the australian botanic garden

The Cafe & Restaurant are beautifully located in the Australian Botanic Gardens in Mount Annan.Wedding Receptions are popular at the restaurant, and the cafe is great for families with young children with out door seating where children and plenty of space.The food is good, though not a huge selection of morning/afternoon tea muffins/cakes etc. The muffins are very good. Service is reasonable.

The gardens have come a long way since it first opened. Previously people had to pay to enter and did not have much to offer. Since a few years ago it's now free to enter, the gardens are beautifully maintained, more BBQ facilities have been built and the children's playground is always occupied. There is also the sustainable centre where lots of research has been done and is opened to the public I think about once a year.

Everything everyone else said is true; it is Australian plant heaven and very beautiful. But not just plants. We encountered two red bellied black snakes (poisonous), a handsome eastern water dragon, countless skinks and birds of all kinds and plan to go back at dusk to see the kangaroos and wallabies come out. Lovely place. Oh - the café and play area is pretty good too, as are the children's activities.

Free entry and free car parking.!This huge park is within easy distance of Sydney and offers a range of activities and experiences. The whole area is beautifully maintained and gives you a great opportunity to learn more about our native vegetation.I visited on a Tuesday and the place seemed almost deserted. Loads of picnic spots. Plenty of bar-b-cues and shelters in which to enjoy a peaceful lunch.. Very relaxing.(N.B. Make sure you see the Blue Tree !

We had been to the botanic gardens by the Opera House before, and Mount Tomah, and in the past to the Australian National botanic garden in Canberra, but this one tops all of those. And there are some private gardens around, we have paid $25 to visit gardens which are nowhere near as good as the free Mount Annan. We visited in October, too late for the wattles, but the bottlebrushes and relatives were in full flower, as were many of the banksias, grevillias and other related flowers. You need a car to get to it and to get round, stopping off at a number of areas dedicated to a general type of plant. Its all Australian natives as far as we could see, but including some rare species confined to quite specific regions. It shows off well the wide variety of Australian flora. A must for any lover of Australian native plants, and for overseas visitors who want to see the variety and beauty of Australian flowers.

I started off with the guided tour of the Plant Bank. It's an amazing resource with over 100,000,000 seeds in safe keeping. Stunning building with heaps of clever sustainable features. I hate to criticise volunteers who are enthusiastic and doing their best but their commentary wasn't up to the standard of the incredible facility they are attached to. A few years ago we toured their sister seed bank in the UK - The Millennium Seed Bank at Wakehurst Gardens where the guide was knowledgeable, articulate and very engaging.I then walked the track that commentates the Stolen Generations - very moving and beautiful on a warm spring day. I followed this with lunch at the cafe. Good food - pub style fare Fair price. Timely service even though they were very busy. Great playground adjacent and plenty of picnic spots dotted around. The gardens are very extensive and it will takes many more visits to explore them fully. I certainly plan to return

This park is free, but still well maintained and presented. A lot of Picnic space, and for entertainment. The garden is good spot for the nature lovers.

The garden is maturing well. Superbly maintained and well signed. The weather was cold but the coffee in the cafe was good . The shop was well presented but I was looking forward to the great collection of books that thru used to have / just 3 now and only one with any depth . There is a new entrance which takes you through woodlands.

Friendly service, great menu & quaint setting for a perfect breakfast or lunch, follow this up with a walk or drive through the gardens for a perfect day.

We stopped here on our drive into Sydney and were pleasantly surprised to find that not only is admission and parking free but the guided tour (given by volunteers ) was free as well. We arrived in time for the tour around 11. The tour lasted about an hour and we drove round the park to see all the native Australian species. This park has great views of the surrounding suburbs and on a clear day you can see the Blue Mountains and downtown Sydney. We walked around the fruit loop. From what we could tell the name similarity to Froot Loops is coincidental. The plants along the loop are documented with signs. There is lots of local wildlife especially lots of local birds. It's quite enough to hear them chirping from the walk. There is also a regular pack of wallabies who can be seen in the mornings but retreat in the hotter parts of the day.On part of the tour they stopped at a dead tree which had been painted blue. We inferred from the guide's chatter that the point of the blueness is meant to show that dead trees aren't useless. Someone helpfully came up with the idea that coating a dead, leafless tree with industrial chemicals in an unnatural color would best illustrate this point. They made quite a show of going on about the bloody blue tree but we were dumbfounded. I do not understand the attraction or appeal - maybe something was lost in translationAfterward we stopped at the restaurant near the visitors center. Apparently this is a collecting spots for local mothers and infants. I've rarely seen as many in one place that was not a daycare. The trails are well marked and most species have clear labels by them. Our favorite feature was the Human Involvement Sundial. One stands at the right spot based on the month and then holds arm upright and the shadow indicates the time. One galah on our tour asked how the sundial corrected for Daylight Saving Time.

This garden features only Australian native plants, spread across a vast area of land. You will need your own car as you drive around the grounds on the one way road, stopping off at various sites along the way. There are a number of different bushwalks you can take, allowing the experience of an Australian bushwalk but in a safer environment. There are also a number of picnic areas with gas BBQ's provided for those who just wish to have a day out in an open park space. The onsite seed bank building aims to house seeds from all Australian plants. If you are interested in plants, particularly Australian natives, it is well worth the trip to this garden.

We were one of the first to tour the new seed conservatory here at the botancial gardens. I give them credit for trying to preserve all of Australia's plants. We walked the grounds of the park and ate lunch near one of the large lakes on the property. Impressive areas of the gardens and colelctions of proteas. Worth seeing.

There are lots of different walks you can do if you like walking. There are differnt picnic gardens with great b-b-q facilities and lots of room for the family and kids to play. Great day to get together for family parties etc. Great place to take the kids in school holiday. It's free!! or you can go to the cafe for a coffee and cake or lunch. Yum. I believe they do a great High Tea. Haven't tried that one yet, but it's on my to do list. Lots of ladies meet there for morning or afternoon tea.Oh did I mention the gardens. They're great as well. Especially the spring display around the cafe they do every year with the paper daisies. great for photos. Have seen quite a few weddings there too by the way.

We took our cousins from overseas here and did the (free!) tour around the gardens with volunteer Rick. It was absolutely fantastic, Rick told us lots and lots of interesting information about the plans, the history of the area and the aborigines who use to be custodians of the land. He really patient and helpful for my disabled father too.Ring and book the tour ahead, bring a hat and lots of water on a hot day!

Being a local to this area, its nice to see that the facilities here are always well maintained. The garden grounds are well maintained, and that includes ammenities, BBQ's etc. If you stay until closing time you may just be lucky enough to sight some of the other locals - kangaroos.