Three ways to explore Canberra after dark

Pitchforks in Commonwealth Park aren't commonplace. Until Floriade, that is. From mid-September, for a full month, one million flowers bloom across 4.2 hectares, carpeting a pocket of Canberra in an electric patchwork of colour — like Burning Man for the city's bees. Each year the festival reinvents itself around a theme — Science and Nature one year, Feast of Flowers the next, with garden beds redesigned as large-scale installations to match. Horticultural workshops, food and wine sessions and live music run alongside, for those whose appreciation extends past the eye. Come October, the Great Big Bulb Dig is a hands-in-the-soil highlight of the Southern Hemisphere's largest flower show. Crowds flock to unearth tulip bulbs — Floriade's star flower and dead giveaway that the festival's muse is the Dutch Keukenhof, the world's most famous flower garden.

One unmissable moment — well, four nights of moments — is NightFest, where spring's colours are flung into the dark, performers prowl amid projections, and tulip bulbs concede to light bulbs for the night shift.

To set the mood, on your 25-minute drive out of the city, tune to Bach's Brandenburg Concerto No. 2 in F. First Movement — one of 27 pieces of music coasting through the cosmos since 1977 on Voyagers 1 and 2. On the edge of the Murrumbidgee River, listen as an astronomer illuminates the galaxy with Canberra Stargazing. Comfortably seated, hot chocolate in hand, Canberra flexes a particularly unique feature: skies that are dark and clear. Thanks to its elevation and dry air, the night sky delivers what most cities can only dream of — an inky expanse so star-spangled that you feel instantly, profoundly floored by its beauty, and philosophically baffled by its boundlessness. Now is a good time to ponder Carl Sagan: "We're made of star stuff. We are a way for the cosmos to know itself."