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Volunteers staffing the wine tent     Photo: Liz Kay

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.

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.

New life members Pat & Warwick Wright

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.

 
Breakfast with the Birds, 2015 season (Photo: Alan Munns)

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!

Lady Cosgrove, Friends' Patron, cuts the 25th anniversary cake

25th Anniversary

We celebrated our 25 Anniversary on 1 October 2016. To read more, click on the blue heading above.
 

Another Planet: highly commended entry by Fanny Karouta-Manasse

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.

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).

A recent Friends project: Asteraceae Garden (Photo: Murray Fagg ANBG)

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.

Growing Friends Shadehouse Upgraded

Early in 2014 the Growing Friends were asked if some surplus benches from the ANBG nursery could be used as a better support basis for the propagated plants being raised. 

'Edge 1' etching by John Pratt

Upcoming exhibition at the Visitor Centre

The Mt Ainslie Weeders Park Care Group have organised an exhition of drawings and prints by renowned Canberra artist John Pratt. The exhibition will be held at the ANBG Visitor Centre from 17 July to 28 August 2015.

John was a founding member of the Mt Ainslie Weeders Park Care group and the exhibition features works inspired by the flora and fauna of Mount Ainslie and the artist’s connection to this local nature park.

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