The arboretum …

 Tasmanian Arboretum - Founders Lake

The Tasmanian Arboretum was founded in 1984 as a community project on a site about 10km south of the city of Devonport which is in the state’s northwest.  The project was entirely run by volunteers, two prominent ones in the early years being Cath’s mum and dad. Over the years, the Arboretum has evolved from a modest beginning into a sprawling botanical garden. I have visited it and marvelled at its magnificent collection of trees, both native and exotic, which completely justifies its claim to be an outdoor tree museum.

But why this sudden interest in an assortment of trees a long way away from our corner down in the southeast of Tasmania? When our top paddock started to become more of a tree planting area than anything else, we whimsically decided to rename it The Arboretum, a name which seems to have stuck. Consequently, I decided to do some desultory research on the Tasmanian Arboretum knowing that Cath’s dad, Bernard, who was a council engineer in Devonport, had been involved quite heavily in the project. Bernard was first and foremost a water engineer and was responsible for much of the development and maintenance of public water infrastructure on the northwest coast.

Imagine my surprise when I stumbled across the excellent history “The Tasmanian Arboretum: From the vision of 1984 to the Tasmanian icon of 2019” and found some interesting entries

October 1985 – The start of Saturday working bees.  … [ ] offered to dig us a lake. At short notice, a plan was drawn up by Bernard Monks whereby the edge of the lake followed the 30 metre contour.

November 1985  - [ ] .. bulldozer with a seven ton bite dug out the lake … Bernard Monks was able to construct the inlet pipe from the creek. The lake filled in less than a week and proved to be watertight ... Platypus took immediate possession. 

Lake extension in 1989 -  … the second island and two weirs were approved by Bernard Monks …

 

 

Another view of Founders Lake

Rather unexpectedly I also came across - The Rhodes Trust, Oxford, U.K. – in the list of 1988 sponsors.

The Tasmanian Arboretum also incorporates a “Nut Walk” which was established with seventy trees in the European section.  Both Cath and I were unaware of this when we planted our own Nuttery, motivated instead by Sissinghurst Castle (see “The nuttery”, published on 19 August 2023). Our miserly twelve-tree version now seems somewhat overshadowed, and we may be forced to expand! We have however just planted a scattering of bluebell bulbs in the avenues between the trees which we hope will add a beautiful splash of spring colour.

 The Tasmanian Arboretum "Nut Walk"

It seems completely crazy to be writing this post in early winter when all our ornamental deciduous trees are completely bare and there are no beautiful photos to share. In my defense I can only say that it has been a very dry summer and autumn and all planting in the garden has been on hold. The last few weeks have seen some significant rainfall, however, and freed from the constraint of rock-hard soil we have celebrated by going on a planting frenzy. As a result, our arboretum is very much at the forefront of our thoughts at the minute.

 For some reason the Manchurian pears think its spring

 A long way to go for Eucalyptus ficifolia (flowering gum)

Our humble tree collection is hardly going to make a splash as a Tasmanian icon. It is completely fitting, however, that along the southeastern border of the paddock, we have three golden ash trees (fraxinus excelesior aurea),  a tree that Bernard was particularly fond of.  It feels very good to be continuing a family tradition...