Booderee Botanic Gardens

Booderee Botanic Gardens is an Aboriginal-owned garden inside Booderee National Park, and a quieter change of pace from the beaches. The roughly 80-hectare garden pairs cultivated collections with coastal bushland, with more than 1,000 native plants from the NSW South Coast across heath, woodland, forest and rainforest. Start with one short path or leave time to join several into a longer circuit.

The short options include the 400 m Lookout and Casuarina trails (about 10 minutes each) and the 500 m Koori Garden and Rainforest Gully walks (about 15 minutes). For longer walks, the Heath and Woodland Trail is 1 km, the Forest Walk is 1.3 km, and the 1.3 km Lake Trail is graded medium. Linking the paths makes a 3.7 km loop around the gardens. Many paths suit assisted wheelchair use and prams, but effort and grades vary; ask a ranger which route fits your needs.

Scribbly Lawn has picnic tables, a shelter and electric barbecues, with toilets and drinking-water bubblers in the gardens. Bring something for lunch if you want to stop here. Only marked bubblers are potable; other water in the gardens is not. Garden admission is included with Booderee National Park entry.

The Lake Trail winds through mature forest to a perched freshwater lake. The trail follows slopes of ancient sand dunes down to the shore; water from the lake is used to irrigate the gardens. The Lookout and Casuarina trails also give views across the garden and lake, so you can get to the scenery without taking the medium-grade lake walk.

The Koori Garden and education shelter share the Wreck Bay community’s connection to local plants and their uses. Garden interpretation includes bush foods and practical knowledge: curator Bernie McLeod has described blueberry ash berries as food and the flowering of Gymea lilies as a seasonal cue linked to whale migration. The paths and plantings also reflect generations of work by local Koori staff.

Before the garden, this was Bherwerre farm, owned by piano manufacturer Octavius Charles Beale. His attempt to grow timber for piano frames failed, and the property turned to grazing and dairying. In 1951 the frost-free site became an annex of the Australian National Botanic Gardens in Canberra. The Wreck Bay Aboriginal Community acquired ownership of the gardens and park in 1995, the gardens took the Booderee name in 1997, and they became independent of the Canberra gardens in 2000.

The gardens bring several coastal plant communities together in one walk, and there is something in flower along the Heath and Woodland Trail year-round. Lake McKenzie is habitat for eastern long-necked turtles and seasonal birdlife. Casuarina seeds feed the endangered glossy black cockatoo, so the trees are worth a closer look even if the birds stay out of sight.