‘Connect – Promote – Protect’
August 2026
Special Events
💮Ekka Display
Come and see our display in the Agriculture Hall at the Ekka
Sat 8 Aug – Sun 16 Aug
💮The Wattle Blooms Walks in the Mt Coot-tha Botanic Gardens
Join Mike Gilmour, Qld Wattle Association, on a guided walk to view wattles in blossom.
August: Thu 13, Sun 16, Tue 18 -10:00am-11:30am
Visitors Centre, Mt Coot-tha Botanic Gardens
💮BCC Guided events: Heritage Walk
This special guided walk will take you on a journey through nearly 200 years of history, from the convict settlement days.
Wed Aug 19, 10:00-11:30am
City Botanic Gardens – Information Kiosk, Brisbane City
💮Watercolour Workshop – Australian Native Plants
Join Leticia Collins for a creative morning of mindfulness in the Australian Native Garden at Mt Coot-tha Botanic Gardens.
Fri Aug 21 10:00-12noon
$50 for non members; $25 for FBBGSA members
💮Watercolour Workshop – Australian Rainforest
Join Leticia Collins for a creative morning of mindfulness in the Rainforest at City Botanic Gardens.
Sun Aug 30 -10:00-12noon
$50 for non members; $25 for FBBGSA members
💮Alive in the Sunshine: A Mt Coot-tha Festival
Alive in the Sunshine will be a celebration of Brisbane and the people who make it a wonderful place to live.
Sat Sept 5 Midday-5pm, Mt Coot-tha Botanic Gardens
💮Annual General Meeting
Hear from newly appointed Curator, Prue McGrouther, before our AGM.
Wed Sept 9 5:30-8:00pm, Auditorium Mt Coot-tha Botanic Gardens
Regular Events
💮Every Monday: Nature Walks, different locations, usually 8:30am. Contact Anne on 0408 093 307
💮Every Tuesday: Plant Propagation at Rocks Riverside Park, 17 Mile Rocks, 8:30am. Register
💮Last Sunday of the Month: Plant Sale, 8:30am-11:30am outside the Visitors Centre, Mt Coot-tha Botanic Gardens
💮Last Sunday of the Month: Explore with Friends, 9am, meet at the Visitors Centre, Mt Coot-tha Botanic Gardens
💮Wed Sept 2 7:30am-9:30am: Kitchen Garden Volunteering, Mt Coot-tha Botanic Gardens. Contact Patty on 0499 097 084
For further details about all of these events, see our Events Calendar
From Julie
Hello everyone to August! August means Ekka time and the weather is kind at present. As I write this column, I have put the final touches on our display to promote the Botanic Gardens and FBBGSA. The theme this year overall is 150 years of the Ekka. A group of members interested in creating the display decided on “Gardens through the Ages” as our theme.
The Botanic Gardens seemed to reflect the trends in home gardens e.g. Anzac Square was planted with Palms and Bottle trees along the pathways and this style of planting can be found in older gardens. So the display covers from First Nations people and their resources in the bush through to Walter Hill, the first Curator, who tested many plants and trees to see if they acclimatized to Qld’s climate and soils. Many of the plants we consider have been here forever, such as tea, tobacco, sugar cane, mangoes and bananas, were actually trialled by Walter Hill.
Later when the floods created a need to move the Botanic Gardens to another area (Mt Coot-tha was selected) and buildings like the Tropical Dome were built, the need for food took a back seat, and in came tropical plants. Interestingly, vegie gardening has returned to our home gardens and native plants are also on trend. If you want to know more, find us in the Agricultural Building at the Ekka. This year we decided to staff the display. A special thank you to everyone who helped with the planning and staffing of the display. I would also like to thank some of the Gardens staff including Prue the Curator, with the trees, the kids materials, etc and to Fay for helping with the setup, Ros for the two large paintings of trees for our voting option and for the kids to create the tree of the future, and Leticia who conducts our watercolour workshops for creating our banner. These are the items that make our display so special and unique.
We have also continued the podcast recordings. Our July podcast (Bonsai House with past Curator Dale and David from Bimer Bonsai) was a little late; our August one (Phil Adam from Qld Council of Garden Clubs) will probably be early; and the September podcast (Ross McKinnon, prior Curator) is already complete, with our interviewer Helen due to have some holidays. So enjoy the podcasts, as the Botanic Gardens at Mt Coot-tha continues to celebrate its 50th Anniversary!
Our AGM is due on Wednesday 9 September at 5.30pm at the Auditorium at Mt Coot-tha Botanic Garden. We will have the newly appointed Curator, Prue McGrouther, to speak to the group. She is the first female Curator and we hope to hear many interesting stories from her. A light supper will be available – hopefully home made soup and bread as well as tea and coffee. The nomination forms for positions on the Committee has already been sent out to you. I look forward to seeing you there.
Part of our display at the Ekka “Gardens Across the Ages”
Julie
Monday Nature Walks
Monday Nature Walks have been enjoyed recently at the Don and Christine Burnett Conservation Area (Priestdale), the Anstead Bushland Reserve and the Whites Hill Reserve.
We have had some new members join us. There is no obligation to come regularly, and new and ‘one-off’ walkers are always welcome.
