30 years of guiding

Date posted: 03 June 2013

The Botanic Gardens of Adelaide congratulates the Friends of the Botanic Gardens of Adelaide's Garden Guides who celebrate 30 years of offering free guided tours to the public.

The Guides support the role of the Botanic Gardens, by imparting knowledge and stories with the community, promoting conservation and sharing our commitment to connecting people to plants, and their knowledge is outstanding.

The Garden Guides are our longest-standing volunteer group. Local, interstate and international visitors take advantage of this magnificent service and the feedback is always overwhelmingly positive. The Guides passion and knowledge provide a remarkable gift to the Gardens and our visitors.

Guided walks began on June 6, 1983 at Adelaide Botanic Garden, with two walks held every week. Today, there are 47 volunteer Garden Guides who take over 400 walks every year for over 4000 visitors through Adelaide, Mount Lofty and Wittunga Botanic Gardens. These walks range from the scheduled daily guided walks to specialised booked walks.

Lesley Hawkins is one of the original Guides who began in 1983 and continues to volunteer in the same role to this day. This is a special opportunity for Lesley to reflect on the changes she has seen over the last 30 years.

“The Guides have always had a great depth of information and expertise, but over the years our training is much more developed than when we first began. We now have a 12 week formal training course and are constantly learning new information, with guest speakers at our monthly meetings” says Lesley.

Special anniversary walks will be held throughout June at Adelaide Botanic Garden. Walks will commence from Schomburgk Pavilion, where a special exhibition covering the past 30 years of guiding will be on display.

Special 30 years of guiding celebration

When: Thursday 6 June at 10:30am

Where: Commences at Schomburgk Pavilion

Cost: Gold Coin Donation

Find out more about our daily guided walks.