Bundaberg: Discover Rum, Gardens and Culture

When planning a stay in Bundaberg, you can choose from several different themes: rum production and creating your own blend, the Bundaberg Botanic Gardens, and museums and exhibitions covering aviation, history, architecture and art. You can choose your focus based on whether you’d like to learn about production processes, combine a garden visit with a train ride, or explore specific cultural topics.

Rum production and your own blend

The Bundaberg Rum Distillery Tour includes a museum visit, a molasses pond, fermentation, double distillation and a barrel store. The tour brings together several parts of rum production. The Blend Your Own Rum Experience has a different focus: you create a personal rum blend and can take home two personalised 700 ml bottles on the same day. The experiences differ in whether you explore the stages listed above or create your own blend. Booking details may change; check them before planning.

Gardens, lakes and railway

The Bundaberg Botanic Gardens cover more than 27 hectares and contain more than 10,000 trees and shrubs. Their lakes provide a diverse habitat that attracts up to 114 bird species. Both the gardens’ size and their lakes and birdlife are among the defining features of a visit.

The Australian Sugar Cane Railway takes visitors on a 2 km ride through the gardens and is suitable for people with disabilities and wheelchair users. Entry to the Bundaberg Botanic Gardens is free. Check the latest access information and the railway’s operating hours in advance, as both may change.

Museums and exhibitions

The Hinkler Hall of Aviation is also located in the Bundaberg Botanic Gardens. It features interactive exhibitions and flight simulators; exhibition operations may change. Hinkler House tells a different kind of story: the house was moved stone by stone from Southampton to Bundaberg in 1983 and now serves as a memorial museum.

At the Fairymead House Sugar History Museum, you can explore the Indian bungalow architecture of a large plantation house. The Bundaberg and District Historical Museum offers authentic historical room displays, photographs, memorabilia and artefacts to explore. Their focuses are quite distinct: Fairymead House centres on the architecture of a plantation house, while the historical museum presents different ways of remembering and exhibiting the past.

The Bundaberg Regional Art Gallery presents local touring exhibitions, as well as exhibitions from across the state and the country, in three exhibition spaces. The gallery complements the historical themes with a selection of local and wider-ranging exhibitions.

Admission arrangements at Hinkler House, visitor arrangements at Fairymead House, operations at the Bundaberg and District Historical Museum, and exhibitions at the Hinkler Hall of Aviation may change. Check the latest information for the places you plan to visit.

Discover more destinations: Kandanga, Zilzie, Mackay, Blacks Beach, Amamoor, South Molle Island, Stafford, Dunk.

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