Media Release Friends of Sherwood Arboretum  (The Local Bulletin January 2021)                      

Get set for 100 great years! 

Sherwood Arboretum, Brisbane’s third botanic gardens, is now just four years and two months away from celebrating its 100-year anniversary.   

Ernest Walter Bick, the Arboretum’s first Curator in 1925 would be surprised to see how this former riverside farmland, where the newly planted Australian native trees were once watered using a horse-drawn cart, has transformed into one of our prized botanic gems.

Bick certainly could not have imagined the difficulties ahead to keep the founders’ vision alive of a botanic garden of Australian trees faced with challenging proposals to reclaim the wetlands in the 1960s and introduce sports zoning in the 1970s, plus a long history of Parks care and low funding.

In his message for National Botanic Gardens Day last May, Brisbane Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner said that Sherwood Arboretum, which he described as the city’s best kept secret, had recently been designated as an official Botanic Gardens for Brisbane.

The community certainly hopes the Lord Mayor will build on this far-sighted decision by transitioning the Arboretum wholly under botanic gardens management by the 21 March 2025 centenary, replacing the present Council-wide organisational structure.

With an exciting vision of a world-class visitor experience by 2025, the Friends of Sherwood Arboretum Association (FOSA) sees the Lord Mayor’s initiative as an opportunity to enhance the Arboretum’s much-loved recreational qualities.

Whether you want to sizzle a sausage, walk the dog, go for a jog, take in the river vistas or just simply unwind, the Arboretum’s green spaces, with the welcome shade of some 1100 Australian native trees, are certainly an appealing destination.

Sherwood Arboretum also offers visitors a wide choice of natural experiences to discover and enjoy thanks to the life-bearing canopy of specimen trees, the wetlands with its protected islands and the flourishing wildlife corridors along the creek lines.

With the professional guidance of Brisbane Botanic Gardens, FOSA will launch a new app offering visitors self-guided tree, heritage, bird and environmental walks on their smart phones.  

Introducing a nature play area, an inviting ‘picnic common’ and an informal nature walk around the restored wetlands are three examples of adding to the Arboretum’s valued recreational qualities should additional Council funding be available.

For more information, please visit the Sherwood Arboretum website http://sherwoodarboretum.com.au/

 

image captions

Discovering our trees with Brisbane Botanic Gardens

Artist’s impression of a lake-side nature walk

Finding the perfect place to unwind