Greens question need for second botanic gardens in Canberra

bit late…but someone should direct Dr Foskey to this site http://www.anbg.gov.au/anbg/introduction/index.html that indicates that the ANBG as a Federal govt responsibility

With the drought over (officially…I’m still sceptical about it) I can’t really use it as an excuse for not having an arboretum.

I don’t usually agree with Green Party statements, but they are spot on with this one. We have a perfectly good garden at the foot of Black Mountain, we have a flower festival, we have a tulip farm, and we have a town of nice gardens…we do not need a tree farm which people won’t want to pay to visit and will be economically unviable. Stanhope, if you want something for us to remember you by…build a statue of yourself and every other chief minister…The Chief Minister Lakeside Promanade …couldn’t hurt and would surely be better than a large heap of trees.

While I do find it funny that the greens are protesting at the putting in of a garden over suburbian interests, I certainly feel that if it was done right, and took full advantage of modern technologies, it could be used to showcase water efficiencies that can be made in the average Canberra garden and surrounding countryside in a park atmosphere.

For example, installing water catchment from all the surrounding properties downpipes like the aborteum in Adelaide does, and it will pretty much become self-sufficient for water consumption. Install a classical style roman inspired aqueduct for aesthetic value, and to disperse water to all the different areas, and install themed garden areas with a few connecting paths and sheltered zones and it’ll be quite nice.

Surround the lot with a few playfields for the kids, and MOW the bloody things, and you’ve got yourself a pretty good site that the whole of Canberra could not only attend for rest and relaxation purposes, but they could also LEARN about what grows well in the Canberra area, and with all probability flog all the plants the poor greenkeepers have nurtured.

I’m sorry, I had to let that one creep in. One of my pet hates regarding Canberra is the fact that some people are doing some really good work, and it seems to me that there are some real south australians out there who exist for the sole purpose of wrecking whatever gardening the good people are doing by either destroying or outright stealing the plants.

Given most of the plants in my garden were brought from the Jammo markets for $2 I’m not so concerned for my own garden, but when people are going down to the garden shops and getting plants for $60 a pop, you can see why they get dejected quickly and don’t maintain their gardens after that.

So chuck in some 24hour security to the staffing for the botanic gardens II, and you’ve got yourself a nice little money sink so you don’t need any more excuses as to why light rail is too expensive.

I love the Molonglo Valley plans…..not! Maybe urban-infill isn’t such a bad thing after all; so long as it’s done tastefully, unlike that ‘new’ tower eyesore at Woden.

Haha…bushfir…freudian typo…

Yeah, I agree. Why do we need feral trees in the bush capital? Maybe a little special pine section in the Arboretum to fuel the next bushfir?

That’d be good to see, Thumper, but what are the chances of that ever happening when there was some talk after the 2001 fires that an ‘exclusive’ suburb like Isaacs/O’Malley should be built there instead?

Yes, maybe the Govt should build more public housing on the site of the arboretum since some people seem to think it’s their god given right to remain in public housing even though they are on a very high salary?