Nerima Gardens

Tucked away in Ipswich's gracious and historical Queens Park is Nerima Gardens - Japanese gardens designed in consultation with Ipswich's Japanese sister city, Nerima. This idyllic retreat is a wonderful way to wind down your visit to Queens Park or take a break between enjoying its other numerous attractions. The picture-perfect self-contained gardens sit behind the historic caretaker's cottage and feature a series of winding paths through fir trees and Australian native plants - some of which are indigenous to Ipswich. There you can experience a traditional Japanese Tea Ceremony, which are organised by the Ipswich Visitor Information Centre and held regularly in the model traditional Japanese tea house with a small verandah overlooking a stream. There are also boardwalks over an ornamental lake where you can feel the tranquility of being serenaded by constant running water. Nerima's design takes the visitor on a journey of discovery, with the lower section portraying the ocean and Moreton Bay, while the upper area represents the Ipswich region with its undulating landscape, vegetation and river. Nerima Gardens is a welcome and relaxing haven along with Queens Park's children's playground, the Ipswich Nature Centre, Queens Park Café and the Environmental Education Centre.