Cooktown Botanical Gardens
Cooktown Botanical Gardens
Cooktown Botanical Gardens
4.5
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OrderintheHouse
Brisbane2,810 contributions
Jul 2022
Following on from our successful Cairns Outback bus and train trip in June and July 2022, which included stays in Georgetown, Karumba, Forsayth and Mount Surprise, my wife and I undertook a short stay in Cooktown. We travelled from Cairns on the Trans North bus service on Tuesday 5 July, stayed three nights at the Seaview Motel then returned to Cairns by Trans North Bus on Friday 8 July.
On Wednesday 6 July we enjoyed an energetic day’s touring, which included a lot of walking with visits to the Cooktown Museum, the Cooktown Botanic Gardens, and the Reconciliation Rocks Precinct.
The Cooktown Botanical Gardens were first proclaimed in 1878 and remained opened to the public until 1917 when funds to maintain the Gardens diminished and a forced closure resulted. It was not until 1986 that the Gardens enjoyed a renaissance with the Cook Shire Council commissioning a conservation report on the Gardens Reserve which ultimately resulted in the very beautiful Botanic Gardens we have today. The Gardens are located within the 62 hectare Gallop Botanic Reserve, situated 1.5km from the centre of Cooktown.
Our walk from the Museum to the Gardens, mostly along Walker Street, took 30 minutes and by the time we arrived we were in need of a drink, as the weather was very hot for walking. As it was lunchtime, we opted to have lunch at the café located in the very impressively constructed Nature’s Powerhouse Facility. The café is essentially a large open air deck with a roof over the top containing tables and chairs and it provides a nice atmosphere to enjoy lunch with lots of lush, green vegetation growing all around the deck providing added relief The menu choices are limited; however my wife and I did enjoy their cheese, bacon and tomato croissant as a light lunch meal and for drinks my wife had a vanilla milkshake and I had a very delicious iced coffee.
After lunch, before embarking on a tour of the Gardens, we had a look at some of the features in the Nature’s Powerhouse facility, namely a very comprehensive gift shop and the very impressive Vera Scarth Johnson Gallery. The Gallery features the botanic works of artist Vera Scarth-Johnson (1912-1999). Entranced by the beauty of the Endeavour River valley, Vera became passionate about the need to graphically record the flowering plants found in this unique region before they became endangered. This she achieved through her collection of completed works to the people of Cooktown she kindly donated in 1986. Prints of Joseph Banks Florilegium ( a collection of literary extracts) are also to be found in this Gallery. This is an absolute “must see” when visting the Botanic Gardens – it will totally captivate you as you admire the rare talent of Vera on display here. There is a ‘no photographs’ policy in the Gallery which needs to be observed and admission is free. One of the bonuses at the gift shop was the excellent example in a composted wire basket of a magnificent live Cooktown Orchid specimen; this purple flower being Queensland’s official floral emblem. It was as good a specimen of this flower as you would want to see anywhere. It was sitting on a bench next to a bookcase and definitely took pride of place competing with a stuffed snake specimen beside it.
The Botanic Gardens are divided into various plant themed sections for ease in viewing the trees and plants. There are around 20 individual plant sections including the Orientation Garden, the Vera Scarth Johnson Garden, First People’s Grove and the Banks and Solander Garden, to name just four. We decided to just do a leisurely walk along the very impressive walking paths and admire whatever caught our eyes at the time. We found this a nice way to enjoy the flora highlights on offer. It would have taken us too long to try to concentrate on all the plant sections in these extensive Gardens. Some highlights we noted included the Palmetum featuring beautiful, exotic palm trees, an incredible flowering Zamia Nut tree, Cycas media (collected by Banks and Solander in 1770); a delightful fan shaped Bismarck Palm and an excellent rich red flowering Crepe Ginger. There were more plants observed, of course. However these are just four to mention for this review.
