Fern Gully

Discover Fern Gully

One of the most popular and tranquil places in Melbourne Gardens where lush ferns thrive beside a trickling stream, sheltered beneath a canopy of forest giants and stately palms.

A testament to the cooling power of plants, this glorious microclimate can be up to 6 degrees cooler than Melbourne's city centre. Although you'll find ferns from South-West Tasmania to Far North Queensland, and even New Zealand, more than half the ferns in Fern Gully are Victorian species.

This is a peaceful place of intricate patterns, filtered light and flitting birds. Head off the main boardwalk to find your own sanctuary in the secluded contemplation nooks.

Notes from our team

"Fern Gully is a collection of ferns from Australasia as well as many other bold foliage plants, to create a lush rain forest feel. There's a sense of being enclosed in this greenery. The delicate ferns and the fern fronds and the light streaming through. The shade and light and the sound of the creek..."

- Horticultural Curator, Fern Gully, from Sonica Botanic Episode 3: Herb Garden, Fern Gully Sensory Garden

Design beginnings

The fernery that you see today takes advantage of the original landscape: a rocky gully with an occasional creek. The Garden’s second director William Guilfoyle began its transformation in 1873 aspiring to create a fashionable, lush fernery, a mysterious oasis.

Recent design additions include three wellbeing gardens, nestled off the main boardwalk: the Moss Garden, the Birds Nest and the Grotto, designed by RBGV landscape architect, Andrew Laidlaw.

Connecting to Country

This Collection is on the traditional lands of the Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung people. As you explore the Gardens you will see four colours and four words in Woi-wurrung language on the signs to reflect the Traditional Owners’ connection to Country and this particular place. The word tanderrum refers to a cultural gathering place in Woi-wurrung and the signs in this area have pink highlights.

Listen to Sonica Botanica

Hear about the sensorial effects of plants in Episode 3 of Sonica Botanica: Herb Garden, Fern Gully and Sensory Garden (24m 15s). Perfect to listen to through your headphones whilst wandering through these three living collections.

Listen to Episode 3

Young botanists

Spore spotting

Spores are the reproductive part of a fern. They’re kind of like the babies. You can find spores on the underside of fern leaves (fronds). Gently look underneath some fronds to see if you can spot spores – are the spore patterns arranged in lots of dots, or neat little lines?

Listen to Sonic Snippets: from the Sonica Botanica archive

Director of Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne from 2010-2024, Chris Cole explains why the unique microclimate of Fern Gully makes it one of his favourite places in the Gardens.

1m54s

[Intro]: Sonic Snippets: from the Sonica Botanica archive

[Chris Cole]: My name is Chris Cole. I'm the Executive Director at Melbourne Gardens. I think the Fern Gully for me, it's such a different place to anywhere else within the Gardens. It's so lush, it's so green. And when you enter there you can be totally immersed in that space. The rest of the Gardens almost melts away, and the change in the feel of the air.... One of the great benefits of the Fern Gully is the microclimate that it creates. It is definitely cooler and damper than anywhere else in the Gardens, and it can be up to six degrees cooler on a hot day, than Melbourne's CBD. So people do seek refuge there, it is so beautiful just to get that respite.

The topography and also the plants chosen within the Fern Gully, definitely do change the prevailing conditions, it does remind me of my time when I was curator at the Townsville Botanic Gardens, it is so lush, and it does feel tropical to a point, and does evoke memories of my time up in Far North Queensland. Just that feeling of being enveloped in a rainforest-type environment. And whenever I'm walking in the Gardens, I'll always make a point to go through Fern Gully.

Fancy your Ferns?

Visit the Living Collections curation page to learn more about fantastic ferns.

Fern Gully

Explore more in Fern Gully

A basket, a roof, or a hat?

Cabbage Tree Palm (Livistona australis) is Victoria’s only native palm, and Australia’s most widespread and southerly palm, occurring in the forests of Queensland, New South Wales and eastern Victoria. It has many uses for First Peoples in these areas, such as thatching huts and making baskets, bags, string and nets.

The young ‘cabbage’ shoots can be eaten raw or cooked. Early colonists used the leaves to thatch rooves. In the early to mid 1850s, leaves were woven to make cabbage-tree hats for protection from the harsh Australian sun. Guilfoyle planted dozens to provide a canopy for his new fernery, beneath which ferns could later thrive.

The tallest tree

The Montezuma Cypress (Taxodium mucronatum) at the northern entrance to Fern Gully is the tallest tree in the Melbourne Gardens.

The viewing platform on this tree was installed in 2019 to allow visitors to get close to this gentle giant without damaging its roots.

You can find this tree and more of Australia's most beloved trees on the the National Trust's significant tree register.

Soft and stately

Soft Tree-fern (Dicksonia antarctica) is one of the tallest and the most abundant tree-ferns in South-Eastern Australia. It is found in wet forests and gullies from southeast Queensland, through NSW, Victoria, to southwest Tasmania.

The pulp in the top of the trunk is full of starch and is a food source, raw or roasted, for First Peoples in these areas. It’s a good hardy choice for your fernery.

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