The Friends of the ACT Trees (FACTT) (formerly Friends of ACT Arboreta - FACTA) is a formally constituted group of individuals with an interest in the trees in Canberra's landscape and environs. It aims to foster sound management, and appreciation, of arboreta in the Canberra region.

The FACTT website is proudly sponsored by

visit www.alda-la.com.au

The FACTT Executive Committee for 2025 is:

President Steve Thomas

Secretary Carma Sweet

Treasurer Chris Ware

Members Jost Stellar,

Samantha Ning,

Helen Cohen,

Rachael Dawes,

Paul Scholtens

Public Officer Chris Ware

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Upcoming Events

Westbourne Woods Walk

The next regular Westbourne Woods walk will be on Sunday 12 October, departing the gates of the Royal Canberra Golf Club at 9.30am.

The guide will be John Turnbull.

The theme of John’s walk will be ‘Remarkable trees in the Woods’.

John was formerly a scientist with CSIRO and at the Centre for International Forestry Research. He has conducted research on both Australian native trees and exotic introductions. He has been a volunteer guide for more than 15 years.

The walk takes about 2 hours & is a leisurely stroll through the Woods with a knowledgeable guide.

MEET AT THE GATES TO ROYAL CANBERRA GOLF COURSE IN BENTHAM STREET YARRALUMLA JUST BEFORE 9.30 AM

PLEASE WEAR SENSIBLE SHOES/CLOTHES AND BRING A HAT. WALKERS ARE WELCOME TO USE THE CLUB'S FACILITIES AFTERWARDS FOR REFRESHMENTS BUT DRESS RULES APPLY.

NO DOGS AND PLEASE RESPECT GOLFERS’ NEEDS TO BE ABLE TO PLAY SHOTS WITHOUT DISTURBANCE.

The full list of the 2025 Westbourne Woods Walks are here

Field trips to view interesting arboreta in the ACT, such as the Bendora Arboretum on Mt Franklin Road, are also conducted periodically and members of the public are welcome to accompany us!

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Renewal of membership of Friends of ACT Trees - FACTT

As we prepare to farewell winter and welcome the spring it is time to invite you to renew your membership with the Friends of ACT Trees (FACTT). FACTT is a formally constituted group of individuals with an interest in the trees in Canberra’s landscape and environs. It aims to foster sound management, and appreciation, of arboreta in the Canberra region. The membership year for FACTT runs from the 1 September to the 31 August each year, with renewal of memberships taking place in the month of September.

To renew your membership with FACTT please visit www.totalpay.com.au/FACTT and complete the online membership form. To finalise your membership please complete your payment by direct transfer to:

Account name: Friends of ACT Trees Incorporated

BSB 062 912

Account Number 10263776

When depositing your membership fee by direct deposit please reference your name, and the word 'Subscription.' Please confirm payment by emailing FACTT@outlook.com.au

You may also pay by cheque to The Treasurer, FACTT, 49 Shakespeare Crescent, Fraser, 2615 (please include name, phone, email or other address and membership type).

Membership fees are:

Corporate member $100

Voting member $25

Voting member paying for 2 years $40

We are grateful for your continued support and hope the you will continue your membership with FACTT in the coming year. If you have any questions please don’t hesitate to contact me at FACTT@outlook.com.au

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Vale Dr John Gray OAM – a remarkable ‘man of the trees’.

7 May 1930 - 14 November 2023

Dr John Edmund Gray passed away in November 2023 and all those interested in not only the landscape, but specifically, the ‘treescape’ of Canberra, and elsewhere, should pause to thank him.

John was in many ways a direct link to that great chain of Charles Weston and Lindsay Pryor, our ‘founding fathers’ when it comes to Canberra landscapes in general, as well as the aesthetic and environmental benefits that we get from great tree planting programs.

John once said to this author “We can’t afford to ignore the way in which the planet works. We cannot afford to ignore its natural ecosystems and the resources we’re benefitting from”. He lived his life trying to achieve that.

With a cadetship from the NSW Forestry Commission in 1948 he studied at Sydney University then the Australian Forestry School in Yarralumla before taking up positions with the Commission in their Queanbeyan and Bateman’s Bay offices. Returning to Canberra with the Timber Bureau he ran their seed laboratory at a time of great demand, especially from overseas, for eucalypt seeds.

Following, in some respects, Professor Lindsay Pryor’s path, he joined the Parks and Gardens Section of the Department of the Interior and the National Capital Development Commission. He was excited by the prospect of working on the landscaping for the future Lake Burley Griffen as the person delivering the design concepts of the late Richard Clough. John planted many of the significant areas of the National Capital in this time especially in the Parliamentary triangle as well as new suburbs in Woden and Belconnen.

But this led him to ‘upscale’ his design credentials and he and his wife Pixie went to the University of California, Berkeley, where he studied under the famous US landscape architect Garrett Eckbo, whose seminal work was Landscape for Living, (1950).

