Bush Garden
When?
3rd Saturday of the month from 3:00 –5:00 pm.
About
This is one of Townsville’s oldest Landcare sites, located on the north-western bank of the Ross River, accessible via easy walking tracks, either from the end of Thompson Street or from Aplins Weir Rotary Park.
History of this site
By the 1990s, this site had been severely degraded by extensive tree clearing, sand mining, weed invasion and fire damage. The Bush Garden project was started in 1994 by the Tropical Urban Production and Landcare group that later merged with Townsville Thuringowa Landcare Association to form CDTLI.
The restoration project aimed to restore natural riparian vegetation, to provide habitat for native animals, reduce erosion of the river banks and provide shade and amenity for the Townsville community.
You can now walk through this site in the shade of magnificent mature native trees (planted by early Bush Garden volunteers) and spot an amazing variety of native birds and butterflies. This is the wonderful result of sustained volunteer effort over more than 25 years.
Current work
Our monthly site sessions maintain the original planting areas, continue weed control and fill in gaps with new native plants. Recent effort has concentrated particularly on Baza Island, a fascinating and challenging section of the Bush Garden site that involves a short, shallow water crossing for volunteers and equipment, no easy task!
For more information about this project, please contact us.