Nothing says spring more than bright, eye-catching flowers coloring in the vast Australian landscape. Various destinations around the country embrace the floral theme by hosting vibrant flower festivals each spring.
Find out more about Australia’s flower festivals that take place in the southern spring months of September and October. The festivals are held throughout the territories of Australia, with Canberra’s Floriade, the largest in the Southern Hemisphere.
Australian Spring
Australia’s southern spring takes place during the three transitional months, September, October, and November, which come before the three hottest months of December, January, and February.
1: Bowral Tulip Time Festival
In the Southern Highlands of New South Wales, an easy, pleasant drive from Sydney, springtime is tulip time. The Bowral Tulip Time Festival is one of Australia’s oldest and best-loved floral festivals.
Corbett Gardens, the centerpiece of the festival is mass-planted with over 75,000 tulips, 15,000 annuals, and an additional 40,000 tulips. The festival is usually held for 10 days or so around the time of the New South Wales Labor Day. The festival is a celebration of stunning tulip displays, entertainment, special events, and private gardens.
2:Floriade Flower Festival
Australian Capital Tourism
The month-long Floriade Flower Festival in Australia’s capital city is an annual festival redolent with the scents, sounds, and sights of the Canberra spring. Almost 500,000 visitors flock to Canberra usually from the second weekend of September to the October weekend after Canberra’s Labor Day to take in the sea of flowers alongside Lake Burley Griffin in Commonwealth Park.
Featuring more than one million blooms, Floriade has earned the title of the largest flower festival in the Southern Hemisphere and includes a program of horticulture workshops, music, and entertainment.
3: Kings Park Festival
Wildflowers in bloom © Tourism Western Australia
The Kings Park Festival, formerly known as the Perth Wildflower Festival, takes place at Kings Park and Botanic Garden for the entire month of September.
Since 1964, the Kings Park Festival’s tradition is to celebrate spring and the 25,000 plants and dozens of species of wildflowers that appear throughout the southwest of Western Australia during this time.
What started more than 50 years ago as a five-day event with plant specimens in jars on trestle tables has blossomed into the current format of floral displays, acoustic music, exhibitions, workshops, interpretive artworks, guided walks, and family activities.
4: Toowoomba Carnival of Flowers
Floral parade in Toowoomba © Tourism Queensland
As a farming and garden community, the inland Queensland city of Toowoomba celebrates its Carnival of Flowers in September, a festival that now takes place over 10 days bookended by two weekends.
Running for more than 65 years, the award-winning Toowoomba Carnival of Flowers continues to grow. In addition to the spectacular gardens, tours, and live music are the two main events, the Grand Central Floral Parade and the Food and Wine Festival.
This world-class Food and Wine Festival includes mouth-watering food and wine, made with produce grown fresh in Southern Queensland Country. Sample local fare and wines at tastings and food stalls, and check out a range of cooking demonstrations.
You can be a part of colorful history and join the revelers on the streets of Toowoomba for the famous Grand Central Floral Parade. Spectacular performers, carnival characters, stilt walkers, and floral masterpiece floats are the stars. Before and after the parade there’s chalk art on the streets to keep the kids busy.
Article by Larry Rivera