Pioneer Women’s Memorial Gardens, Adelaide
Adelaide Writers' Week 2010
Over the last week I have travelled three times to Adelaide to attend the 2010 Adelaide Writers’ Week. This is an integral part of the biennial Adelaide Festival of Arts. Writers and readers come here from all over Australia for this important festival, one of the best of its kind in the world. A fine array of talented international writers are also on the speakers’ list or on panel discussions on books and writing.
Adelaide Writers' Week 2010
The sessions run from 9:30am to 6pm every day for six days and admission is free to all sessions (except the evening sessions in the Town Hall). Sitting there all day is a marathon effort for both organisers and audience members. The audience would have to number well over 500 at any one time, often swelled for popular or well-known writers, or during the lunch break of workers in the nearby CBD, a five minute walk away.
Adelaide Writers' Week 2010
Three large marquees are set up for the week in the Pioneer Women’s Memorial Gardens located beautifully between the CBD and the River Torrens. The East Tent and the West Tent host the writers’ talks and panel discussions, while the central tent is the Book Shop. The shop stocks many of the books of the visiting authors as well as stocks of new books launched during the week. Every guest speaker is encouraged to sit at tables in front of this tent for book signings, and to meet their readers.
Bendigo Botanic Gardens
1 Comment »15th January, 2010; Category: Birds, Botanic Gardens, Holidays, Parks and Gardens, Victoria, Zoos
Bendigo Botanic Gardens
On my last visit to Bendigo I had a brief visit to the Bendigo Botanic Gardens. We had on previous occasions stopped here for either morning tea or lunch. Some years ago this was a very pleasant, well mantained park with a pleasing collection of native and exotic plants.
Bendigo Botanic Gardens - Swamp Wallaby enclosure
A feature of the gardens was the large pond – a small lake really – filled regularly by the nearby Bendigo Creek. This lake was home to a wide range of native and introduced water birds, adding to the attractiveness of the park. On this visit however, the lake was completely dry, with no birds.
Centrally located were also several large aviaries containing a range of native and exotic birds. By stretching one’s imagination and generosity of spirit, one could consider calling this a very small zoo. A more accurate description would have been to call it a small fauna park.
Bendigo Botanic Gardens - Swamp Wallabies
On this latest visit I was very disappointed at the poor state of the whole gardens, and the deplorable state of the animal collection. Either you have animals and birds on display in an attractive way – or you have none at all. The sad, run-down condition of the wallaby enclosure spoke volumes. Whoever is in charge either has no interest in the display or no budget to improve things – probably both.
Bendigo Botanic Gardens - Bird aviary
The large ugly looking aviary in the photo above shows the cockatoo enclosure. It was once a monkey cage. at least that would be mildly interesting. The poor parrots in it were quite bored and most of the species represented could easily be seen outside in the natural environment by any amateur birder.
Bendigo Botanic Gardens - Bird aviary
To be fair to the local authorities, the region has been undergoing severe drought conditions over the last decade. The drastic water restrictions meant that the lake could not be filled, nor could the exgtensive lawns be watered much. Many of the exotic plants were showing signs of stress.
Bendigo Botanic Gardens - Sulphur-crested cockatoos
Since my visit the local city council has announced a total revamp, extension and upgrading of the botanic gardens. This is long overdue. The plans can be seen here.
Further reading:
- White Hills Botanic Gardens Bendigo – plenty of background information and photos of the gardens.
- A visit to Bendigo – article on my birding blog
Relaxing in the Botanic Gardens, Canberra
The Botanic Gardens in Canberra is an excellent place to relax
We love visiting botanic gardens whenever we travel, whether that is in our own state or interstate. Perhaps our favourite such garden is the one in Canberra. The Australian National Botanic Gardens are truly magnificent. They are spread over a wide area on the slopes of Black Mountain only a few minutes drive from our capital’s CBD. The walking tracks are all wide and easily negotiated, many of them very suitable for wheelchairs or those who are not all that steady on their feet.
On our last visit our daughter came with us. The last time she visited was many years ago when she was quite young. The gardens themselves were also quite young. She likes the natural environment and loves walking in the Australian bush. She has also walked extensively in Europe and Nepal. This time, however, she was just content to follow us around with the latest book she was reading. As we took photos of the birds and flowers she would find a suitable seat nearby and continue reading.
It was a balmy evening and we were joined by several hundred music enthusiasts. These people came in with their rugs and folding chairs, their picnic baskets and drinks and nibbles. They all settled down for an evening of musical entertainment, a part of their Summer Series of events at the gardens. Even though we didn’t join them, we still enjoyed the jazz ensemble as their music filled the gardens.
Outdoor concert, Botanic Gardens, Canberra
More flowers of the Canberra Botanic Gardens
Flowers, Australian National Botanic Gardens, Canberra
The Australian National Botanic Gardens in Canberra are a wonderful resource for people like us. My wife is a keen grower of Australian native plants – she runs a small nursery – so she is always adamant that we visit any gardens open to the public.
I enjoy looking at the plants and flowers too, especially looking for beautiful flowers to photograph. Parks and gardens also attract plenty of birds, and that is my main interest in visiting them. I write about the birds I see and photograph on my blog called Trevor’s Birding – go on – have a look – I’ll wait here while you look.
Flowers in the Australian National Botanic Gardens, Canberra
Flowers in the Australian National Botanic Gardens, Canberra
Flowers of the Canberra Botanic Gardens
Daisy, Australian National Botanic Gardens, Canberra
We always enjoy visiting botanic gardens, no matter where they are. We have found over the years that most gardens have an excellent range of plants and flowers which keeps my wife interested. I also enjoy taking photos of the flowers. An added bonus is the often prolific bird life, which interests me. I use my observations to write about on my birding blog.
One of the best – arguably the very best – such garden is the Australian National Botanic Gardens in Canberra. We have visited these gardens on every occasion we have been to Canberra. In 2007 we spent a whole day there and only covered about half the gardens.
In this post I will feature some of the flowers I photographed on our visit earlier this year. (You can see other flower photos in the posts published in the previous few days, and also in the coming few days.)
Flowers, Australian National Botanic Gardens, Canberra
Flowers, Australian National Botanic Gardens, Canberra