Cranbourne is a division of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Melbourne and specialises in the display of Australian Native plants. 

The gardens cover a very large area (363 hectares) and have over 10km of walking tracks which allow visitors to explore the various vegetative regions with the park including heathlands, wetlands and grasslands.

The Australian Garden which was opened in 2006 has a distinctive contemporary feel and consists of extensive landscaped displays planted with over 170,000 plants.

It is a garden that will polarize many people along the lines of art versus botany. The visitors who like the use of concrete, stone and metal to create sculptural lines to show off the plants will love these gardens. 

Traditionalists however will find that the emphasis on artful, man-made structures detracts from the natural essence of the native plants and will probably not react well to the omnipresent man-made environment. 

In fairness though, these gardens are very young and in years to come when the plants dominate the setting more then these garden will have an overall different feel.

In the centre is the Red Sand Garden: this stunning outback landscape created from deep red sand is a dramatic contrast to the rest of the garden because of the presence of few grey/green leaved plants. It is highly sculptural and best appreciated from on high, either at the Visitors Centre or Gibson Hill.

The circular loop pathway system has been created to take in all displays so it doesn't matter whether you turn left or right when you leave the visitors centre.

The main paths takes visitors through a series of gardens containing a wonderful selection of Australian trees including Ironbark, Box, Peppermint, Bloodwood, Stringy Bark and a quite youthful Eucalyptus Walk. To the right of this path is the Dry River bed where a selection of small to medium sized shrubs are planted including many varieties of Calothamnus.

Gibson Hill is in the centre of the garden and from the top visitors gain a great 360 view of the entire space. There many Acacia and Banksia planted along the paths that lead to the easy walk summit.

Cranbourne contains several artificial waterways and lakes. Along the waters edge at the far end a Seaside Garden has been created and next to that man-made spits have been planted with Melaleuca trees.

The Australian Garden contains many smaller feature gardens containing many varieties of native plants. They display and demonstrate the use of plants in different environments, often using unusual or re-cycled materials to artistic effect.

If you have time it is worth taking a stroll along one of the many walking tracks outside of the main Australian Garden. From the Visitors Centre it is possible to walk or drive to these other areas including the picnic area closeby.

As Botanic Gardens go, this is definitely an experiment in art and botany. It is also still (in 2014 when this is written) a very young garden, but as a place to bring large groups for a very different day out, it is very well equipped with massive car parks and overly spacious solid concrete pathways. 

Someone, somewhere is very proud of their landscape design - my guess is that they are an artist rather than a gardener.