Botanic Gardens in Alice Springs

Photo: the second picture is of a bird-attracting garden that appears to have succeeded.

The Council of Heads of Australian Botanic Gardens is meeting in at the Alice Springs Desert Park tomorrow. There are two 'botanic gardens' in Alice Springs - the Desert Park and Olive Pink Botanic Garden.

The Desert Park is a combined zoo and botanic garden, and done superbly. I visited while on holidays last year and enjoyed demonstraitons on local birds and Indigenous life. The plants are wonderfully interpreted and you get the messages repeated all over the park so that fading minds such as mine eventually remember!

Olive Pink Botanic Garden has animals and plants but the focus here is on plants - although lots of nice stories about how plants and animals interact. The garden struggles for resources but gets good support from the Desert Park (e.g. plant material). The walk to the top of the small hill gives a lovely view of Alice Springs. On this visit, though, we just met in the cafe and enjoyed the warm and inviting surroundings as we talked of botanic gardens and things (a prelude to the formal meeting tomorrow).

Both 'gardens' are definitely worth a visit. First go to Alice Springs.