Embark on a journey through the Arboretum’s animal trail, featuring metal silhouettes of diverse wildlife that calls it home – beetles, butterflies, lizards, bats, koalas, and more – bringing nature to life in a unique way!
Download and print the WAWOT document, which marks the locations of various creatures. Can you identify them all? Begin your self-guided wildlife discovery tour of the Waite Arboretum!
The Waite Arboretum features the Bee, Butterfly, and Bird Garden (BB&B), a vibrant sanctuary for native bees, butterflies, birds, and local wildlife, just next to the Native Bee Hotel. This garden supports year-round biodiversity and acts as a model for future projects across the Arboretum. Visit the BB&B Garden next time you're at the Arboretum!
The garden spans 700m², featuring over 1,200 plants from 50+ species. Handpicked local species that naturally occur in the Mount Lofty area with similar soil conditions and rainfall requirements. The garden blends sunny and shaded areas near the watercourse, attracting a variety of birds and butterflies. The collection includes small and medium native shrubs, herbaceous grasses, and groundcovers that flower and fruit throughout the year.
With unmulched areas to support native bees and insects, the garden fosters a thriving ecosystem of birds, butterflies, bees, reptiles, possums, ants, beetles and more. Maintained by volunteers and staff, it offers a rich habitat for wildlife and a living example of sustainable design.
Navigate through our virtual BB&B Garden to learn why it's a biodiversity hotspot. For the best experience, use the arrows in the bottom right of the map to expand it to full screen.
Support local wildlife by planting the right plants and providing water and shelter. Help protect biodiversity and spread the word to build green corridors across the city. Check out our map, BB&B plant list, and BB&B Plant ID Charts below for inspiration!
To attract more native birds, the Bird Garden has been created in the Waite Arboretum. This multi-layered habitat garden featuring dense shrubs, native grasses, and flowering groundcovers provides year-round food and shelter, enhancing the arboretum’s role as a biodiversity hotspot. The project uses carefully selected Australian native plants and is set within the bird-attracting Hakea collection.
Birds enrich urban life with their songs, colours, and ecological roles like pollination, while also serving as indicators of environmental health. In Adelaide, native bird species have declined due to habitat loss, fragmentation, and the reduction of native vegetation – especially the dense shrubs and small trees that many small woodland birds rely on for shelter and food. Protecting and restoring these habitats is key to sustaining urban bird diversity and overall ecological balance.
Birds feed in the early morning and seek shade during the hottest part of the day. To support them, plant dense shrubs and trees from the ground up to three meters or more, placing them close together to create shelter and safe pathways. Use prickly native shrubs for nesting and protection and include native grasses to attract seed-eating birds and support butterflies.
Small birds like Silvereyes and Fairy-wrens forage in low, sheltered areas for insects, berries, and seeds. Provide a clean, reliable water source, such as a birdbath under dense shrubs, to encourage regular bird visits.
Support local bird by planting the right plants and providing water and shelter. Help protect biodiversity and spread the word to build green corridors across the city. Check out our BG plant list for inspiration!
The Waite Arboretum's Native Bee Hotel located near the Mallee and BB&B garden, was designed and built by a dedicated volunteer, with support from the Friends of the Waite Arboretum. This five-star accommodation offers crucial nesting sites for over 100 species of native bees who call the arboretum home.
Bees are vegetarian wasps that collect pollen and nectar for their offspring. Native bees range in size from just 2mm to 24mm and include species like the Green Carpenter Bee, Blue Banded Bee, and Leafcutter Bee. South Australia is home to around 500 native bee species, and Australia hosts over 2,500 species in total. Most of these bees are solitary, with females nesting alone and collecting small amounts of nectar for their young.
The Native Bee Hotel features timber logs with holes of varying sizes, some filled with different materials, offering safe and inviting nesting spaces for native bees. Its artwork depicts a Blue Banded Bee, a Jewel Beetle, and the Waite Arboretum logo. A valuable resource for university researchers and students studying these essential pollinators, the hotel serves as both a functional habitat and an educational installation for all visitors.
