Speeches

Tree of Knowledge Planting Ceremony - Arboretum

Tree of Knowledge Planting Ceremony - Arboretum
8.00 am, 19 April 2010
Canberra International Arboretum and Gardens

I acknowledge the traditional owners of the land we are meeting on, the Ngunnawal people.  I respect their continuing culture and the contribution they make to the life of this city. 

A warm welcome to the Prime Minister the Honourable Julia Gillard, who today honours us by planting a tree in the Canberra International Arboretum.

The ghost gum tree that Prime Minister Gillard will plant here today is a very special tree.  It will symbolise the vigor and tenacity – and the stark beauty of the Australian landscape. It will primarily be another symbolic step in our recovery from the devastating bushfires of 2003 – which impacted on Canberra severely including destroying the forest on this site.

The image of the white trunked gum tree stands strong in the Australian psyche. Albert Namitjira’s iconic watercolour paintings of central Australia reveal these trees as torrents of light – struck – as if by magic – into a powerful, muscular statement in the landscape.

And here, on this highly visible spot, in the Arboretum’s grand central valley, our Prime Minister will today strike a new form into the soil of a no less symbolic landscape.

In his own words Walter Burley Griffin found a ‘natural amphitheatre’, in the site for the Federal Capital. 

Griffin’s amphitheatre is created by the crescent of Black Mountain, Mount Ainslie and Mount Pleasant. It slopes gently to the Molonglo River, then rises up through a staged series of buildings that represent the mechanics of the federal democratic government, to the pinnacle of the Parliament at Capital Hill.

This has become a familiar landscape, an everyday landscape, for those of us who are gathered here today.  One of the very few disadvantages of life in Canberra is that, through our familiarity, we don’t always see its spectacular beauty.

An Arboretum on this site was of course another part of Griffin’s vision for Canberra. Standing in the Arboretum we stand, physically and symbolically, in the wings of Griffin’s ‘theatre of democracy’.

This area of the Arboretum is identified for ceremonial plantings – and already a grove of trees is developing, planted by residents and visitors to Canberra, who continue to make an impact in Australia and further afield.

I know the Federal Capital we have today conveys much of the deep faith and the excitement that Griffin felt for Australia’s emerging democracy –some 98 years ago. Griffin believed in the ongoing pursuit of democracy, and in the responsibility of every citizen to contribute in their own way to shaping their nation. Values that are core to the ACT and the Federal Governments today.

The gum tree planted today will stand in good company.  It will be beside a White Cedar planted by President Jose Ramos-Horta. A man who has provided a vital link in the growth of the new democracy in the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste.

This gum is derived from a tree that came to be known as ‘the tree of knowledge’ in Queensland. 

Growing in Barcaldine for 200 years the tree of knowledge became a symbol of the rise of workers’ rights in Australia.  It is alleged to have been the rallying place of shearers’ who chose to take a stand for decent conditions in 1891. The story of the tree of knowledge provides enduring inspiration and a connection to place for members of the Labor movement today.

The tree of knowledge must have been a sapling the size of this small tree when Indigenous Australians first encountered ‘the English’. It was around 100 years old in 1891 when the shearers rallied. It was over two hundred years old when it was killed by a human hand, well before its time.

A young tree, universally, represents new life.

Today the Prime Minister will plant a sapling from the tree of knowledge – a knowledge of the past which will connect us with our future.

In two years time Canberra our national capital will celebrate its own first one hundred years, and the commencement of its second 100 years. The Centenary of Canberra will be a time, like no other, to reflect on legacy, to celebrate achievement, and to encourage new life to take root.

Whether here on a crisp morning in the Federal Capital, or in the scorching sun of outback Queensland, or by this tree in a century from now, on a clear day, in the Canberra of tomorrow...  Australians will pause to think about… and to recommit themselves, to their precious right to participate in the future of their country.  It is, as we are discovering every day in our world, a right which should never be taken for granted.

Thank you to Prime Minister Julia Gillard, to fellow elected representatives, and to you all for your attendance today.

Notes on the Ghost Gum:

The Ghost Gum (Corymbia aparrerinja [pronounced Cor-im-bia AP-par-in-JA]) is a broad-crowned, single-trunked tree that grows up to 15 metres high. Its common name comes from the white, smooth, chalky bark that stands out as a striking feature. Its light green, lanceolate leaves form an open, domed canopy and it produces small clusters of white blossoms in summer. The flowers are followed by urn-shaped fruit. It is found near watercourses over much of northern inland Australia and around Port Moresby in Papua New Guinea and is tolerant of quite dry conditions.