MEDIA RELEASE Friends of Sherwood Arboretum Association  (The Local Bulletin June 2021)

A place to value!

National Botanic Garden Open Day last month was an excellent time to celebrate our passion for plants.

This celebration was particularly special for Brisbane Botanic Gardens – Mt Coot-tha, now 45 years old, which today has the well-deserved status of Queensland’s premier sub-tropical botanic gardens.

Brisbane is certainly fortunate to have two world-class botanic gardens, one in the city and one at Mt Coot-tha.

It is even more fortunate to have a ‘botanic garden of trees’, our city’s heritage-listed Arboretum now approaching its centenary in 2025.

On National Botanic Gardens Open Day last year, the Lord Mayor Cr Adrian Schrinner announced that Sherwood Arboretum had recently been designated by Council as an official Botanic Gardens for Brisbane.

Thanks to the Lord Mayor’s welcome funding boost in June 2020, the community’s vision, of seeing the Arboretum lifted to a world-class standard by its centenary year, is now possible.

Central to this vision is also the community’s strong expectation that Council will return the Arboretum, which experienced more than 40 years of Parks-level care from the 1970s, to holistic botanic gardens management before 2025.

This will secure the long-term future of Sherwood Arboretum, with its recreational, botanical, educational, historical and tourism qualities, for many generations to come.

Our city’s riverside Arboretum started life as a pacesetter, as it was well ahead of its time in 1925 as a place to grow, scientifically study and enjoy Australian native trees.

With the Arboretum looking its very best after recent rains and care by Brisbane Botanic Gardens, this is certainly an excellent time to discover the stories behind some of those native trees.

Please call Brisbane Botanic Gardens, Mount Coot-tha on 3403 2535 from 8.00 am to 4.00 pm Monday to Friday if you would like to enjoy the next monthly free guided tree walk at 9.30 am on Sunday 27 June.

image captions

The historic avenue of 72 Queensland Kauri trees.

The Assistant Curator briefs the Lord Mayor, Cr Adrian Schrinner in May 2020.

An attractive tree-lined entry which says ‘welcome to Sherwood Arboretum’. (a FOSA artist’s impression)