News

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.

Thursday Talks re-commenced on Thursday 18 February 2021 when Dr Karen Ford & Dr Kara Youngentob spoke about monitoring resident and rehabilitated koalas in the Monaro region to guide decisions about the management and conservation of koalas after fire. This first talk was held in the Telstra Tower Theatrette on the ground floor of Telstra Tower.

Bookings for all Thursday Talks are now essential because of the COVID-19 guidelines and limited seating.

Things have been busy behind the scenes in the ANBG Library this year with a major upgrade to a new library computer system. The new system offers significant improvements to the previous ten-year-old system, and will enable you to keep track of your loans and renew items online. With the transition completed, borrowing for the Friends is now available. Thank you for your patience and understanding while this major project was taking place.