Royal Botanic Gardens, Cranbourne

The total area of this division of the botanic gardens is 363 hectares, including heathlands, wetlands and woodlands.

The gardens also provide habitat for native birds, mammals and reptiles, including some rare and endangered species.

[1] The indigenous Australian Boon Wurrung people inhabited the area around Cranbourne in pre-European times.

The site of Cranbourne Gardens was used for sand mining from the 1920s, largely to supply the building of Melbourne and its suburbs.

In 1970 the site was named as a division of the Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria, with a focus on Australian plant research and conservation.

Thus plants have had to evolve to cope with extended periods of intense heat and dry aridity, and with either seasonal or irregular copious supplies of water.

There is also a display of Australian orchids in an undercroft below the Visitor's Centre, the Serpentine Path, and a Desert Discovery Camp in the Arid Garden for children to play and learn.

Cranbourne is reasonably well served by public transportation, with a train line from Melbourne and a number of local bus routes.