Another area of consideration is the abundance of beautifully carved polished wood seating dotted throughout the Gardens to ease the weary walker. Two that stood out for us included the one constructed from Moreton Bay Ash and the seat paying tribute to Bert and Una Mason. A celebration plaque attached to this seat, donated by the Cooktown community in 2010 and located under a pair of paper bark trees growing near the gate leading to the walking track to Finch’s Bay reads simply “ Bert and Una Mason welcome you to this place we loved. Wait a while to enjoy the sunbirds, wallabies, little purple orchids, paperbark trees and green tree frogs". Bert Mason, who passed away in 2000, was a renowned geologist who with his wife Una in the early 1990’s used to live in Cooktown half of the year and down in Victoria the other half . He was an active member of the Endeavour Lions Club and a great supporter of the Cooktown State School, mentoring students.
Adjoining the Botanic Gardens is the Queen’s Park Cricket Oval, separated from the Gardens by a purposeful painted fence. A novel piece of signage at the entrance to the Gardens walk gave typical North Queensland warnings - regarding falling tree limbs, falling mangos, snakes and crocodiles. The warnings were next to a great map of the Gardens to make the task easier to find where everything is located. Very considerate.
We really enjoyed our short two hour visit to these wonderful Botanic Gardens. We are so glad we did not let the challenging walk to and from the Gardens make us change our minds. This visit was well worth the effort and we could have so easily given ourselves more time here, had that been available to us.
.
On Wednesday 6 July we enjoyed an energetic day’s touring, which included a lot of walking with visits to the Cooktown Museum, the Cooktown Botanic Gardens, and the Reconciliation Rocks Precinct.
The Cooktown Botanical Gardens were first proclaimed in 1878 and remained opened to the public until 1917 when funds to maintain the Gardens diminished and a forced closure resulted. It was not until 1986 that the Gardens enjoyed a renaissance with the Cook Shire Council commissioning a conservation report on the Gardens Reserve which ultimately resulted in the very beautiful Botanic Gardens we have today. The Gardens are located within the 62 hectare Gallop Botanic Reserve, situated 1.5km from the centre of Cooktown.
Our walk from the Museum to the Gardens, mostly along Walker Street, took 30 minutes and by the time we arrived we were in need of a drink, as the weather was very hot for walking. As it was lunchtime, we opted to have lunch at the café located in the very impressively constructed Nature’s Powerhouse Facility. The café is essentially a large open air deck with a roof over the top containing tables and chairs and it provides a nice atmosphere to enjoy lunch with lots of lush, green vegetation growing all around the deck providing added relief The menu choices are limited; however my wife and I did enjoy their cheese, bacon and tomato croissant as a light lunch meal and for drinks my wife had a vanilla milkshake and I had a very delicious iced coffee.
After lunch, before embarking on a tour of the Gardens, we had a look at some of the features in the Nature’s Powerhouse facility, namely a very comprehensive gift shop and the very impressive Vera Scarth Johnson Gallery. The Gallery features the botanic works of artist Vera Scarth-Johnson (1912-1999). Entranced by the beauty of the Endeavour River valley, Vera became passionate about the need to graphically record the flowering plants found in this unique region before they became endangered. This she achieved through her collection of completed works to the people of Cooktown she kindly donated in 1986. Prints of Joseph Banks Florilegium ( a collection of literary extracts) are also to be found in this Gallery. This is an absolute “must see” when visting the Botanic Gardens – it will totally captivate you as you admire the rare talent of Vera on display here. There is a ‘no photographs’ policy in the Gallery which needs to be observed and admission is free. One of the bonuses at the gift shop was the excellent example in a composted wire basket of a magnificent live Cooktown Orchid specimen; this purple flower being Queensland’s official floral emblem. It was as good a specimen of this flower as you would want to see anywhere. It was sitting on a bench next to a bookcase and definitely took pride of place competing with a stuffed snake specimen beside it.
