Toowoomba (nicknamed ‘The Garden City’) is a city in the Darling Downs region of Queensland, Australia, located 127 km (79 mi) west of Queensland’s capital city, Brisbane. Toowoomba is situated on the crest of the Great Dividing Range around 700 metres (2,300 ft) above sea level.

A university and cathedral city, Toowoomba hosts the Australian Carnival of Flowers each September.  With hundreds of parks & blossoming gardens to explore, the Toowoomba Carnival of Flowers has something for everyone.

Yes, this is not Italy but this was such a lovely excursion and the gardens are just so beautiful I wanted to write about it.  It took us about an hour and 45 minutes to drive up to Toowoomba.

Toowoomba has a different climate to Brisbane, it is not as humid, consequently the flowers, shrubs and trees, in my opinion are just so much nicer.  The abundance of colour and the spectacular variety of flowers reminds me of many of the lovely gardens in Italy.

This annual garden festival includes prize-winning private gardens, and many public parks.

We started our visit at the Picnic Point which is located on the escarpment of the Great Dividing Range. Picnic Point has panoramic views to the horizon. There is a great restaurant there, plenty of picnic areas and actually you could spend a full day there.

We then drove over to the University where we spent time in the Japanese Gardens. These are probably one of the nicest if not the nicest Japanese gardens in Australia.

After the Japanese gardens we drove over to Laurel Bank Park which presents a splendid display of beautiful blooms, exotic scented gardens, herbs and shrubs in raised garden beds.  Here we had a very Aussie lunch which was put on by the local Lions Club. I am always happy to support these type of charity clubs.

Our last stop before heading back to Brisbane was Queens Park Gardens which  is within walking distance of the city heart and features Toowoomba’s Botanical Gardens, bright flower beds, avenues of large leafy trees, wide open grasslands, an off leash area for dogs and two well-equipped children’s playgrounds. Queens Park is also home to the Ergon Energy Flower, Food and Wine Festival, and lots more.

After a lovely day visiting these gorgeous gardens and feeling very content we then headed back to Brisbane.