Of course, it has been glorious walking weather lately, with trees sporting new green growth and canopies full of flowers highlighted against deep blue skies. To the delight of birds that we can clearly hear, but not always see! A highlight this month was spotting three (yes,
three!) koalas during our walk at Whites Hill. We always hope to see one when we walk there, but got lucky this time.
Many different types of Acacia are creating walking wonderlands at the moment, and it is fun to try to identify them all. The colour palate of gold (Acacias and various ‘pea’ bushes such as Podolobiums and Pultenaea) and purple (Hovea, Hardenbergia) is a particularly pleasing
mix.
It has been interesting to see the changes and improvements in various reserves where we have walked in the past. Sometimes the result of the efforts of bush-care groups and sometimes attention by Councils to improving pathways and facilities. Of course, we also note places where weeds have got a foothold, or native vines are running rampant.
We invite all FBBGSA members to join us! No obligation – come on any of the walks that interest you.We walk each Monday morning, meeting at about 8.30 am and finishing each walk around 12 midday, with a coffee break and chat. Car-sharing is available.
Want more information? See the FBBGSA website. Or contact Anne on 0408 093 307 or aelliott@powerup.com.au
Anne
Kitchen Garden
Our August working bee was held on a perfect Brisbane winter day which meant taking off outer jackets by 9 am ! Our skills were needed outside the Kitchen garden this month where volunteers pruned, weeded and tidied. We welcomed 2 new volunteers , Cathie and Kate. The Kitchen Garden is planted with winter veggies including bok choy, silverbeet, beetroot and a flowering blueberry bush. Our next working bee is Wednesday, 2nd September.
Patty
Explore with Friends
On the last Sunday of every month, you can join the Friends on a casual one-hour or so morning walk exploring a part of the Mt Coot-tha Gardens.
The next walk in the gardens will be on Sunday Aug 30. Meet Helen at 9.00 am at the FBBGSA Plant Sale, outside the Visitor’s Centre, and it finishes at the Cafe. No RSVP is needed, and it goes ahead even if it is raining.
Helen
Plant Propagating / Greenhouse
Work in the greenhouse continues with lots of cuttings contributed by Friends. This is an historical Brisbane way of establishing gardens and still happens in garden clubs with swapping days. We are always grateful to receive cuttings and also are always conscious of continuing to grow plants that do well in Brisbane gardens . At the same time many of these plants may not be available in nurseries .
It’s a win for the Friends’ plant sales and a win for Brisbane gardens.
Our plant sales take place at the Mt Coot-tha Visitor Centre on the last Sunday of the month from 8.30 to 11am.
Mary Jo
COAST TO COAST UK: The Lake District
In April of this year, my partner and I (Rob) walked the Coast to Coast trail in the UK, also known as Wainwright Way. (England! Springtime! Flowers!! Eventually, we got them….)
The Coast to Coast Walk is a long-distance trail running between the west and east coasts of Northern England. Devised by Alfred Wainwright and first publicised in 1973, it passes through three contrasting national parks: the Lake District, the Yorkshire Dales, and the North York Moors.
The currently measured distance is reported as 182 miles (293 km) and the walk was officially opened as a National Trail in March 2026, just days before we commenced our hike. We happily walked in all weathers, for 17 days, including a rest day, from west to east.
Wainwright recommends that walkers dip their booted feet in the Irish Sea at St Bees and, at the end of the walk, in the North Sea at Robin Hood’s Bay. Which is exactly what we did! (Although at the end, it was a case of dipping the boot in mud, as the tide was well out.) Seven minutes into our walk, we were treated to Primroses (Primula vulgaris) alongside the path as it wended through farmland.
Many stiles and dry-stone walls later, we marvelled at fields of daffodils enroute to Ennerdale. The next day, spent skirting a lake and climbing mountains towards some forbidding skies, we mostly saw gorse and daisies. On our third day, under blue skies, we admired Herdwick sheep in Stonethwaite Valley as we made our way to Grasmere, in the centre of the Lake district.
From Wikipedia: William and Dorothy Wordsworth, two of the ‘Lake Poets’, lived in Grasmere for 14 years and called it “the loveliest spot that man hath ever found.”
Kitted out in wet weather gear, the next day, Good Friday, we left Grasmere under rain and fog, (stopped in a Bothy* for our morning tea, encountering 3 wet and cold lads who had overnighted on the mountain) and braved the Helm Wind as we negotiated Grisedale Tarn and made our way to Patterdale. The only named wind in the British Isles, it is known for knocking people over – yes, it almost did!! It doesn’t just gust, it belts you.
* A Bothy is a basic, free-to-use, unlocked shelter located in remote areas of Scotland, Northern England, and Wales – usually a repurposed cottage or stone hut. Maintained by volunteers, they offer simple, rustic shelter for hikers and mountaineers.
And Storm Dave was on his way! On the Saturday, we avoided the risky hillsides by taking a bus and starting our walk from Pooley Bridge, on a road constructed by the Romans 2000 years ago. Unlike Wainwright, they avoided mountains.
On Easter Sunday, we left tiny Bampton, taking public right of way through many fields and over stiles, encountering many Swaledale sheep, a native hardy hill breed, but not experiencing bad weather.
And, we left the Lake District and entered the Yorkshire Dales – Instalment 2, to come.
Rob