Cairns Botanic Gardens

Free and open daily from 7.30am, the Cairns Botanic Gardens in Edge Hill spans everything from an Aboriginal Plant Use Garden to a Zhanjiang Friendship Garden. The wet tropics climate does the heavy lifting — palms, ferns and rainforest species thrive here in a way temperate gardens can't replicate. Free guided walks run regularly; the fortnightly Little Taccas program brings under-fives in on nature's terms.