(by AdinaVoicu / Public Domain)
Brisbane hosts hundreds of tracks and trails through gardens, bushland, memorial sites and urban parks. Spoilt for choice, you'll need a shortlist to find the brightest spring colours in town. Start with 5 of the best spring gardens in Brisbane:
After opening over 40 years ago, Brisbane's Botanic Gardens now blossom with over 20,000 plants, spanning 5,000 species over a vast 56 hectares. Half the park is dedicated to Aussie natives, including bush cherry trees, cycads, foxtail palms and hoop pines, whisking you from the cold concrete of the city.
Wander into our ancient past on the White Arrow Trail, dotted with giant Roxburgh figs. Sniff the Cigar Box cedars, a fragrant mahogany used to make cigar boxes. Lookout for lobster claws (Heliconia), dramatic red leaves are often mistaken for the delicious crustacean.
Guided walks are led daily and various sections invite picnickers and lunch-goers to relax beneath Lawyer vines that never object.
The park is open from 8am – 5pm during autumn at Mt Coot-tha Road, Toowong.
Prepare yourself for the prominent displays in the Spectacle Garden, a vast patterned display spring, flowering in a brilliant celebration of your favourite colours.
Relax at the Lake Precinct, watching the ducks as they watch your picnic lunch.
Practise your David Attenborough impersonation in the treetop walkways, overlooking the misty forest canopy in the Rainforest and Fern Gully.
Make a birthday wish while eating a sweet slice of cake in the Celebration Precinct, as delicate fragrances of frangipanis drift over the barbecues and water features.
The park is open all day and night during autumn at 1 Parkland Blvd, Brisbane.
The Spectacle Garden (image by Roma Street Parklands)
Beside the gently flowing Brisbane River, the boardwalk at Sherwood Arboretum is the perfect place to see hundreds of varieties of flora, stretching over 15 hectares.
Created to protect our unique native plant and tree life, the founders of Brisbane City planted the first seeds of bull kauri, Burdekin plum, tulip oak and milky mangrove in the arboretum.
While the environment inspires romance, resist the urge to copy the careless carvings of lovehearts and initials in the trees.
For a reminder of nature's power, visit the memorial to the 1974 Brisbane River flood, stained with the high-water mark of the natural disaster.
Take your pick of picnic spot along the river, beside your favourite tree. Cook a hot lunch at the barbecues while children conquer the playgrounds.
The park is open from all day during autumn, at Jolimont Street, Sherwood.
Need to escape the city without an exhausting drive? Flee into the forest at D'Aguilar National Park.
As mountain tops are silhouetted by the sunset, the cool valleys become a soundscape with Great Barred Frogs, yellow-bellied gliders and short-eared possums.
A birdwatcher's binoculars will be busy with wompoo fruit-doves, bell miners and yellow-tailed black-cockatoos.
There are plenty of picnic areas beside the most picturesque sites, earned after a morning of horse or bike riding, guided tours or nature happy-snapping.
The park is open at 60 Mt Nebo Rd, The Gap.
Sit in the shade of a cherry blossom in the City Botanic Gardens (by Brisbane City Council / BY 2.0)
Lose yourself in 500 hectares of raw nature - open eucalypt forest, melaleuca wetlands, tidal creeks and mangroves.
The parklands are lined with convenient boardwalks to spot the birdlife as it migrates from the frosty north of Siberia and Alaska, swooping over endangered loggerhead turtles.
There are open fields for ball games, bushwalking and cycling tracks, boat ramps for canoeing and fishing, and picnic spots along the Wynnum, Manly and Lota Foreshores.
Kids can discover the attractions at the Pandanus Beach playground or swim in the Wynnum Wading Pool.
Enter the park at Wynnum Road, Manly Road or Chelsea Road, Lota.
Have you found another special spring garden in Brisbane? Please let us know, we love to discover new favourites.
