Enjoy a leisurely picnic and explore one of Inner Melbourne’s historic treasures, Burnley Gardens, located in the traditional country of the Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung People.

GRADE | LENGTH | TYPE: Grade 1: Easy – picnic together with a short walk to explore the extensive range of flora in the Gardens (graded according to the AWTGS: Australian Walking Tracks Grading System).

ACTIVITY DESCRIPTION: The Burnley Gardens are a great escape for inner Melbourne, even though they are little-known and difficult to find. Open to the public 24/7, they are tucked away within the heritage buildings of the Melbourne University campus on a remote bend in the Yarra and accessed via Yarra Boulevard. Created in 1863 for horticultural research and teaching, they contain more than 1000 species of plants and have some of the inner city’s oldest trees.

Now part of the University of Melbourne since 1997, much of the late 19th-century form of the Gardens remains, though with extensive additional building, including a rockery by Ellis Stone, a new stream and pond system by Robert Boyle in the native garden, and a courtyard by Steve Mullany, a Californian landscape designer.