Movement at the Mossman Botanic Garden
LATEST PLANS
There was a time the Mossman Botanic Gardens (MBG) was on everyone’s lips in the Shire and excitement surrounded this amazing concept. A world-class rainforest garden and tourist attraction plus jobs, lots of jobs. The Federal Liberal Government at the time was excited and poured heaps of money into it.
BUT then it seemed to go off the radar, or as far as the public was concerned. Of course, a little thing called Covid happened and a change of Government, but a huge block just outside the township of Mossman remains relatively untouched.
That doesn’t mean of course that there’s nothing happening behind the scenes, it most assuredly is.
Newsport reached out to two key people who are working tirelessly to finally make this beautiful botanic garden a reality. Board member John Sullivan I already knew, he’s a bloke who calls a spade a shovel, and in my book there’s no more direct individual than John Sullivan.
John’s expertise is well known through his company Hortulus Landscapes and Design but he’s also a passionate advocate when it comes to saving plant species. He assured me that one day the MBG is going to be a jewel in the crown of the Douglas Shire.
He then introduced me to the CEO of the MBG Nicky Swan. She’s an experienced Business Development Executive skilled in Sustainable Development, Strategic Business Planning and Marketing and so much more.
Catching up with her and John Sullivan at the proposed Botanic Garden site at Mossman was a good start in finding out the very latest.
“Welcome to the office,” said Nicky.
A darn nice office for sure.
“We finished up last year on our schematics (drawings) of Stage One in its total form, eight bits of infrastructure that will go to detailed design, but we’ve already done a semi detailed design of the nursery” she said.
"I’m told the designs will then go to a builder for costing and on to a Development Application to be put to Council.
“So, we know what Stage One will look like and parts of Stage Two, but now we get to funding, which everyone wants to know about,” said Nicky.
New paradigm
Funding from State and Federal Governments is tough to obtain and when they offer match funding deals and you don’t have what they’ve offered in your bank account, it’s not a gift, it’s more a burden.
So far, the MBG has received 2.2M since 2014 from the previous Federal Government, all of which had to be used or it would’ve been taken back. That money was used to purchase the prime land and develop a master and business plan. A further $500,000 grant went on Stage One schematics.
Now the MBG board has voted to spread their net wider and look at all forms of funding and with the help of KPMG, who have done a feasibility study, mostly pro bono I’m told, we find out there’s something called ESG (Environment Social and Governance) where companies can demonstrate they really do care about their social responsibilities particularly where the environment is concerned. The MBG hope to tap into ESG to start bringing in the dollars to complete this very important project, one stage at a time.
Historically companies would have asked for a return on investment when it comes to a project like the MBG and want to know what’s in it for them? The new approach is to go to companies and say if you work with us to build this garden from the ground up, you can use it for corporate events, you can bring your staff here, you can use it in your advertising, you can show the world you really do care.
“That is worth huge dollars for that company,” said Nicky. The board of MBG is also working on other ways to raise capital which is expected to be revealed in the coming months.
Jabalbina helping
According to Nicky Swan “Anyone interested in bio security, saving our rainforest and the proper seed collecting protocols, look to Jabilbina who are the peak body when it comes to all of that,” she said.
John Sullivan added.“We know so little about the ecology and how to manage that, so the traditional knowledge is vital” he said.
The MBG is also working with the Australian Tropical Herbarium. Both Nicky and John told Newsport there’s a mass extinction of plants in the cloud line of our mountain ranges due to temperature rise so the MBG will be a wonderful place to keep those plants alive and preserve them for future generations.
John Sullivan told us “As a person who works in the landscape sector, I really suffer from a lack of Australian native plants from this area, so if we can collect these rain forest plants in the form of seeds and place them into a garden situation, it can also be a successful commercial operation for us”. Of course, the reverse could happen where individual plants thriving at the MBG could be placed back in the rainforest.
Training paramount
Finally, training is going to be high on MBG’s agenda when it’s up and running, for example anybody who wants to be rangers in the future, there’ll be an opportunity for indigenous and non-indigenous to be trained at the MBG and go on to consult or take advantage of tertiary opportunities, with the result being that we’ll have the best people in the world trained in vegetation and rainforests.
Finish date?
When will MBG be completed entirely? How long is a piece of string? The Garden of Woven Memories is there right now with its first official tour done and dusted. When Stage one is completed then at least we’ll see the forest from the trees.
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