Project Spotlight - Sonica Botanica and the case for audio experiences in botanic gardens

By Sally McPhee,

Creative Producer, Placemaking and Interpretation, Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria

Sonica Botanica: Stories and Sounds from the Gardens, Australian Drylands

Image credit: Igor Sapina

“Listening to this is like being part of a conversation, rather than being told what to think” Sonica Botanica listener feedback.

When you visit a museum or an art gallery, often you can grab a headset and treat yourself to an audio tour – a way to hear the stories while you look at the art or the objects, rather than (or as well as) reading interpretive panels.

Audio tours can be a godsend: for some of us, reading just makes us sleepy; listening can aid comprehension, or give us more time to enjoy the art or the objects; some of us simply love the way it creates a little, private place where someone is speaking just to us, right into our ears. Audio is intimate and can add a special layer to your average museum and gallery experience.

Botanic gardens, with their living collections of plants, are museums and galleries of sorts: they carry out critical conservation and botanical science work, and living collections of plants are displayed in groups, by species or geographical provenance, or for ornamental or cultural purposes. It should naturally follow that audio tours sit comfortably in a botanic gardens, right?

By their very nature, botanic gardens are already multi-sensorial places: biodiverse, visually stimulating, eyefuls of colour wherever you look; sounds of birdsong or the wind rushing through trees and your ears; the smell of dirt, flowers, rain; the cool grass or the crunch of leaves beneath your feet; the feel of soft or spikey leaves as you tickle the plants. For some time, the Placemaking and Interpretation team at Royal Botanic Gardens Victora, all of us self-confessed audiophiles, wondered: does audio interpretation have a place in botanic gardens? What should it be like? Should it be like a gallery tour? On personal devices or a borrowed headset? Should it come via an app?

Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne, in the heart of Naarm, is a place for people to gather and make memories as well as learn and discover the wonderful world of plants. And back in 2021, the team here knew that if we were to develop an audio work, we wanted to prioritise the visitor experience, and to ground people further in place, rather than distract them from it: to touch their hearts and bring them into our world, so rich with nature-advocacy and story.

We also had high standards: it needed to be something that could only come from the Gardens; it must be distinctly ‘Melbourne’, and it must be the highest quality we can afford and achieve. It also needed to align with the emerging principles of our very first Interpretation and Storytelling Framework, which we had just commenced work on. Two critical principles are ‘Diversity of Voice’ (who gets to speak) and Diversity of Representation’ (people see themselves in the stories we share).

The pandemic, the purpose and the right artist for the job

We had been discussing audio projects with Patrick Cronin, Melbourne-based sound artist, musician and creative producer when COVID and Melbourne’s long, drawn-out lockdowns and social distancing struck. COVID presented a unique role for botanic gardens: an opportunity to provide to self-guided experiences for audiences desperate for time outside, something to do solo, and importantly, provide some kind of connection to someone, to something. At the same time, we were having to reimagine our 175th anniversary program in a COVID suitable way. Audio was about to have its botanic gardens moment.

Having worked with Patrick on many projects elsewhere, we know he is adept at navigating the distinct complexity of places like botanic gardens and the communities they comprise and serve, with sensitivity and creativity, whilst remaining focused on delivering high quality work that provide meaningful, engaging and revelatory experiences for not only audiences, but also for participants and organisations.

Patrick pitched Sonica Botanica: Stories and Sounds from the Gardens. Drawing on the many, layered stories of Melbourne Gardens, Sonica Botanica was an audio response to specific places at the Gardens. Individual voices would be underscored by field recordings, atmospheric layers and a musical score. Participants would include horticulturists, arboriculturists, First Peoples, scientists and ecologists, as well as the diverse public who use the Gardens, like international visitors, artists and young people. There was to be no host and it was not a guided tour. Instead, Patrick imagined an experience, allowing listeners to wander where they wanted, to be truly self-guided. Episodes would be hosted on Soundcloud and accessed via a QR code in the landscape, meaning listeners only needed their device and a set of headphones: no apps, no borrowed gear.

Sonica Botanica signage, designed by Kelp Creative, Person Place Thing and Aeroplane Workshop, Australian Drylands.

Image credit: Igor Sapina

We commissioned Patrick to create four episodes with us, linked to four precincts at Melbourne Gardens: The Arid Garden; Oak Lawn; Fern Gully, Sensory Garden and Herb Garden; and Long Island, Southern China Collection and the Water. Since then, we’ve created two additional episodes, one for the new Australian Drylands collection, and Kids Get Down to Earth, an episode created in partnership with 49 school children from Ardeer South Primary School. Interviews for all episodes are recorded in the featured locations.

Recording Sonica Botanica: Australian Drylands.

Image credit: Mark Lowrey

We work with Patrick on developing the themes and approach to each episode, devising a thematic framework to inform the interviews, which are wide ranging and always captivating. Through Patrick’s editing and sound design, the recorded voices are woven in counterpoint, offering a rich sonic rendering to immerse the listener fully in the story of the plants and the place. Over 26,000 people have listened to Sonica Botanica since we released the first episode (The Arid Garden) in 2021 with over 120 voices recorded. Around 35 hours of unedited recorded material is now an audio archive for RBGV, capturing a moment in time at Melbourne Gardens and our city more broadly.

Gathering feedback for experiences without a dedicated evaluation team is hard, but some of the most satisfying feedback comes from the participants themselves. One senior staff member commented that participating as an interviewee made him understand his work through a new lens and reflect on the emotional impact of the Gardens on himself and others. A teacher from Ardeer South Primary school shared that he’d noticed a shift in school culture and that the project allowed the students to connect with nature and co-create something of which they could feel proud.

Patrick at a recording day with Ardeer South Primary School for Sonica Botanica: Kids Get Down to Earth.

Image credit: Igor Sapina

Sonica Botanica has provided a blueprint for deep and meaningful engagement projects for our team. Knowing that for participants, the process of making place-responsive interpretation is as healing and meaningful as the place itself, well, that’s the kind of feedback that gets us out of bed in the morning. If you’d like to learn more, we’ve partnered with Interpretation Australia to host a professional development session with Patrick at Melbourne Gardens, February 25th 2026.

You can find out more here https://www.trybooking.com/events/landing/1522203