TM Botanic Gardens To Change Their Name
On 13 August, the members of the Tamborine Mountain Botanic Gardens held their AGM and installed their new committee before enjoying a sausage sizzle.
Before vacating the President’s position (and being re-elected once again) Denby Browning addressed the members and spoke the following words: “As President and on a personal level, I want first to publicly thank every single member of our association for your extraordinary commitment over the past 12 months. It has been particularly difficult, first following the sudden death of our Works Manager, Eddie Fenton, then our struggle with lack of rain, then a short- sharp flood and – most important and devastating – the disruption caused by Covid-19. Your ability to quickly accept the sudden changes to our work arrangements was magnificent.
Second, I want to thank the committee. I have been blessed to work with an incredible group of people. I would not normally single out any individual, but I think we have all been thankful and impressed by Brian Davison’s commitment. He has very much earned his new title as Curator. Thank you all.”
Denby then went on to talk about funding and grant applications “We applied for grants to help us with a number of important projects. First, was a Federal grant that helped us with improving the water quality in the late primarily with the aerators. Thank you to Margaret Bell for her work on that project. Next, Federal and Council grants for a new attraction – the pathway that now takes our visitors close to special parts of the rainforest at the southern end of the Gardens and a specially planted forest that will highlight legacy plants and trees on the Mountain at the time of first white settlement along with interpretive signage. This was the vision of Brian Davison. And thank you to Margaret Pile for her work on these grant applications. Then, just a few weeks ago, we received an offer from Council to support a major project. The committee worked quickly to put a proposal together to rebuild our ageing irrigation system and, thankfully, this was accepted. Finally, we applied in February for a grant through the State Gambling Community Benefit Fund to cover the cost of a new bore. We were informed only a week ago that this had also been provided.”
He also spoke of one of the Gardens’ primary sources of income being plant sales by their legendary Potty Potters noting that this avenue of funding had all but dried up through Covid-19, but that they look forward to once again offering our plants to the public very soon.
After installment of the new committee a motion was moved to change the Tamborine Mountain Botanic Gardens’ name to include the words ‘Scenic Rim’ in order to reflect a ‘coming of age’ and a broader view as a regional botanic garden.
Mayor Greg Christensen in attendance of the momentous meeting commented that it was an exciting opportunity stating “It’s always a challenge for an organisation to contemplate changing its name, so we’ve got to applaud the members here for having such strong courage to embrace the opportunity. It’s truly an important strategic restructure for the region and they will be able to benefit from that recognition.”