Over the summer months, members of the Astronomical Society of Victoria set up telescopes and conduct evening talks and tours of the night sky from this vantage point.

The park is home to many native animals such as possums, and a rich variety of birdlife which includes: Pacific black duck, chestnut teal, white-faced heron, brown goshawk, collared sparrowhawk, Horsfield's bronze cuckoo, Australian hobby, galah, red-rumped parrot, eastern rosella, superb fairy-wren, white-plumed honeyeater, spotted pardalote, white-browed scrubwren, grey fantail and red-browed finch.

[1] The park is home to a regionally significant population of White's skink (Egernia whitii) and a section of habitat is maintained specifically for this species.

Governor Charles La Trobe set aside in 1850 a reservation of 10.36 square kilometres (4.00 sq mi) for parkland and open space.

The reserve was further reduced to 2.83 km2 (1.09 sq mi) when the rapid increase of population from the Victorian gold rush, led to creation of the suburb of Parkville.

The winning entry by landscape architects Brian Stafford and Ronald Jones expressed a philosophy that the character of the Park was inherent in its form – 'a place where the earth swells, the dome of the sky soars overhead and the horizon beckons'.

A sense of the landscape at the time of Europeans’ first encounter with it was to be evoked by planting indigenous species and enhancing the park's spacious quality, principally through a process of 'editing' rather than adding new features.

Reorganization of the car parks, closure of various roads, development of forecourts to the zoo's main entry and extensive new plantings were completed in 1997.

This included extensive public consultation that identified overwhelming support for the principles established by the winning entry in the 1984 Royal Park Master Plan Design Competition.

The Master Plan as reviewed endorsed the objectives of the 1984 document and introduced proposals such as a major wetland water recycling project west of the railway line.

While the move attracted some opposition from green groups, it was promoted with the claim that there would be no net loss of parkland at Royal Park.

Royal Park is also home to the State Netball & Hockey Centre, which hosts games in the top flight trans-Tasman netball competition and international hockey matches, Royal Park Golf Club - notable for being the place where one of Australian golfing's greatest champions, Peter Thomson, first learnt his craft - as well as several tennis clubs, and large areas of open space for less structured recreational activities.

The route 19 tram runs up Royal Parade, to the east of the park, which operates northbound to North Coburg, and southbound to Flinders Street station.