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Barossa Bushgardens Celebrate 20 years

Barossa Bushgardens celebrated their 20th Anniversary on Sunday May 16th with an open day and Landcare forum at the Nuriootpa site.

LASA partnered with the Bushgardens and the Barossa Council to present the event. About 300 people attended the day, with workshops and displays available for visitors. These included LASA’s nest box building workshop, bird ID walks with Phil Barron, insect collection and ID activities with Dr Erinn Fagan-Jeffries, garden tours with Trevor Waldhuter, traditional plant uses with Chris Hall and an art workshop with Janet Pfeiffer.

Presentations by Kim Thompson from Barossa Council on roadside vegetation and Nicki Robins of the Barossa Wine and Grape Association on Wildlife for Wine and Eco vineyards kept participants busy. Trees for Life, Gawler Environment Centre and the Australian Plant Society (all LASA member groups) had display tables on site all day.

Speeches were made by Barossa Council Mayor Michael ‘Bim’ Lange and Pam Payne from the Bushgardens, thanking the founders for their vision and efforts in getting the gardens started. The founding members of the Barossa Bushgardens were in attendance and honoured with a presentation of native flowers, and a cake was cut and shared. The original members were Chris Hall, Prue Henschke, Ray Duance, Terry Bateman (Donovan) and 93 year old Bob King.

Prue Henschke gave a great speech about the history of the gardens and how the bare paddocks were transformed into what they are now, with the centrepiece of the gardens being the magnificent 400 year old River Red gum – Eucalyptus camaldulensis.

Live music was provided by local artist Cloudy Davey, which gave a pleasant Sunday soundtrack feel to the day’s proceedings.

Thanks and congratulations must go to the Bushgardens staff Pam Payne and Doreen von Linde and volunteers for putting on such a great community Landcare event.