Australian Arid Lands Botanic Garden Visitor Centre and Cafe

This review is about the cafe, not the gardens.
Great facilities and location. Nice food.rude staff, patronising staff towards foreigners (or assumed foreigners in our case).
We've have lived in rural/remote Australia for 13 years, but are not from Australia originally - we have a 9 months old who made a mess when we had breakfast there, my wife asked for a broom and dustpan to clean it up ourselves, but we were told that "here in Australia we do this for you". On the way out we were told to watch out for snakes around the place. Maybe they were trying to look out for us, but it really did not come over that way. Port Augusta may not be as multi cultural as the rest of Australia, but still. I suggest staff be a bit more considerate of their pateons - eg small talk goes a long way to find out a bit more about patrons before making assumptions about them.

I walked into this place from the viewing platform just off the highway (didn't know there was a rd in and a small carpark).
If you love wild flowers this is a must do stop, they have so many varieties from many families of inland natives.
I was only going in for a quick wander, came out some hours later, would have stayed longer if i had the time.
There is amenities and a coffee shop here as well.i didn't go into either so have no idea what either was like.

Time of year dependant for flowers, but whilst i was there, maybe a third in flower.loved it.
Most trees/shrubs labelled so you can ID something if you wish to get one for home.
If plants are your thing, make time to stop here!

The Australian Arid Lands Botanical Garden is a "must see" for every visitor to Port Augusta. The Botanical Garden is the result of a dream and a lot of subsequent hard work by Arid Lands Horticulturist John Zwar.

Really interesting place to visit and explore. The coffee and scones were divine, enjoyed in the friendly cafe with great views. We will call back in on our way home to buy some bush/native plants for our garden, including a Sturt Desert Pea.

Excellent service. Food is amazing. All the staff are friendly. Highly recommend visiting this place. You’ll be glad you did.

Very friendly and helpful staff, beautiful atmosphere and delicious food inspired by native cuisine. Definitely worth a nice slow visit.

We come as often as we can here, the kids love the nature playground (so do i lol). Great place full of short walks and the cafe is a must.

Community funded and run gardens full of native trees, shrubs and flowers. They have separted the gardens into different geological areas and have a rare plants section. Different walks you can do, including a long one to Matthew Flinders lookout.
Cafe was delicious, we shared the platter which included kangaroo salami and wattleseed damper

This is a great collection of native flora suitable for dry climate gardens. The cafe also offers very good food and drink. We took away some great ideas and designs for our garden.