tours & attractions

Carrick Hill is fortunate in being one of the few period homes in Australia to survive with its original contents almost completely intact and its grounds undiminished. It also holds a gallery of Australian, British and French Collection of works.

Acquired by the Adelaide Botanic Garden in 1866, the adjacent Botanic Park is a glorious 34 ha green oasis within easy walking distance of the Adelaide CBD. It is flanked on the Botanic Garden side by a stately avenue of Plane trees which were planted in 1874, and on the northern side by the River Torrens and the Adelaide Zoo. Century old Moreton Bay Fig trees from Queensland with their huge trunks and gnarled buttress roots add to the special quality of Botanic Park. It was in Botanic Park that the Salvation Army held its first Australasian meeting in 1880, an event commemorated in 1980 by the planting of an avenue of Plane trees on the northern side of Botanic Park. From the 1890's Speaker's Corner on Sundays provided the venue for lively public debates on a wide range of topics and created a reputation for Botanic Park as Adelaide's Hyde Park, the celebrated locale for free speech in London. Always a popular place for family reunions and picnics, in recent years Botanic Park has also become an outstanding venue for several major events including Womadelaide and Gardens Alive. The Adelaide Botanic Garden is an historic garden on the Adelaide Plains with a dry Mediterranean climate and alkaline soils. Native and exotic plant collections are displayed including palms, cycads, bromeliads and many spectacular mature trees and shrubs. Rainforest species are grown in the temperate Australian forest and the Bicentennial Conservatory for tropical plants. Unique arid Madagascan plants are grown in the Palm House. Getting there by public transport: Take a train to North Terrace Station in the city. Take the 99C City Loop service bus (which leaves from the front of the station), or any of the 280, 281 or 282 bus routes to Botanic Park.