Melbourne Royal Botanical Gardens Tour

In the heart of the city, the beautiful Melbourne Gardens occupies what was once a traditional camping and meeting place for the Boon wurrung and Woi wurrung people. Today, you can participate in one of the most interesting walking tours in the city, gaining a fascinating introduction to the medicinal and spiritual uses of the local flora by diverse Aboriginal cultures..

This tour begins with a traditional Welcome to Country (Tooltips: A ritual done to highlight the relevance of a particular area to Aboriginal history and culture) and “smoking ceremony”(Tooltips: native plants are burned in order to ward off bad spirits) in order to cleanse and prepare ourselves for the enlightening experience we’re about to have! 

Your expert naturalist guide will lead you through the different environments in the Botanical Gardens, giving you insight into how ancestral Aboriginal cultures lived within the different environments--from forest to rainforest to wetlands--and made use of the local resources. After you discover the many uses of local flora as tools, medicine, and food, we’ll finish the tour with a refreshing cup of lemon myrtle tea.