June 2022

Visiting the Royal Botanic Garden Sydney

The Royal Botanical Garden Sydney are the oldest botanical garden in Australia. Established in 1816, there are now over 30 hectares (74 acres) of space with over 5000 plant species from all over the world. Directly next to the Circular Quay, this garden along the harbor is home to some wonderful sights.

Our visit to the Royal Botanical Garden Sydney was later afternoon on a Thursday and there were plenty of people doing their routine walk. Before entering the gardens, we first walked all along the harbour to Mrs Macquarie’s Chair. This “chair” was made for the governor’s (Macqarie) wife to sunbathe and is not a very popular spot for perfect photos of the Sydney Opera House and Sydney Harbour Bridge.

When we headed into the gardens itself, the walk quickly turned into a bird frenzy. This ended up being a bird watching dream – so many different birds! The first one I spotted with the Kookaburra – which I could not believe we actually found. It stayed for a while letting us get so many photographs of it.

Then we spotted wild cockatoos – it was so strange seeing them in the wild since they are so heavily associated as pets. Seeing them like this, along with many various parrots – I cannot imagine anyone having them as pets. The cockatoos have so much personality and are extremely loud birds, announcing their movements at all times.

When we came across the oldest tree the gardens (a Gum Tree Eucalyptus) We spotted another cockatoo trying to make its way in and out of the various hollow parts of the gum tree.

Next up are the Australia White Ibis or as I have named them, the Moon Knight bird. They are all over the city and are more scavenger birds but I could not get over how much the head looked like the god in Moon Knight.

The gardens themselves are really pretty and make for a wonderful change of scene from the city just steps away from the central business district.

Our visit also coincided with late afternoon and the sunset – this is a wonderful stop to watch the sunset.

While garden walks tend to be an early morning activity for us, this ended up being a perfect time to visit in the later afternoon. The sunset was so magical here and I can’t imagine a better view.