Returning to Australia he taught at the Canberra College of Advanced Education then joined the NCDC, again to work beside Richard Clough, whom he succeeded. He was always a major contributor to professional bodies in his field serving as National President of the Royal Australian Institute of Parks and Recreation as well as in the Australian Institute of Landscape Architects. He left the NCDC when it was shut down in 1988.

However, John’s long interest in garden and landscape history led him to undertake a successful PhD in 1999 titled “Thomas Charles George Weston (1866-1935) – a critical review of his contribution to the establishment of the landscape foundation of Australia’s national capital (available online at the University of Canberra site). After ‘retiring’ from the public sector he undertook numerous landscape design projects which are a testimony to him at Old Parliament House, the Australian War Memorial and Magna Carta Place.

He was always a gentle and reflective man who could be a great companion in a grove of trees!

Hopefully another ‘legacy’ of John’s will come to fruition in a biography of Charles Weston, written by Robert Macklin with John Gray, which we hope to see published in 2025.

Vale John Gray.

-Max Bourke AM

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Vale Alan Brown OAM, FIFA, FTSE (1931-2023)

Alan Gordon Brown passed away on 19 May 2023. He was an accomplished forester and scientist with a national and international reputation. After a highly successful career with CSIRO he became a great contributor to FACTT (Friends of ACT Trees).

Alan was born in 1931 to a farming family at Hilston in western NSW. The family moved to Canberra where he had his early education. He had a Commonwealth Forestry Scholarship at Sydney University 1948-1949 and attended the Australian Forestry School in Yarralumla in 1950-51.

After a year working with the NSW Forestry Commission in the Southern Highlands, he joined the Forestry and Timber Bureau in 1953. Until 1960 he worked on silvicultural research and tree breeding including responsibility of the arboreta in the ACT. He improved the records of the arboreta by producing accurate maps and associated seed origin data.

Alan lectured in silviculture and wood science at the Australian Forestry School during 1961-66 before returning to research at the newly formed Forest Research Institute within the Forestry and Timber Bureau. He was heavily involved in breeding Pinus radiata and other closed-cone pines with the late Jack Fielding including world leading progeny testing and clonal reproduction. These studies contributed to his Master of Science degree.

His subsequent appointments included Deputy Chief CSIRO Division of Forestry and Forest Products 1988-90 and Chief Division of Forestry 1991-92. After retiring in 1996 Alan remained with CSIRO as an Honorary Research Fellow.

In Australia Alan was honoured with the Order of Australia (1998) and the Institute of Foresters’ NW Jolly Medal (1986). He was a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science and Engineering, and the Institute of Foresters.

Internationally Alan was involved in several of ACIAR’s collaborative forestry research projects in Africa and China. He was awarded the Distinguished Service Award by the International Union of Forest Research Organizations (IUFRO) and was on the Boards of both IUFRO (1987-90) and the Center for International Forestry Research (1992-97).

Alan was an accomplished editor who edited the Australian Forestry journal for many years. He authored several books and many scientific papers. He was a strong supporter of FACTT’s activities and conducted Westbourne Woods walks. He also was largely responsible for the revised edition of the guide to Westbourne Woods and his final publication was Woods Wiki in 2018.

Those of us fortunate enough to have had Alan as a friend and colleague appreciated the great depth of his forestry knowledge and the quiet, competent, and effective way he interacted with people. There are many in the forestry world who have been enriched by their association with him and have been saddened by his passing.

- John Turnbull

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Vale – Ian Brooker

Sadly we’ve received news of the death of Ian Brooker on Saturday 25 June 2016 after a short period in hospital. Ian was a world authority on the eucalypts, which were the focus of his career between joining CSIRO’s Forest Research Institute in 1970 and his retirement from the Australian National Herbarium in June 1999. His lifetime of research into this large group resulted in an encyclopaedic knowledge, which was made available via a large number of scientific and popular publications. Some of his better-known works include several volumes of a “Field Guide to the Eucalypts” (with David Kleinig) and the various editions of the electronic identification key EUCLID (with co-authors including John Connors, Andrew Slee, and Siobhan Duffy). Ian was awarded as a Member of the Order of Australia in 2006 for his “service to botany, particularly through research leading to the identification and classification in the genus Eucalyptus, and as an author”.

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Interactive map of Trees of Canberra's CBD

- For a link to an interactive map of Trees in Canberra's CBD please click on the following link http://bit.ly/1nfWcHt

Recent media

21 April 2015 : Critically endangered cypress planted in National Park- on the ABC website at: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-04-21/critically-endangered-cypress-trees-to-be-replanted-in-act/6407400?section=act
Alan Brown and John Turnbull explained the role of Bendora Arboretum on the ABC 666 Drive program story. It is available at (this link will take you to the ABC 666 website) - here <666 Drive story on Bendora arboretum - Feb 2014>
The Westbourne Woods walk Canberra Weekly free paper of 20 February 2014.

The latest FACTT Newsletter is available here