The Brisbane Botanic Gardens Mount Coot-tha are Queensland's premier subtropical botanic gardens. The gardens have native and exotic plant collections, graceful waterfalls, flowers and statues. They offer visitors a living museum of native and exotic plant collections. Its themed sections include a scented garden, Japanese Gardens, waterfalls and the largest collection of Australian native rainforest trees in the world.

The Sir Thomas Brisbane Planetarium is a feature offering family entertainment. The self-guided walks through the Brisbane Botanic Gardens Mt Coot-tha enable garden exploration at your own pace. A free brochure with the garden highlights, plant information and trail maps is available on site or can be downloaded: Brisbane Botanic Gardens Mt Coot-tha self-guiding interpretive walks.

The Aboriginal Plant Trail explores the Australian Rainforest area, which is the oldest section of the Brisbane Botanic Gardens planted in 1974. Some of the plant types you will see are used by Aboriginal communities. The walk will take you about 30 minutes at an easy pace. The Australian Plant Communities Trail takes you on a highlight tour of the newest section of the gardens planted in 1984. Plants on display include tropical and subtropical rainforests, open eucalypt forest, heathland and wetlands found in the eastern part of Australia.

The walk will take you 60 to 90 minutes and will give a good overview of this area. The White Arrow Trail introduces some of the highlights and plant varieties at the Brisbane Botanic Gardens. The walk will take you about 60 minutes at a leisurely pace.

The 52 hectare gardens, located at Toowong, are open every day of the year between 8am - 5.30pm from September to March and 8am - 5pm from April to August. Entry to the gardens is free.

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Sir Thomas Brisbane Planetarium

New South Wales colonial Governor Sir Thomas Brisbane established Australia s first significant observatory and was responsible for the first extensive mapping of the southern sky. His observations led to a list of 7,385 stars. An original copy of the Brisbane Catalogue of Stars' and one of his telescopes are on display at the Planetarium. The Display Zone features interesting artefacts and displays, including fragments of asteroids and spacecraft models. You will also see images from the Hubble Space Telescope.

The Sir Thomas Brisbane Planetarium was established in 1978 by Brisbane City Council. Located within Brisbane's Mt Coot-tha Botanic Gardens, the Planetarium is home of the Cosmic Skydome, a 12.5-metre-diameter projection dome. Enjoy a show in the Cosmic Skydome, take a tour of Brisbane's current night sky with one of our astronomers or visit the Planetarium's Display Zone to take an astronomical journey from the present day Solar System to the time of the Big Bang. Location: within the Brisbane Botanic Gardens, Mt. Coot-tha.

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