Mackay Botanic Gardens

Visited: autumn

Recommendation: The botanic gardens provide excellent access to the river, a lush and thriving environment where you never know what might turn up. Definitely worth a visit, if only for a pleasant family walk.

The Botanic Gardens at Mackay were as unusual as they were stunning. The gardens stretched along the river and the set up was great for walkers, families and bird watchers with a paved walkway all along. You could cross over the river and walk along the other side but the ground was a bit rougher and the birds harder to see. From the paved side there was great views of the water and the birds on it. At the northern end was a boardwalk into the water and swampy area and although it was a bit exposed, again there was great views of the bird life.

I arrived, as I always like to do, early in the morning and headed south. I was immediately rewarded with numerous Plumed Egrets in the shallows. As I crept up on them, a pair was chasing each other around and displaying. It was a stunning sight and I took a lot of photographs.

Plumed Egret (ardea plumifera)

While there might not have been anything terribly exciting on the days that I visited the gardens, I did enjoy this area very much and it gave up some good photo opportunities. Here are the best of them.