City Botanic Gardens

The City Botanic Gardens holds the densest collection of mature tropical trees in Brisbane, centered on a massive, sweeping Banyan fig planted in the eighteen seventies. Convicts established these grounds in eighteen twenty-eight to provide food for the penal colony, planting maize and sweet potatoes to avoid starvation. Walter Hill, the first curator, later transformed the working farm into a public garden. He spent decades importing exotic species from across the British Empire, creating a lush, humid sanctuary at the edge of the river.