PACSOA - Brisbane Group

Local Chapters

Brisbane Group

In 2009, the Brisbane Palm & Cycad Society continues to meet at 7:30 pm on the 4th Tuesday of January*, March, May, July, September, and November. Meetings are held at the auditorium of the Mt. Coot-tha Botanic Gardens, in the Brisbane suburb of Toowong.
* Due to Australia day, the January meeting is on Tuesday the 20th.
Members and guests are most welcome to attend. At our meetings we discuss cultivation, hear guest speaker present talks and slide shows on all aspects of palms and cycads both in the wild and in the garden. Last year we saw presentations of palms & cycads in habitat from member's travels to diverse places including Darwin, Borneo, Peru and Ecuador. We heard Dr. John Dowe speak on his latest palm reasearches on Archontophoenix, Sabal and Livistona, and even had a special bromeliad night.
Each meeting concludes with our very popular $1 plant raffle where you can win rare and unusual plants especially purchased by the society as well as plants donated by members. Meetings run for approximately 2 hours and are a great place to share information and socialize with others who are fascinated by palms and cycads.
Field Trips are organized for February, April, June, August, and October and December. Outings could be a visit to a national park to view palms or cycads in habitat; a tour of some of Queensland’s best private gardens; or a trip to specialist nurseries where unusual plants can be purchased.
Brisbane Group members receive the monthly newsletter which is two to four A4 pages covering past and upcoming events.

Coming Events 2009
April 18th (Saturday)
12 Noon Field trip to visit to the garden of Leo Gamble at Yandina on the Sunshine Coast. The Gamble's garden was featured in the Jan 2006 Palms & Cycads magazine. It is over 20 years old and has many advanced palm and cycads from over 500 species. Address: 108 Wappa Falls Road, Yandina QLD. Ph. 5446-7621
Directions: Yandina is 95 km north of Brisbane via the Bruce Highway. Exit left on the Nambour connection road, which becomes the Old Bruce Highway. After 2km turn left onto Wappa Falls Road, the Gamble's property is on the left about 1km further.

May 26 (Tuesday)
7:30pm Meeting at the Mt. Cootha Botanic Gardens auditorium, Toowong, Brisbane. Guest Speaker will be Paul I. Forster of the Queensland Herbarium. Paul is a renowned botanist and author and is involved in current research on cycads, euphoriba and many other plant families. He will be giving a presentation on the Cycads of the Cape York penninsula.

June 28 (Sunday)
10:00 am Visit to the garden of Robert Ritchie at Chillingham just across the NSW border. They Ritchies have 80 acres, of which 10 are planted out with 100 species of cycad and several hundred species of palm, including a large collection of Dypsis and New Caledonian palms. Robert has also planted hundreds of species of rainforest trees, some of which have grown to impressive size in the 20+ years they've been here.
Where: Numinbah Road, Chillingham NSW
Phone: (02) 6679 1463
When: SUNDAY JUNE 28, 2009 at 10:00 am
Directions: Chillingham is approx 110 south of Brisbane via Nerang on the Gold Coast. Allow 1 hour 45 minutes from central Brisbane. Take the Pacific Motorway, exit on Southport-Nerang Rd. Turn right, continue on route 90, Beaudesert-Nerang Rd, towards the Natural Bridge. The road becomes route 97 - Nerang-Murwillumbah Rd. Continue for about 40km to the NSW border. 6 km beyond the border, look for Settlement Road on the left. The first driveway past this on Numinbah Rd is the Ritchie's. If you come to Couchy Ck Rd, you've come too far.
It is planned to have lunch in the town of Murwillumbah at 12:30 pm, followed by a visit to the Burringbar Rainforest Nursery at 3:30pm. This nursery has a vast selection of rainforest plants, trees, shrubs as well as palms and cycads at reasonable prices.

July 28 (Tuesday)
7:30 pm Meeting at Mt. Coot-tha Botanic Gardens auditorium, 7:30 pm. Topic TBA.

Executive

President: Mark Wuschke

Secretary/Treasurer: Carmen Forster

Editor: Mark Wuschke

Address
Email: cocos2001au@yahoo.com.au

Postal: P. O. Box 376,
Ashgrove,
Qld 4060

Coming Events 2009
April 18th (Saturday) 12 Noon	Field trip to visit to the garden of Leo Gamble at Yandina on the Sunshine Coast. The Gamble's garden was featured in the Jan 2006 Palms & Cycads magazine. It is over 20 years old and has many advanced palm and cycads from over 500 species. Address: 108 Wappa Falls Road, Yandina QLD. Ph. 5446-7621 Directions: Yandina is 95 km north of Brisbane via the Bruce Highway. Exit left on the Nambour connection road, which becomes the Old Bruce Highway. After 2km turn left onto Wappa Falls Road, the Gamble's property is on the left about 1km further.
May 26 (Tuesday) 7:30pm	Meeting at the Mt. Cootha Botanic Gardens auditorium, Toowong, Brisbane. Guest Speaker will be Paul I. Forster of the Queensland Herbarium. Paul is a renowned botanist and author and is involved in current research on cycads, euphoriba and many other plant families. He will be giving a presentation on the Cycads of the Cape York penninsula.
June 28 (Sunday) 10:00 am	Visit to the garden of Robert Ritchie at Chillingham just across the NSW border. They Ritchies have 80 acres, of which 10 are planted out with 100 species of cycad and several hundred species of palm, including a large collection of Dypsis and New Caledonian palms. Robert has also planted hundreds of species of rainforest trees, some of which have grown to impressive size in the 20+ years they've been here. Where: Numinbah Road, Chillingham NSW Phone: (02) 6679 1463 When: SUNDAY JUNE 28, 2009 at 10:00 am Directions: Chillingham is approx 110 south of Brisbane via Nerang on the Gold Coast. Allow 1 hour 45 minutes from central Brisbane. Take the Pacific Motorway, exit on Southport-Nerang Rd. Turn right, continue on route 90, Beaudesert-Nerang Rd, towards the Natural Bridge. The road becomes route 97 - Nerang-Murwillumbah Rd. Continue for about 40km to the NSW border. 6 km beyond the border, look for Settlement Road on the left. The first driveway past this on Numinbah Rd is the Ritchie's. If you come to Couchy Ck Rd, you've come too far. It is planned to have lunch in the town of Murwillumbah at 12:30 pm, followed by a visit to the Burringbar Rainforest Nursery at 3:30pm. This nursery has a vast selection of rainforest plants, trees, shrubs as well as palms and cycads at reasonable prices.
July 28 (Tuesday) 7:30 pm	Meeting at Mt. Coot-tha Botanic Gardens auditorium, 7:30 pm. Topic TBA.