The Friends of the ANBG have run a program of popular weekly lunchtime talks for many years, known as the Thursday Talks. Botany is naturally the principal focus of these talks, though they can range anywhere across the natural world.
There is always an interesting program and an informative experience is assured. During the first part of 2013 topics have included Elyne Mitchell and her connection with the upper Murray and the Snowy Mountains (Matthew Higgins), and a report on the first eight years of the annual bird blitz run by the Canberra Ornithologists’ Group (Barbara Allan). The talks are mostly held in the ANBG Theatrette but will, on occasion. take us into the Gardens, as happened recently when the ANBG’s David Taylor and Dan Marges took the audience on a walk through the recently reconstructed Sydney Basin.
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David Taylor, ANBG Curator, addresses a Thursday Talks audience in the Sydney Basin, (Photo: Alan Munns) |
During the year there are also some special events. In 2013, for example, the program includes a special series of talks, Centenary Chats, developed to mark the Canberra Centenary. These were launched on 31 January by Robyn Archer, Creative Director of the Centenary, and Ian Warden of the Canberra Times. Ian spoke about Marion Mahony Griffin and her love of Australian native plants.
There are some other memorial lectures, which run for a period of five years. This year will see the final of the Bernard Fennessy Memorial lecture, which honours the contribution to the ANBG of the late Bernard Fennessy, a charismatic volunteer guide from 1992 until shortly before his death in 2006. A new memorial lecture will be instituted in 2013 in honour of the late Alison McKenzie. Alison was in the first intake of guides in 1992. She was an inspiration and mentor to guides in later intakes, and a committed supporter of the Friends, until her death in 2011. Details of each of these lectures will be published in the August issue of Fronds and will be listed in the Calendar page of this website.
Who can come
All the talks are public events; you are invited to all - or to any that take your attention. Entry is by voluntary gold coin donation to support the activities of the Friends, who in turn work for projects in the Gardens.
When, where, and what’s on
The talks are held at 12:30 pm each Thursday from February to November, in the ANBG Theatrette (Clunies Ross Street, Acton, ACT). Talks last an hour (including questions and conversation).
Upcoming speakers and their topics, or other events in their stead, are advertised on the Calendar page of this website, in the Friends magazine Fronds, and on the ANBG website at www.anbg.gov.au/gardens/whatson/botanical_talks.html.
