![Guilfoyles Volcano](https://rbgv-storage-prod.azureedge.net/media/jkqjjrb2/guilfoyles-volcano.jpg?width=800&height=734&v=1d90534a54dfc10)
Climb Guilfoyle's Volcano
Melbourne is built on a 50-million-year-old lava flow!
You might have noticed the basalt volcanic rock in some of the garden beds. Inspired by this fun fact, in 1876, the Garden’s second director Guilfoyle constructed a reservoir within a volcano-shaped hill at the garden’s highest point to gravity feed water throughout the gardens.
The ‘volcano’ is still used for water storage but is now part of a clever garden-wide water reticulation and treatment system.
Speaking of clever, on the sides of the ‘volcano’, the landscape architect has used red rock mulch combined with plantings of masses of succulents to mimic bubbling and flowing lava. Other striking accent plants used are reminiscent of a desert landscape.