The Botanic Gardens are divided into various plant themed sections for ease in viewing the trees and plants. There are around 20 individual plant sections including the Orientation Garden, the Vera Scarth Johnson Garden, First People’s Grove and the Banks and Solander Garden, to name just four. We decided to just do a leisurely walk along the very impressive walking paths and admire whatever caught our eyes at the time. We found this a nice way to enjoy the flora highlights on offer. It would have taken us too long to try to concentrate on all the plant sections in these extensive Gardens. Some highlights we noted included the Palmetum featuring beautiful, exotic palm trees, an incredible flowering Zamia Nut tree, Cycas media (collected by Banks and Solander in 1770); a delightful fan shaped Bismarck Palm and an excellent rich red flowering Crepe Ginger. There were more plants observed, of course. However these are just four to mention for this review.
Another area of consideration is the abundance of beautifully carved polished wood seating dotted throughout the Gardens to ease the weary walker. Two that stood out for us included the one constructed from Moreton Bay Ash and the seat paying tribute to Bert and Una Mason. A celebration plaque attached to this seat, donated by the Cooktown community in 2010 and located under a pair of paper bark trees growing near the gate leading to the walking track to Finch’s Bay reads simply “ Bert and Una Mason welcome you to this place we loved. Wait a while to enjoy the sunbirds, wallabies, little purple orchids, paperbark trees and green tree frogs". Bert Mason, who passed away in 2000, was a renowned geologist who with his wife Una in the early 1990’s used to live in Cooktown half of the year and down in Victoria the other half . He was an active member of the Endeavour Lions Club and a great supporter of the Cooktown State School, mentoring students.
Adjoining the Botanic Gardens is the Queen’s Park Cricket Oval, separated from the Gardens by a purposeful painted fence. A novel piece of signage at the entrance to the Gardens walk gave typical North Queensland warnings - regarding falling tree limbs, falling mangos, snakes and crocodiles. The warnings were next to a great map of the Gardens to make the task easier to find where everything is located. Very considerate.
We really enjoyed our short two hour visit to these wonderful Botanic Gardens. We are so glad we did not let the challenging walk to and from the Gardens make us change our minds. This visit was well worth the effort and we could have so easily given ourselves more time here, had that been available to us.
.
Written 7 January 2023
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
JElliot32
New South Wales, Australia3,800 contributions
Sep 2022
We visited the gardens as part of a group and were allowed just 40 minutes here. For me, it wasn't near enough. We did get the time of day right though - a little after 3 pm when the light was still strong and the ambient temperature was perfect for a garden stroll. And at that time we had the gardens to ourselves; there were just 2 other visitors. The gardens are one of the oldest in Queensland, dating from the 1870s. They are relatively small and divided into a number of different sections, and features exotic tropical plants as well as local rainforest species. I did like the way all the plants were labelled - just as you should expect for a botanical gardens. A path winds its way through the gardens, making all the sections readily accessible. And fortunately there is a lot of shade - Cooktown gets steamy hot.
I understand feral pigs have been a major problem for the gardens but now the site, including the collections of rare plants, are protected from the pigs by a heavy-duty wire fence.
I understand feral pigs have been a major problem for the gardens but now the site, including the collections of rare plants, are protected from the pigs by a heavy-duty wire fence.
Written 12 October 2022
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Susan B
Tea Gardens, Australia28 contributions
Aug 2022
Established in 1878 (one of Queensland's oldest regional botanic gardens) they suffered decades of neglect from 1917 until they were revived in 1985. They are now in very good condition and well worth a visit. The section of plants collected by Joseph Banks and Daniel Solander in 1770 is a quiet spot of particular interest to those interested in botanical history (like me), but there are also areas devoted to species traditionally used by the local Aboriginal people, specimens provided by the Queensland Acclimatisation Society and planted in the gardens in the 19th century, species of rare and threatened plants of the shire and species painted by local artist Vera Scarth-Johnson. These paintings, along with some excellent prints of Joseph Banks’ Florilegium, are displayed in the Vera Scarth-Johnson Gallery in the Nature’s Powerhouse facility. This also contains the Exhibition Space, Gardens’ Shop, Café, and the Cooktown Visitor Information Centre. We enjoyed a great lunch there.
