Another highly successful Summer Sounds season has just concluded here at the Gardens. This year’s season began in mid-January and ran for four weekends. And this year, apart from one damp and stormy weekend in which one concert was cancelled, the weather was perfect for summer evening relaxing with friends and family on the beautiful Eucalypt Lawn.
Archived news
You are here
See all current news stories
Aboriginal Plant Use Trail
A new self-guided walk, funded by the Friends, was launched on January 21st 2016 by Ngunnawal elder, Aunty Agnes Shea and Barbara Podger, chair of the Friends' Public Fund. The event was reported by ABC News.
The trail features 27 plants important to Indigenous people, ranging from the coastal native raspberry (Rubus moluccanus) to the quandong (Santalum acuminatum) found in the drier Australian interior. The Aboriginal Plant Use trail winds through the Rainforest Gully, Conifer Garden, Rock Garden and Monocot Garden with interpretive signs telling how Aboriginal people used each of the featured plants.
Wednesday, 23 December 2015
Volunteering at the ANBG
Would you like to spend more time in the Gardens? There are many opportunities for Friends to volunteer at the ANBG, varying from hands-on activities such as plant propagation or participating in the plant stocktake, to guiding visitors around the gardens on foot or in Flora Explorer, to participating in social activities to raise money to support the Gardens, and many more. Read on to discover what the Friends got up to behind the scenes in the last year, and how you can become involved.
Monday, 30 November 2015
Schools Photographic Competition - 2015
Another year of excellent photos, submitted by students for the 19th Annual Schools Photographic Competition. Award winners eagerly gathered in the ANBG Theatrette to collect their prizes on Saturday 17 October 2015. Entries were on display in the Visitor Centre until Sunday 8 November 2015.
Tuesday, 03 November 2015
Annual General Meeting, 8 October 2015
Pat and Warwick Wright became the latest life members of the Friends of the ANBG at the Annual General Meeting on 8 October. Also at the meeting, annual reports were presented by Friends’ President Lesley Jackman and Acting Treasurer Marion Jones. Gardens’ Executive Director Judy West reported on the year’s highlights in the Gardens.
To read more, click on the blue heading above.
Tuesday, 20 October 2015
Breakfast with the Birds, 2015 Season
What a wonderful way to start the day - breakfast is not just for the birds! For the past three weekends Friends and visitors joined in the early morning activities in the Gardens. What a treat!
Wednesday, 07 October 2015
25th Anniversary
We celebrated our 25 Anniversary on 1 October 2016. To read more, click on the blue heading above.
Friday, 02 October 2015
Eureka! our Seedy Volunteers highly commended
The Eureka National Science Awards has highly commended the Friends of the Australian National Botanic Gardens’ National Seed Bank volunteers for their photography.
The Awards recognised their photo, Another Planet, as outstanding science photography and for ‘capturing the essence of scientific discovery’.
Another Planet is an image of a tiny seed of an Alpine heath plant, only 0.53 millimetres in length – not much wider than a human eyelash.
To read more, click on the blue headline above.
Sunday, 02 August 2015
Sources of Australian native plants in the Canberra region
A booklet that lists nurseries and other sources of Australian native plants in the Canberra region has been published by Rosemary Blemings, a Friend and member of the Australian Native Plants Society. The booklet was updated in early 2017.
Download 2017 edition Sources of Australian native plants in the Canberra region (PDF, 47KB).
Wednesday, 22 July 2015
New Friends' project in the Gardens
Planning is now getting underway for a new project to be supported by the Friends. Two areas of the melaleuca swamp area have been selected as possible sites for a commission to create a ‘unique, magical, whimsical site-specific gazebo among the trees’, to be elevated within the vegetation or tree canopy level. The gazebo will provide an informal wildlife-watching platform within the canopy for early morning bird watchers and walkers, and a resting place and shelter from the heat or rain. It is also planned as a place of imagination and delight for children visiting the Gardens.
Tuesday, 07 July 2015
