News

As there is no separation between the office and library areas of the Botany Building at the ANBG, the Gardens has made the decision to close the ANBG Library to external users until further notice. This will be revisited in line with health advice from the ACT Government. Friends can still access library materials via the "click and collect" service: please contact the Librarian to discuss your requirements. Please be aware that the Library is currently staffed part-time (usually Wednesday–Friday).

The Friends Botanic Art Groups exhibition in April to May this year featured plants from the sea to the desert, along with other native species. Two works were chosen by the Executive Director, Dr Judy West, and purchased by the Friends for the ANBG collection. On Thursday 3 June the works were presented to Dr West by the President, Neville Page.

Susan Spiller's Wahlenbergia species is a delightful painting of the floral emblem of the ACT. Judy selected Marjorie Roche's Arid because it shows the intricacies of a root, perhaps an unusual subject but an appealing painting in its own right.

Both Susan and Marjorie have been members of the Botanic Art Group for several years, and we congratulate them on their work being chosen from this exhibition for the ANBG’s collection.

The Australian Association of Friends of Botanic Gardens( AAFBG)'s annual Handbury Awards recognise exceptional contributions to an Australian Botanic Garden, Arboretum or Park, by an AAFBG member group or an individual from a member group.

This year our Growing Friends were nominated in recognition of the group's exceptional effort to recover from the damage inflicted during the 2020 hailstorm; and to go on throughout the COVID-19 shutdown period caring for their plants, and then organising several limited COVID-safe sales events.

We are proud that the Growing Friends have been announced as 2021 Handbury Award recipients.

John Blay, writer and naturalist, filled the Theatrette at the Thursday Talk on 18 March with his talk about 'Some Special Places of the South East Forests’. He spoke about the challenges of conservation in the region’s forests, along with its peoples and natural history, and the rediscovery of an important shared history pathway, the Bundian Way.

After the talk, John signed copies of his books, and then led a group on a walk up to the plantings of Acacia blayana in the Gardens. John discovered this species of wattle in 1982 in the Brogo wilderness, and it was named in his honour.