I love the botanical gardens. At the risk of sounding as though I'm working for the Australian tourist board, I'd say they're probably not high on most tourists' agenda, but I think they should be (along with the QVB).
We had a pootle around there for a couple of hours this afternoon taking photos and remembering all the reasons we love the place.
Firstly, the setting. The botanical gardens are at Farm Cove, which is around the bay from Circular Quay. You see the opera house from behind, which I think is probably the better view anyway. This is the view of the gardens with the city centre in the background and the view of Sydney's famous landmarks taken from the Fleet Steps in the Domain. It's a great place to unwind.
Farm Cove was where the first fleet started trying to grow plants when they arrived in Australia. They didn't have much success here and later transferred their efforts up the Paramatta river. There's an area of the gardens where you can see the native plants growing and read about how the aborigines used them for food and medicine. The subsequent land clearing and farming methods wiped many of the native species out so that today, only a very small percentage of them remain.
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