Chief Minister Stanhope has the thrilling news that he’s got another autograph, or rather the Mongolian Prime Minister, Mr Sukhbaatar Batbold, has planted a Siberian elm in the arboretum.
The medium-sized tree is native to northern Mongolia and other parts of Central Asian where it can live to 150 years.
Speaking at today’s ceremony, Mr Stanhope said [...]

The ACT Department of Territory and Municipal Services (TAMS) will conduct two controlled burns today 18 January 2011, in Cook and adjacent to the National Arboretum weather permitting.
The Cook burn is located at Mt Painter near Coulter and William Hovell Drives.
The other burn is adjacent to the National Arboretum near the Tuggeranong Parkway
8:50am [...]

One of our many Andrews has sent in this skewed view from the arboretum.
Got an image of Canberra you want to share with the world? Email it to images@the-riotact.com

Chief Minister Stanhope brings the astonishing news that not only does his arboretum have a “National Bonsai and Penjing Collection of Australia”, but since it was located in a pavilion in Commonwealth Park two years ago it has been visited 100,000 times!
It currently displays 32 deciduous, evergreen, conifer and native trees, including a Desert [...]

Chief Minister Stanhope is trumpeting the latest celebrity planting at his arboretum:
Federal Environment Protection Minister Peter Garrett joined Chief Minister Jon Stanhope in the planting of a Queensland Kauri at the National Arboretum today.
The Agathis Robusta, commonly known as the Queensland Kauri, joins many other native trees which have been planted by visiting dignitaries and [...]

The Canberra Times brings word (for some reason there’s been no media release, just a highly selective media event) of a $242,000 sculpture for the new arboretum.
It’s the words “Wide brown land” written in steel (brown steel mind you).
One would think we’ve moved beyond the hackneyed dross of Dorothea Mackellar’s My Country but hey, [...]

[First filed: Jul 29, 2010 @ 9:30]
1. Tree rustlers nabbed:
ACT Policing have arrested two males over the theft of 12 Dragon trees from the National Canberra Arboretum.
The trees were stolen between 6pm (Monday July 26) and 6.30am (Tuesday July 27). Five of the trees have been recovered and returned to the National Canberra Arboretum.
A [...]

The Canberra Times has details on another heist at the new arboretum:
It is believed the thieves gained entry to the arboretum on foot.
A Department of Land and Property Services ute left on the site was used to transport the thieves to the dragon tree lot, before they scaled a small electric fence designed to [...]

If you see smoke and flame bellowing out of Canberra’s existing Lindsay Pryor National Arboretum (down by Scrivener Dam, off Lady Denman Drive) tomorrow don’t fret.
The National Capital Authority is warning that they’re doing a burnoff tomorrow:
Debris and woody weeds that have been cleared from the site will be burned as part of the [...]

The latest missive from the Chiefly procession through the middle kingdom informs us that everyone is having a lovely time in Canberra’s latest Sister City (Versailles and Nara are somewhere in there).
You’ll all be relieved to hear that our friends in Beijing (after a rather good banquet one presumes from the typos in the release) [...]

Chief Minister Jon Stanhope has announced that he’s been able to combine his two great loves, Timor-Leste and his Arboretum:
Chief Minister Jon Stanhope has today [yesterday] joined His Excellency Dr José Ramos-Horta, President of the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste, to plant a Melia azedarach, commonly known as a White cedar, in the Central Valley [...]

Zed Seselja seems to think he’s onto a winner on the matter of street trees for everyone vs street trees for the Chief Minister’s special tree park on the edge of nowhere.
Leader of the Opposition, Zed Seselja, has announced the Canberra Liberals will bring a motion forward in the Assembly to call on the [...]

Liberal leader Zed Seselja has raised the interesting point that while this year’s budget has $26 million for trees at the Arboretum, it’s cutting $10 million over three years out of the urban tree program.
When asked about an almost $10 million funding cut to the urban trees program, after much deliberation the Chief Minister finally [...]

His Chiefliness, Jon Stanhope, is thrilled to announce that Bob Winnell, on behalf of The Village Building Company, is chipping in $1.5 million for the Jon Stanhope Memorial Gardens (aka the arboretum).
We’re sure such an act of generosity would never sway decisions around planning approvals.
Also of interest is that $1 million of the money is [...]

The Canberra Times brings word that Stanhope’s Folly, aka the Canberra International Arboretum and Gardens has had a spot of bother with thieves making off with 140 saplings.
In an interesting insight into the administration of the arboretum it was only discovered when Comrade Stanhope himself was out taking an apparently regular constitutional and noticed the [...]

The Greens’ Shane Rattenbury is up in arms over the ACT’s climate budget being used to fund the Chief Minister’s beloved arboretum:
ACT Greens MLA for Molonglo, Shane Rattenbury MLA has slammed the Government’s funding of the Arboretum from the climate budget following the tabling of a report* that indicated the emissions that will be [...]

With the extra-ordinarily good Penelope Layland moving on from the Chief Minister’s media office the wheels appear to have fallen off.
I know other news outlets are becoming increasingly frustrated by the great silence that has descended, especially with a lot of no-brainer departmental stuff now needing sign-off by the Chiefly office.
Today there was an effort [...]

It is historically traditional that the opening of every new major institution in Canberra requires dignitaries to slog across a desolate paddock.
In which case the grandly named Canberra International Arboretum and Gardens might still be destined for greatness.
There were certainly enough support staff in attendance to greet George (the kelpie of few achievments) and I. [...]

The Canberra Times has the happy news that the Jon Stanhope Memorial Tree Farm (aka Canberra International Arboretum and Gardens) is being inundated with embassies wanting to put down a grove.
Also 80% of you are reportedly now in favour of the project. We’d love to see how that question was phrased.
There are other big plans [...]

Yesterday the Chief Minister was joined by no less than the Prime Minister and the Ambassador of Turkey to plant ~$50 worth of lone pine seedlings in the so called “International Arboretum“.
The Liberal’s Vicki Dunne has taken this opportunity to ask about the water supply for the Stanhope memorial gardens.
“Mrs Dunne said that her [...]

The Chief Minister has gleefully announced that Turkey is giving us 17 seedlings (that rolls off the tongue rather pleasingly), from the stock of the infamous “Lone Pine” of Gallipoli, for his arboretum.
It’s a little odd because they’ve been grown from the pine that’s next to, er, the War Memorial here in Canberra.
So did [...]