, longer chain across that wide path, with the same sign attached to it. As it happens, an Australian National Botanical Gardens employee had just driven a utility vehicle from the closed-off section and had stopped to reattach the chain. I reached her when she was back in her vehicle and about to drive off. She stopped her vehicle to tell me it was closed, as if I couldn’t see the chain and sign.

The only reason I advanced toward the chain was to ask her why it was closed.

“The strong winds of a couple of days ago severely damaged some of the trees and we’re worried about them falling over.”

“Is there anything open?”

“Well the Tasmanian rainforest and the restaurant are open, but that’s pretty much it.”

Dejected, I left.

So, now you know the reason for the “Not the” preceding “Australian National Botanic Gardens.” Was it worth waiting for? Not for me, but this is all about you.

Oh, wait. I almost forgot to mention one more sign I saw in a couple of locations in the small bit of the gardens that was open. Depending on the size of your browser screen, the picture I took of it will probably be close to this paragraph.

Yeah, that one. The one about being alert because of a snake.

I asked the gardens employee about that too. She replied, “Oh, the snake is no problem. It’s killed only a half dozen or so people this week.” Alright. She only said the, “Oh, the snake is no problem” sentence aloud. But I’m sure she said the second sentence to herself in her head, but she didn’t want to frighten me.

Commonwealth Park

After my failure at the Australian National Botanic Gardens, I was determined to see some green space. I didn’t consult my guidebooks or my walking tour app. I opened up Google Maps and looked for any relatively large green area labelled as a park that wasn’t too far of a detour from the route back to my hotel.

I found one, Confederation Park. And, as a bonus, one end of the park abuts Canberra’s lake, Lake Burley Griffin.

Lake Burley Griffin is an artificial lake. That is not to say it is artificial in the sense that someone painted a realistic-looking lake on the ground. It’s a real lake, with real water. But it didn’t occur naturally. At some time, humans gouged out a large chunk of land beside the Molonglo River where it passes through the purpose-built Australian capital city of Australia, Canberra and built a dam to fill it up.

While not the Australian National Botanical Gardens, Commonwealth Park is a peaceful green space with lots of trees lawns and other vegetation, including a few flowering plants.

Plus, the park has its own smaller offshoot lake inside it. What I assume is a manmade river runs from the lake. Faux though they may be, the river and lake enhance the tranquil ambience of the park.

After spending some time wandering around and enjoying Commonwealth Park, it was time to head back to my hotel and take advantage of the free welcome drink on offer. There, I lifted my sacramental welcoming sparkling wine and prayed to the God of Canberra that tomorrow would be a more fully successful day.