Mt Tomah Botanic Gardens

The Blue Mountains botanic gardens are at Mount Tomah, about a half hour drive from here at Medlow Bath. One particularly sunny day, we packed a picnic lunch and headed over to walk through and view these gardens. As it says in the brochures "A visit to Mount Tomah is like travelling the botanic world." There are plants for all around the world with many of them grouped in geographic regions. It is set high (by Australian standards!) on the peak of an extinct volcano and provides a cool garden climate. The New Zealand collection was doing very well, and along side it many other collections such as the rhododendrons, the rock garden, formal garden, bog and rock garden. Tomah, from the aboriginal word, means tree fern and there were certainly lots of them, especially in the Gondwana walk. All these plantings came with lots of information boards, and in particular the Wilderness Conservation area. A viewing platform is provided here that looks across the local vegetation with Sydney in the distance. It was a little hazy and unfortunately the iPad camera hasn't done it justice.

Looking up at the Rock Gardens

 

The hellebores do particularly well in this area.

 

Looking down towards Sydney.

 

 

These gardens are well worth a visit. There are suggested walks depending on how much time you have, from half an hour to a full day. It is certainly a place that you could return to many times and always see something new. Spring was just beginning to show itself with the camellias and early azaleas in flower, along with the jonquils and snowdrops.

 

There is the Blue Mountains World Heritage Exhibition Centre that has both interactive and static displays about the unique values of this wilderness area, and of course, like in any visitor/tourism facility there is the shop and restaurant.

This area is full of history that goes back 7000 years, which is the the time of the first dated rock art. Further information about the history of this area and the gardens can be found on their website at http://www.mounttomahbotanicgarden.com.au/your-visit/history/

 

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