Beautiful: The Tesselaar Tulip Festival is in the Dandenong Ranges, only about 40 km east of Melbourne. Photo: Visit Victoria.
French Impressionist painter Claude Monet was a floraphile, exclaiming: “I must have flowers, always, and always.” He was spot on! Winter’s grip is loosening as we start to come out of hibernation, become energetic and look at ways to get active again. Nature is awakening as spring is here.
As we enter the season when flowers bring colour, joy and hope to our world, the blooming of nature is celebrated with innumerable floral festivals in Australia, known for their vibrant displays, community events and unique floral experiences. Vernal freshness sees a profusion of colourful tulips, cheerful daffodils, delicate snowdrops, bright forsythia, fragrant hyacinths and myriad other blooms.
Australia hosts several major flower festivals, including: the free, large-scale Floriade in Canberra, known for its million blooms and NightFest; the biggest wildflower collection on earth, in Western Australia; the Tesselaar Tulip Festival in the Dandenong Ranges, celebrating a 70-year history; a historic event transforming Queensland’s “Garden City” for the Toowoomba Carnival of Flowers; and the Southern Highlands’ Tulip Time Festival in Bowral, NSW.
Floriade, the largest flower festival in the Southern Hemisphere, sees more than one million bulbs bursting into bloom at Canberra’s Commonwealth Park, which also turns into a dynamic space of discovery and learning.
In the event’s 38th year, step into a world of wonder (13 September to 12 October), where a “Science and Nature” theme delivers hands-on experimental workshops, how-to sessions and expert-led gardening masterclasses. Watch the parklands burst into a kaleidoscope of colour by day. Then visit at dusk to see the flowers glow under the stars during NightFest – an after-dark festival filled with concerts, dance parties and market stalls.
Similar to other bloom festivals, Floriade celebrates with artistic exhibits, entertainment, music, cultural celebrations, food and drink, horticultural workshops, market traders and many other recreational activities.
Blooming: Enjoy spring’s glory among the Toodyay wildflowers in the Avon Valley, WA. Photo: Destination Perth.
More than 12,000 species of flora burst into brilliant bloom across Western Australia each season, delivering a botanical display like no other. It’s a diverse and unique show, with 60 per cent of the flowering species found nowhere else on the planet. In inner-city parks, amid forest and bushlands, and across coastal and outback plains, carpets of radiant wildflowers are a feast for the senses.
Typically, the wildflower season has a six-month window, starting in the Pilbara in June and moving across the atmospheric towns of the Goldfields and along the Coral Coast. By September, Perth’s urban parks – including floral haven Kings Park/Kaarta Koomba, home to more than 3000 wildflower species – and the rolling hills of the Swan Valley are bursting with colour.
The season comes to a vivid close in October in the biodiversity hotspot of the Margaret River region, where wildflowers mingle with the world-class vines that make this location so special. Wander through the Western Australian Botanic Garden, within Kings Park, home to more than 3000 of the state’s magnificent plants.
Toodyay can be found inland in the picturesque Avon Valley region, only 80 km north-east of Perth, in the wheatbelt region. The town’s architecture reflects its colonial and convict past, while the many nature reserves become ablaze with colour with magnificent displays of wildflowers from August to November. Toodyay sits on the Avon River and is known for its natural landscapes, historical colonial and convict architectures and as a hub for agriculture and tourism.
Vibrant: A familiar sight at Floriade, in Canberra’s Commonwealth Park, the largest flower festival in the Southern Hemisphere. Photo: Visit Canberra.
The small Dandenong Ranges town of Silvan has a spring in its step when September rolls around. There’s an event of special significance this year as the Tesselaar Tulip Festival (13 September to 12 October) marks seven decades of radiant cheer. The fields come alive with colourful tulips – almost a million of them – about 40 km east of Melbourne.
A historic event transforming the “Garden City” is the Toowoomba Carnival of Flowers in Queensland (12 September to 6 October). First held in 1950, the carnival showcases the city’s parks and gardens in all their colourful glory.
The Tulip Time Festival in Bowral, NSW, one of Australia’s oldest flower festivals, has been running for more than 60 years, transforming the beautiful Corbett Gardens into a sea of colour. More than 80,000 tulip bulbs and annuals are planted, creating fields of blooms and spectacular floral patterns. Be dazzled when you visit the Southern Highlands (12 September to 6 October).
Get set to bask in the great outdoors, appreciate the countryside, revel in the wilderness, and connect with people to focus on optimism, creativity and the cyclical nature of life. Hopes are high of enjoying warmer days, sunnier skies and spring’s full splendour!
