There will be a special event taking place on the Sunday of the October long weekend! The Arboretum Kite Fest will take place on SUNDAY 2 OCTOBER, from 10am - 3pm. FLY HIGH these school holidays at KITE FEST at the Arboretum! For a day of fun with family and friends, bring your kite, make a kite during a workshop, or buy one on the day from The Curatoreum gift shop. There will be kite demonstrations throughout the day alongside live entertainment. Bring a picnic rug and choose from Mexican street food by StreeTruck, a Garden Café or pre order or pick up a picnic box from Ginger Catering or bring your own! There are even kite themed cookie decorating kits for sale! Fill your day with colour this Spring at the National Arboretum Canberra!

Please join us for our first General Meeting in a while. Come and learn what's been happening at the Arboretum and what the Friends have been doing this year. The General Meeting starts at 5.30pm in the Margaret Whitlam Pavilion and the following documents are available: * Agenda * Draft Minutes of our last meeting held in April 2021 * Honorary Treasurer's report Look forward to seeing you at the Margaret Whitlam Pavilion at 5.30pm. This meeting will be followed by a fascinating Seasonal Talk by Glenn Cocking on Moths of the ACT Grasslands. And then refreshments! For documents - Read below ...

Our next Friends Market Stall will be held this Saturday 17 September 2022 between 10am and 2pm. We have a beautiful range of plants thanks to Ange McNeilly (Volunteer of the Year in 2020) and the Garden volunteers. And of course we still have lots of jams, relishes, seeds, herbs etc. STEP will be joining us and selling native plants again too. The weather is getting warmer so come along for a fun morning's activity (check out the new location of Backwards Attitude), coffee at the cafe and shopping at our Market Stall!

It's Wattle Time! Spring is here! Check out these wonderful images of so many different types of wattle in STEP - and, now that STEP has reopened, come and see how many you can find. View the photos below!

Hot on the heels of Warm Trees and the beautiful moths that adorned the gabion walls of the cutting (towards the Village Centre), we thought it would be appropriate to ask Glenn Cocking to give a presentation on moths. So we will have our regular, informative General Meeting first and then Glenn. Details are: DATE: Tuesday 13 September 2022 TIME: 5.30pm - General Meeting 6.15pm - Seasonal Talk VENUE: Margaret Whitlam Pavilion Refreshments will be served afterwards.

Kitchen Garden: The versatile root vegetable is a favourite of Susan 'Parsnip' Parsons. Winter is the season for root vegetables - creamy potatoes, crunchy carrots and old-fashioned parsnips, which are making a come-back these days. And like these staples of the kitchen, you can boil, mash or roast them. Hope you enjoy this article, republished by kind permission of the author.

U3A is again running courses on specific trees/forests in the Arboretum. The course will cover forests planted at the Arboretum including, how the trees became 'known to science', distribution, descriptions, uses and other interesting stories. Each part covers 24 trees in the Arboretum's forests. The dates are: Part 4: Thursdays 11 August–22 September, 10:00 am – 12:00 noon at Flynn Community Hub. Part 3: Wednesdays 31 August–5 October, 10:00 am – 12:00 noon at Hughes Community Centre There is a list of the trees included in each part if you need it to make a choice. Read on for further details ...

Robust and healthy two-year-old Wollemi Pines from the Friends' Wollemi Pine Propagation Project will continue to be sold and are only available on this website. These are very special trees. Each Wollemi can be traced back to the specific tree in the Arboretum's Wollemi Pine Forest 32 from which the seed was sourced. See what you get when you buy this magnificent tree!

The Friends' AGM held on 10 May was an informative and relaxed evening. Below are links to some of the reports given on the evening. Thanks to everyone who came along to the event.

This is our newest membership promo! Looks great! You too can become a Friend and then you are eligible to buy a Parking Pass. Think how useful that would be - no more trips to the parking meter on hot/rainy days or having to leave kids in the car till you return with the ticket! For less than $2/week you can get a membership and a parking pass. That has to be Bargain of the Month! See below for links.