Written 20 September 2022
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Amanda L
Yungaburra, Australia46 contributions
Aug 2022
Having suffered a bereavement and wanting to find some solace in nature, we decided to visit the botanic gardens and boy did they deliver! Absolutely beautiful! From the plant displays to the signage and the walk down to Finch bay, these gardens ticked all the boxes… Although only small by botanical garden standards, they certainly delivered!
Thank you for easing our pain Cooktown botanic gardens…
Thank you for easing our pain Cooktown botanic gardens…
Written 28 August 2022
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Tam
Townsville, Australia9 contributions
Aug 2022 • Solo
This review is for the cafe at the gardens. The staff are very unfriendly. When ordering my meal I asked if I could have a take away coffee instead of in a mug I was snapped at and told this will be an extra 50 cents the woman serving didn’t even look up at me when ordering. No seats to sit to eat and when the meal was ready I collected it and awaited my coffee I had ordered with the meal and asked about it the woman stated that she had bussed ages ago I replied that the buzzer was handed in when I got my meal she reluctantly made another for me.
Terrible customer service wouldn’t recommend eating here. The gardens are stunning so save yourself the grief and eat elsewhere and come and enjoy the gardens.
Terrible customer service wouldn’t recommend eating here. The gardens are stunning so save yourself the grief and eat elsewhere and come and enjoy the gardens.
Written 24 August 2022
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Lesley M
Nelson Bay, Australia12 contributions
Aug 2022 • Couples
The gardens and walks were lovely, coffee and scones in the Cafe were OK....thought the lady who took our order could have had better customer service skills...I asked If my latte could be put in a cup rather than a glass as I'd had a bad experience with glass....didn't like her curt response quite frankly ...told me bluntly I was having a flat white and pulled a face...I also asked if they were scones in the covered container, as the lid was hard to see through...she lifted the lid and said..we'll it looks like it!!....I was nothing but polite to her....some customer service training wouldn't go astray 😒
Written 21 August 2022
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Ollie
3 contributions
Jul 2022
Unfortunately on the two occasions we have visited Cooktown the information centre within the Botanic gardens have not been open but to wander through the gardens is a wonderful experience.
Written 1 August 2022
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Tony B
Orange, Australia536 contributions
Jul 2022
Our small coach group breakfasted at the gardens with total satisfaction. We then had a short time to explore the Gardens. The HQ building contained the cafe (in-door and out-door) as well as two botanical art collections, and a bookshop. This left little little time to explore the gardens at large, but I did see a Cooktown Orchid (Qld floral emblem) and a small area of aboriginal-relavant plants. It would be easy to spend much more time there I would imagine.
Written 19 July 2022
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
_jennys3489
Melbourne, Australia370 contributions
May 2022 • Couples
Wonderful green and cool gardens , lots of history worth reading , lovely cafe . Say walk around with lots of information. Wonderful trees plants and flowers . Worth a visit if your interested in gardens
Written 18 May 2022
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
PhilMalone
Footscray, Australia1,376 contributions
Jan 2022
The Cooktown Botanic Gardens is the place to go for peace and tranquility. There are good walks with plenty of heavy shade. There are lots of information boards about the plants and trees and animals, so one gets a good education of tropical foliage and fauna whilst there. A handy little cafe on site (if it is open - check hours before visiting) provides welcome refreshments.
Written 12 February 2022
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
aaron l
Lawrence Township, NJ137 contributions
I can not find the opening hours/days on their website. Do you know this information or where I can find it?
Thanks!
paulabrown123014
Caister-on-Sea, UK76 contributions
Not sure of opening times/days etc. It seemed to be run by volunteers & am guessing is open most days in daylight hours.. However have found a phone number- try 61 (0)7 4069 5672.
Hope this helps.
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Frequently Asked Questions about Cooktown Botanical Gardens
- Hotels near Cooktown Botanical Gardens:
- (0.42 km) Peninsula Caravan Park
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- Restaurants near Cooktown Botanical Gardens:
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