Botanical Gardens

Australian Arid Lands Botanic Gardens

A place to wander

Colours of the bush, Australian Arid Land Botanic Garden, Port Augusta, South Australia, © Bronwen Scott

In March 1802, Matthew Flinders sailed HMS Investigator into Spencer Gulf, hoping that it might be the entrance of a navigable channel leading to the north coast of Australia. It fell short by 1,700 kilometres (1056 miles). Flinders’ ‘consolatory hope’ — that the gulf ended in a substantial river — was also dashed. It was salt water all the way up.

On his way back from his disappointing visit to the top of Spencer Gulf, Flinders landed on the western shore, trudged through the mangroves and scrambled up the red cliffs to take bearings.

Today those red cliffs are part of the Australian Arid Lands Botanic Garden. You can walk along the cliff tops, look down at the gulf (now crossed by a railway bridge to the north and flanked by Port Augusta to the south) and perhaps spot the descendants of the waterfowl that Investigator’s crew did not manage to catch for dinner.

A rainy day at Red Cliffs Lookout, Spencer Gulf, looking north. © Bronwen Scott

This botanic garden lies in 250 ha (617 acres) of western myall (Acacia papyrocarpa) woodland and chenopod plains on dunes of red sand. It specialises in plants that grow in the interior of the continent…