RBGV Cranbourne Gardens

Melbourne, Australia

2023

Royal Botanic Gardens Cranbourne offers a natural bushland experience (over 300 hectares) alongside the Australian Garden, an award-winning, contemporary botanic garden celebrating the beauty and diversity of Australian landscapes and flora and featuring over 100,000 plants from 1,900 plant varieties.

The bushland has over 450 indigenous plant species and includes over 10km of walking tracks, six kilometres of cycling tracks, a lookout tower, picturesque shelters, barbecues and playgrounds. It is a precious remnant of the vegetation that once covered the broader region and is actively managed to control the number of non-indigenous plants and exotic weeds.

Completed in October 2012, the Australian Garden was transformed from a sand mine and scrub to a botanic garden of international standing.  The Australian Garden aims to show visitors the diversity, beauty and functionality of Australian native plants.

This expression of interest for Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria, Cranbourne is for Boon Wurrung Café, Tarnuk function room, Kiosk and five external spaces scattered through the Gardens.   

Throughout these external spaces the future operator will be the exclusive caterer, noting that these spaces are still shared with the general public.

Royal Botanic Gardens Cranbourne provides a host of outdoor locations that will appeal to a range of customer segments seeking to have a unique and memorable Gardens experience that will be complemented by exemplary food and service from a future Partner.

The cafe vision is to offer a modern range of food with high levels of service convenience including:

• a grab & go range of food

• over the counter service (ambient, cold & hot food display)

• a la carte modern, on trend & popular cafe menu offer.

• great Melbourne coffee.

The cafe range would scale up and down in volume with demand, working with technology to provide a seamless level of service on peak days to maximise the revenue opportunity and customer satisfaction.

The Kiosk is located half way through the Australian Garden journey and can offer a welcome hospitality respite with a streamlined food and beverage offer.

The Tarnuk function space is suitable for both private functions and corporate/business meetings and workshops. The space is well suited for a mini corporate ‘getaway’ that can transition instantly into an Australian Garden experience.

Five External Spaces across the Gardens offer unique options for functions and events and two of the five outdoor spaces can support infrastructure for events using canopies or temporary marquees that can be installed by the future operator to develop and build a reputation in the wedding market.

EOI SUCCESSFULLY COMPLETED APRIL 2023