Bottle Tree at Front Entrance

This project is located just outside the front gate of the Gardens. In 2004 Toby Golson, Gardens horticulturalist and rainforest specialist, found a supplier for a mature specimen of Queensland Bottle Tree (Brachychiton rupestris). Toby found this while searching for a supplier of Macrozamia moorei for another Friends project. One thing led to another, and a strategy for creating a front entrance to the Gardens using iconic and striking species was advanced. The tree was moved from Queensland to Canberra and put in place on the 29th November 2004. The Friends provided $8,500 to buy the tree, transport it to Canberra and hire a crane to put it in position. 

While the crane was on-site, it was used to move a well-established Bunya Pine (Araucaria bidwillii) from the upper parts of the Rainforest Gully to a new location just inside the front gates.

Both trees are flourishing.   

   Bottle Tree being lifted into place in 2004   

   Front entrance in 2015, Bottle Tree (immediately above the car) and Bunya Pine

Adapted from an article in Friends Newsletter March 2005 by Stuart Donaldson, at the time Gardens’ Collections Officer